How to Optimize Any Sony VAIO With a Semi-Clean Install

i have finished doing the semi-clean install in my computer.
from 81 processes dropped to 61 processes after startup.
memory usage dropped from 40% to 33%

 

has anyone confirmed this work on an FE (model)? I have the vgn-fe890

 

WORKS FLAWLESSLY IN A VGN-FE890. should i uninstall the mysql stuff?

 

I'm a newbie to both the Vaio TZ and this Forum. Bought my TZ27GN a few days ago, and LOVE it! Thinking that my love would grow even further without the bloatware (although this Asian version doesn't even carry half of the junk of the US version), I followed your semi-clean installation with a slight twist.

As previously done by tamashumi, I also booted from the recovery CDs, since I wanted to reduce the recovery partition to the bare minimum. By excluding the apps and bloatware from this partition, it reduced in size from 7GB to 1.5GB! Simulatenously, I could resize C: to 20GB and create a D: partition for my personal stuff.

I interrupted the installation after 2 reboots, as described by tamashumi, when the system asked again to insert Disc 1. After the system was up and running, all key Vaio apps were installed, all drivers, and non of the bloatware! PERFECT!

I then copied the "Vaio Recovery" folder back into the program folder and executed the Launcher to see if I want to install some more apps from the recovery center. From there, I reinstalled Vaio Smart Network, Vaio Update, the Camera Utility, Battery Checker and Protector Suite QL. Seems to work like a charm.

Overall result is nice: Processes 65 instead of 72 before, Memory 685MB instead of 720MB before, memory usage down from 40% to 34%. In the process I also gained a lot of HD space, from around 65GB to 81GB! I can only recommend to reduce the recovery partition to include only the recovery application (1.4GB) and not all the other bloatware apps.

All the best
J

 

Help!

I have reached step 3-- where it says to press F10 when you restart..
when i do that, it does not do what it is supposed to!
it either takes me to "Vaio Recovery tools" or gives me the option to choose which operating system i want (with vista, obviously, the only option)
please let me know if im doing something wrong or what my next step should be?
and i am using an FZ340

thanks a lot--

 

no one can help? lol

 

The VAIO Recovery Tools is the option you want.

 

read through the whole post and seems that no one had asked this before

can this method work for semi-clean installing xp? (I am using SZ28)

 

etkuo, you need special drivers. See if they're on Sony's site.

FE added to list, thanks excbook.

 

Thanks for all the work on this guide, sony should be paying you for cleaning up all the worthless infestation of bloatware installed on these computers..

 

Hello,
I have partitioned my hard drive, so the partition I am using for Vista is 25Gb. However, when I try to use my recovery disks to do semi clean install it says that there is not enough space to install Vista there? Is there any way around this problem? I really believe that 25Gb is more than enough for OS partition.
If there is no way, then what is minimum partition size for it to work?

 

Hi. I performed a semi-clean installation on my Vaio TZ150N/B using this guide. I followed the instructions word for word, and everything worked perfectly. Thank you so much NinjaNoodles!

However, I wasn't sure what applications to turn off in the final step, so I skipped that step.

 

I just performed a semi-clean installation on my Sony Vaio VGN-N250E with this guide, and it worked perfectly.

 

Ninja - worked well on my new FZ4000 and is the best alternative, IMO, if you do not have a Vista disk with which to do a clean install. Thanks!

 

Did you see the link in my signature to do a clean install even if you don't have the vista disk?

 

Yes - and I replied to you in a different thread - I do not have any of the folders (WAU, WAUUPGRD, etc) that have been mentioned in your thread to burn a DVD. WAU is now handled online with a digital locker download. I suspect things are changing in the OEM install given SP1 is out. Disks are not even readily available for order at Digital River any longer. I don't believe your option will work from this point forward with new SP1 computers, IMHO.

 

Hi I've had a good read of this thread and tired the semi clean install, however I have lost the Instant Mode on my CR Vaio.

I tried to troubleshoot, but the whole InstantON folder was missing (should be located on at "C:InstantON" as a hidden folder).
I can't find anything on the Launcher.exe that remotely resembles InstantON or Instant mode or AV mode.
Is there any way I can get this function back without having to recover everything, do a full install and delete all the bloat-ware one by one :\

Appreciate any help.

 

Gee, I just looked in my FZ by launching "Launcher.exe" in the vaio recovery folder I saved during the process and I have "InstantON" as a program that I can reinstall. Does not seem that it is available as a standalone on esupport - or I could not find it. I am sure someone mor experienced will chime in - good luck.

 

m0928, see step 8:

 

If you set a password on your BIOS, you cannot initiate the re-installation by pressing F10 while booting up.

