Is there any software I can remove that Lenovo added to my new T400?

It seems to me that just about everything on my T400 has its on software. Does anyone know what I can and cannot remove?

Intel Management and Security
Message Center
Help Center
Access Help
Business Contact Manager for Outlook 07
Drag to Disc(What is this?)
Client Security Solution
Lenovo System Toolbox
Mobile Broadband connect
Presentation Director
Rescue and Recovery
Roxio Creator Business Edition
Sonic Icons for Lenovo
Verizon Wireless Broadband Access Self Activation
Viewpoint Media Player

These are the ones that I dont know much about and would like to atleast know what they are and possibly remove them if I wont be using them.

Thanks

 

None of them are required. I don't think I use any of them actually. Are you asking what each of those does, or just if it's ok to remove?

 

A little of both. I'd like to learn what they do so I can decide if i need them or not. I know that roxio is a CD Burner but I don't know much more than that or if I even need it.

 

It could be useful, and it's unintrusive, so I kept it. "Sonic Icons for Lenovo" is a part of Roxio, so do not uninstall that. "Drag to Disc" is also a part of Roxio, I believe.

"Viewpoint Media Player" was, in the past, classified by some AVs as malware, but it's not dangerous, just useless. I would remove it (I think AIM actually installs it automatically).

"Rescue and Recovery" is the Lenovo recovery suite, do not remove it.

"Business Contact Manager for Outlook 07" is a part of Office 07, so remove it if you like, but it's not intrusive either.

I found "Message Center" useless and a bit annoying too, so I removed that.

 

I formatted mine and the only piece of lenovo software i kept was the modem crap and power manager.

 

What about all the thinkvantage software? Can i uninstall it one at a time or as a whole?

Also does the camera center need to run all the time? Even at start up or will it start when I try to use video in programs such as skype/oovoo?

 

Intel Security is additional configuration and logging for the TPM module, if you're using it in conjunction with fingerprints. I left it on for future troubleshooting, but ensured detailed logging was switched off in the options and took it off the taskbar.

Message center allows push notifications from Lenovo, annoying, so I removed it.

Drag to disc comes with the Roxio, and is basically a shell extension allowing you to do things like backup to DVD or quickly make audio discs without having to boot an app to do it. I don't like shell extensions much, and prefer to do that stuff within a proper application, so I removed it. It's basically the Roxio creator, without having to run Roxio creator.

Client Security Solution encompasses the drivers for the fingerprint, but also stuff like the password manager, which I don't use. I didn't uninstall it, but disabled the unwanted pieces.

Lenovo System Toolbox is a customized version of PC Doctor diagnostics. I like to have something like that to poke around with, and it's run on demand, so I left it.

I don't intend to use WWAN in the near future, so I removed mobile broadband connect and all of the carrier activation stuff like Verizon.

Presentation Director I find useful as I sometimes switch my machine from a desktop monitor setup, to projectors for presentations etc. and I'm used to doing the F7 thing.

Rescue and Recovery I left because I haven't really done much research into backup and protection solutions yet, so haven't decided how I want to handle full system backups to my NAS.

Roxio Creator is one of those DVD writer management tools allowing you to quickly make discs - music, photos, backups, etc. Unlike drag to disc, it's a run on demand app, so I left it as it doesn't really do anything until you run it, and it might be nice to have for one of these tasks.

Viewpoint is a proprietary media player I suspect is used for some of the welcome and launch demos - certain websites also use a plugin player for that. I killed it - it's easy to get it auto-installed again if you hit some site that requires it.

Hope this sheds some light!

 

Anyone know what Intel Management and Security is? It says I have it unconfigured when I open it making me think that I am not using it.

 

Same here. I just installed the ThinkPad hardware-specific software.

The rest of the software has much better alternatives. Roxio? Get CDBurnerXP. Viewpoint Media Player? Get VLC Media Player.

 

Your TPM (Trusted Platform Module) is not in use. It's the hardware cryptographic chip that may be used by security apps such as the hard disk encryption available in Windows to store and decode keys without using a software solution.

By default, most computers are shipped with it off - you have to enable TPM, which activates the chip and changes a BIOS setting with a couple of restarts. After the chip has been activated and authenticated, the Intel utility shows a log of TPM activity such as Configured/Authenticated.

The same utility is also used to view the status of the Intel AMT firmware (Active Management Technology) which is an enterprise remote troubleshooting tool. It also needs to be activated before anything shows up in the utility.

 

That sounds great but I don't plan on reformatting mine unless something happens to it. I would prefer to take off what I don't need instead of starting from scratch. What specificly did you keep when you mean thinkpad hardware?

So I should activate it? What exactly does this do for me if this computer is mine and I just use it for normal work. I am not using it for any business apps that I need to keep encrypted I just use it for myself. If I should activate how do I do that? I didn't see any obvious way of activating it when I clicked on it.

 

You can uninstall individual parts, but some pieces do have dependencies on other parts.

No, it does not. It will start up automatically. I disabled the tray application.

 

You can uninstall all if you want. but they did not take much HDD space anyway.
infact, i did find anything useful from any OEM software at all.