Clean install vs add/remove programmes

hi all,

(first post so pls be nice!)

I've recently ordered a Sony CW with all the bells and whistles. I was quite reluctant at first to by a Sony, due to all the software etc that it comes pre-loaded with, but (my wife anyway) fell in love with its look and so we now have one on its way...

My question is, for a relatively novice IT person - although not a complete muppet! - the 'clean install' looks rather complicated to me and the risk of something going wrong rather scary! In this regard, can i not simply use the add/remove applications function in the control panel?

If this were an alternative otion, which programmes are the ones i dont need!

Many thanks in advance for your responses.

best,

Phil

 

Hello, and welcome.
Well, in regards to bloatware, you won't need anything that is xxxxx TRIAL.
I'm not too sure about what the newer VAIOs come preloaded with these days (and that's region dependant mind you).

Office 2007 Trial is bound to be there, so I would suggest you get rid of that. Unless you have a MLK which you bought seperately (MLK is Medialess License Kit, a piece of paper with a license code that you type in to activate your trial Office to a full version of Office Pro, SBE, or Basic depending on what MLK you bought), Office Trial will become useless after 60 days, so uninstall that.

In my case, my Z26 came with McAfee 2 month trial. McAfee itself (personally) is bluntly, crap. Uninstall that with an uninstall tool from McAfee (which unfortunately I cannot remember the URL to) from their support page and that should get rid of that. You can try Microsoft Security Essentials which is really light on the RAM and has all the basics for free for genuine windows users; it's like AVG Free but without the RAM hogging.

Basically, anything that is a trial will start bugging you to pay up after they expire, and I would personally not suggest activating them if it involves entering your email (spam issues there).

Now, the difference between uninstalling and clean installed windows. Uninstalling will leave behind bits and scraps of programs that are 'uninstalled'. These sometimes remain active in the system memory so will slow down your machine, or the remaining files just take up space and windows just does extra work indexing them there etc etc.

A clean install is a windows installation where you install windows from a MS disc, without the bloatware. As you can imagine, a clean installed windows will be 'fresh', no trials and other software; you can install only what you want / need. The cons with clean installs is that you will need to find the drivers for your machine hardware to get your lappie up and running again.

Basically, if you are anything like most of us IT freaks (don't spank me people!) you'd go for a clean install. But most average Joes won't notice too much difference.

Sometimes, bloatware can be useful. In my case, my machine came with full versions of Photoshop and Premiere preinstalled, which I am putting to good use.

Regardless, as soon as you get your machine, make the recovery discs before you do anything. I would suggest making 2x pairs since there are some reports recovery discs don't sometimes work properly. After you make your discs, you could pretty much do anything to your new lappie (including clean-installing a new windows if you want).

Anyways, hope that helps.

 

If you do decide to go with the uninstall route, I'd suggest using Revo Uninstaller - it automatically cleans up a lot of those scraps that are left behind by a regular uninstall. Not 100% perfect, but better than a normal uninstall.

 

CCleaner does a good job of clearing up stuff as well...