In this case, you can still initiate the re-installation through the Vaio Recovery launcher, itself.

 

Yes I did see step 8.

There is nothing called InstantON in the Launcher.exe.

Any idea why this might be? I think that if this happens on all CR models then there should be a warning on the first post.

 

I just tried this procedure on my AR770 and it worked like a charm. Getting to the recovery partition has changed a little bit and I'm still sorting out a few drivers but the Hard Drive space and speed I got back made it well worth it.

 

ok I'm having more problems now.
My Vaio won't turn on unless I have the ac power connected.
I have tried taking out the battery and putting it back in, still nothing.

What's werid is that when I press the power button, the front led flashes bright, and then dims, but stays on. Also when the power button is held, the battery indicator light glows orange. There is no sound of cpu or fan working.

My laptop is brand new, only had it for about 4 days, all i've done on it is this semi clean install and some word processing :\

 

m0928 - Personally, I would reload from the recovery files and start over. Don't mess with anything related to the battery!

 

Yeah I think that's exactly what I'll do. I really like the idea of not having any bloat-ware on my vaio, and this process has done just that, however it's just one too many side effects to deal with. I wonder if I'll ever get the same clean drive if I remove everything manually...

I followed all the steps exactly though, (not one of those people who can't follow instructions heh) Just so you know I haven't been messing around with stuff I shouldn't be.

Thanks for your help

 

What is not exactly clear in this process is what Sony options you can or cannot take off. Remove those that are (AOL, Napster, Adobe Pro, etc) and then go for the Sony stuff a little at a time. I did not load the Vaio Entertainment Center, the Vaio Wireless Utility, etc. However, when in doubt, I kept it. More than once, I went back in to the Recovery to load an app or two. Finally, this weekend I did a clean install (basically following the FZ clean install thread by Gary) and have hardly any Sony sw loaded any longer. It is a very laborious process and if you mess up, it can take a long time, but it was worth it for me. My FZ is clean and mean now.

 

through all 23 pages it is not clear what to do after hitting F10 and in the VAIO Recovery Center it asks to choose a program.

Windows System Restore
VAIO Hardware Diagnostics
Restore C: Drive
Rescue Data

I would assume its option A or C and someone hinted earlier that it was Restore C: Drive but it was never confirmed... Can someone clear this up and it might want to be added to the OP.

 

Restore C: Drive. Window System Restore is the conventional System restore.

 

ok - next problem it prompts me to use Vista to restore to a "restore point" or use VAIO to diagnose. I go to the restore point, choose the oldest. and it does a restore yet never allows me to CSE. It restored, rebooted and no option to kill the .exe. It never booted multiple times or change to a different progress screen.

It went from restoring files to finalizing restoration or something along those lines.

Am I missing something?

 

disregard previous

 

Just got my TZ and did a semi clean install with no problems.

TZ 250
Before:
97 processes running right out of the box
60gb out of 80 gb Hard Drive

After:
60 processes
70gb free

Thanks for the guide, awesome stuff!

 

Hi NinjaNoodles:

Thanks for the how-to.

I have a new Vaio VGN-FZ445DB with Vista Home Premium. I followed your steps. Once Windows appeared with the copying files indicator, I interrupted the process immediately. However, it still managed to install Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat Connect conferencing, Napster, MS Office trial, and Roxio. I'm not sure what else it may have installed.

I uninstalled Napster and Acrobat, but there's no entry to uninstall MS Office trial or Adobe Acrobat Connect, yet they show up in the Welcome Center. How do I uninstall those?

 

Hi,

I have tried this semi clean install and it works a treat! However I didn't copy the Sony folder over when I first did it so I was wondering if anyone could zip up the files required for the instanton application and post it up somewhere or email me. I have tried inserting the recovery cd 1 and installing the applications, but none of the software listed ( in both tabs) includes "instanton". I have a new TZ37GN (in aus).

If anyone could help. It would be much appreciated!

 

This morning someone posted a link to a download of the InstantOn software: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=259641

 

I just registered to say thank you for this great guide. It worked perfectly for my fz4000, which comes with unbelievable loads of crap installed.

The only thing I lost was WinDVD but I simply got myself another DVD player software.

Thanks!

 

Have anyone with the tz198 laptop tried this method?

 

just did this on a tz150n, everything works fine. thanks for this guide!!
EDIT:
it worked the first time, but i accidentally installed the sprint wifi utility and i decided to do the semiclean install again. but now that i have finished it, i can't connect to the internet. my wireless is switched to the on position, but when i go to connect to a network, i'm told that my wireless is switched off. the original driver has been installed and the wireless doesn't work whether or not its switched on or off. when i do switch it on and off, i can hear the little soundbyte vista makes when a device is being connected/disconnected.
i am currently trying to reinstall the driver using vaio recovery center.
can anyone help me out?

