Samsung laptops and bloatware

I'm still weighing up my options as to which notebook I buy at the end of next month (I'm planning on getting absolutley everything I'll need at once so that involves the laptop, speakers, printers, software, accessories so any advice on good mice and speaker setups is welcome!). However, browsing through the forums I've seen many notebook users complaining of the pre-installed bloatware and in some cases, the difficulty in removing it. So in light of this I'm interetsed to know what bloatware comes pre-installed in the majority of Samsung laptops (especially the Q35 and R20 as I'm considering the Q35 and I'm looking into the R20 for a family member) and whether or not it is easy enough to remove the bloatware or reinstall the OS (Vista in this case) and get a hold of working drivers.

Thank you for your time!

 

Maybe the software provided by Samsung with Vista has changed, but you can see what came with XP Samsungs by looking at the System Software Media screen dump in my reviews.

The only thing which annoyed me was a half-installed Norton anti-virus, which keeps getting in the way until you either fully install it or uninstall it. The Cyberlink DVD solution contains several useful packages alsthough I found that I needed to reinstall it to get more than just the DVD player.

All the other extra software, apart from Adobe Reader, are Samsung applications and utilities. AVstation is in need of serious improvement but may be useful as a photo viewer and music player if you don't have your other favourite software for these functions (PowerDVD is a much better DVD player). If my memory is correct (because I never use it) AVstation is also the way to set up media for AVstation Now, which I also tried once out of curiousity and then neglected.

You may also get FirstWare Recovery Pro which is meant to reduce the risk of disasters.

I didn't have problems removing what I didn't want except something creates a hidden partition and uses some HDD space. This requires a special procedure to free up the space. There's a thread or two about the missing HDD space.

John

 

I didn't install Norton Antivirus because I already have Trendmicro Pc-Cillin.
I use Norton Ghost instead of FirstWare Recovery Pro, so I remove it too.
I didn't have problem removing FirstWare Recovery Pro.

 

I got my Q35 last week, with Vista Home. I installed Office XP, then realised it had Office 07 trial pre-installed, which overrides my install. The Word 07 interface is a mess, however I've read about those having problems removing it. I'm going to have to remove vista, and put XP back on to get rid of it, as the system restore may put the office trial back on.

Has anyone successfully removed the office 07 trial ?

 

I never removed the Office '07 trial yet my own install of Office 2007 Home and Student runs fine.

 

Don't you have to click Accept" before you use the trial. If you refuse to accept it then, it theory, it should go away. Isn't there anything in the Add/ Remove program options? I used to get annoyed by the half-done Symantec AV installation, but at least it could be removed.

If there is no removal option then you better give the problem to Samsung. They will have got a kick-back from Microsoft to install that trial and the Microsoft website does not include a clean-up tool for that package.

Or, before you go further, backup your files and reinstall the Vista as supplied then try to remove the Office 2007 Trial before doing anything else. And how much money do they want to turn that tiral into a fully working product?

John

 

Unfortunately the first sign I got that something was amiss was the first time I tried to open a word doc. It asked for a trial product key, which you have to get off the net, otherwise it limits use to about 20 times.

I then have to save docs in Office 03 (Office XP) format to allow others (with Office XP) to read my docs; which turned out to be hassle, as I bought the machine last minute to work on uni assignments, to and from my commute to work (having pulled my back, from carrying a 17" fujitsu widescreen plus a few books...).

I'd gladly use Openoffice (wasn't it Staroffice in a previous life), but I'm not certain about VBA compatibility. Not sure I'd want to convert the trial to a full version, even though I qualify for the student version, around 90GBP; as I've got an Office XP license, and am happy with that.

Now that pressure is off on my MSc assignments, I can try to uninstall, reformat, partition, etc.

Thanks for the advice.

 

17" to 12". Definitely a downsize. How do you feel about it? What do you miss (apart from the weight)?

If you need VBA then Open Office may not be the way forward but it is worthwhile exploring the limits of OO.

Regarding the Office 2007 file compatibility issue, Microsoft does provide a converter for users of older Office suites. I would suggest you get it in case you need it.

John