EDIT2:
i was able to fix the problem. apparently i installed smart wi before my second system restore and it disabled the wireless. all i did was reinstall smartwi after a third semi clean and then turned on the wireless through that. i am guessing that uninstalling it now will keep the wireless on and still allow you to get rid of the smart wi utility and the sprint trial thing but its not too bad that i want to do another semi clean.

 

Hi, thanks so much for helping me get rid of the BLOAT!

I just did this on my new SZ780 and all worked well (I dont think an hour is realistic though.. ) however I have one issue that I'm not sure how to fix.. At startup, the computer starts and loads whatever I have and does this rather quickly (nice) however it then hangs up with the message " The system is adjusting LCD display. Please wait". It hangs there for over 4 minutes!!!! HELP!

Just noticed that when I try to start the "camera capture utility" I get an error message that the "attempt to initialize the camera failed".

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Edit: Yes I have tried reinstalling from recovery, I have removed the program and reinstalled, I have reinstalled Sony Notebook Utilities (not found in recovery) from Sony....and so on.. please help

EDIT 2: Okay, look I'm just an old housewife.. after an entire day of freaking out and trying to figure out what to do, I finally came upon the NVIDIA driver on the Microsoft website and downloaded it. Solved both problems.

 

I just got a VAIO CR (VGNCR520DR)! I got a good discount on it as well.

I was wondering if I can do this on it...

And, for that folder you move to a different location, can I also move it onto a thumb drive?

 

65 processes, 24 GB, 13% CPU Usage, and 34% Memory Usage.

I'll update this as I go along....

 

63 processes, 23 GB used, 4% CPU Usage, and 20 % Memory Usage.

It wasn't as much as I thought it would improve, but still an improvement.

 

Hello,
Thanks for the guide.
Just did a semi-clean install.
After installing vista, everything works fine, the drivers installed themselves during this process.

0 bloatware, 0 vaio apps (except utilities etc) so the fn buttons and hotkeys all work fine.

boots up at least twice as fast now (without vaio apps)
However after randomly installing vaio apps that i want, the volume button doesnt work anymore..all the other buttons work fine still.

So my question is, does anyone here have any knowledge of the vaio application's dependencies?
More specifically, i would like to know which order to install vaio apps, to get them to work properly. ie, vaio content analyzer, soundflow, vaio media etc..

I have searched around, but i could only find list of half of the vaio apps and most of them i dont need.


cheers

 

i have a question. if i follow this procedure .. will it basically delete all the programs that i have installed? and i have to re install everything from scratch?
or this would do no harm to my files and programs at all?

 

It will wipe out all applications AND data.

Gary

 

Which model??? Look around these threads for a clean install guide for you particular model. These will tell you the proper sequence and sequence is VERY important on Sony machines. The link for a clean install on an FZ is in my signature line below.

Gary

 

I wish i have read this way before ....

 

Hi thanks for the reply.
I have read your guide on the clean install, as well as the semi-clean install guides around.
maybe i will just try and guess the order to install the rest, because the guides do not list the apps that i want, and i cannot find anything around the web yet.

basically its soundflow that i want working(it may be a new app or uncommon i am not sure). So far i have worked out that it needs, on top of the important stuff:

1:vaio content analyzer
2:vaio content folder setting
3:vaio wallpaper contents
4:vaio wallpaper setting tool
5:adobe flash 9
6:vaio original function setting

Its a L series vaio.

Somewhere i have read that the recovery software that allows you to tick whatever you want, automaticallly installs it in the required order. So if this is right, provided i know what software i need, it should do it automatically?

 

damn pwned by the reformat. that happened to me the first time too...ahh lesson learned. life is beautiful

 

lol nice to know

but no, i think you must have misunderstood. what i meant is that i wish i had read this thread way before so i could do this , because right now my laptop is full of apps and data and i don't feel like making back ups lol.


i haven't reformat my laptop yet, just thought that there might be an option like my old HP desktop , where you can just reinstall everything without wiping out the data.. then later you jsut need to reconfigure the drivers of stuff like printers.

 

just thought i'd share this for anyone who is in my situation
done mine on a VGC-LJ25
its a localized jap model so slightly more complicated.

the recovery program when u hit F10 is in japanese, but its not hard to work out which is the "restore C:" option (i dont know how to read japanese btw)

then after u follow the steps at the first posting, u need a program called vistalizator and an english language pack (can be downloaded 200+mB) to change vista home/premium to english.after this, everything will be in english including launcher.exe

then just continue installing whatever u need from launcher.exe, and end up with a semi-clean system that is much more efficient than when u bought it.