Which Sony utilities, etc. to install after clean install?

I recently received my Sony Vaio VGN-SZ780, about a week ago. It still has all the factory bloatware on it.

I'm planning to do a clean install of Vista soon. (Unless I decide to go with XP instead. For now, let's assume Vista.) I know that after doing that, one has to reinstall necessary drivers and utilities. I have just downloaded many of the drivers, utilities, and updates for this machine, from the Sony support site, to be ready to reinstall what is necessary after the clean install.

The key word here is "necessary". It is not only that I want to get rid of Norton and Spysweeper. I want to get rid of most of the Sony junk as well, and only install what is really necessary for the system.

I see various threads in this forum about clean installs, but I didn't find one (sorry if I missed it) about a machine similar to mine. I see one for the Z. I found one for SZ, but it was for SZ330, over a year old, and I think that is probably quite a bit different than my machine. Also, it looks like most of the writers reinstalled most of the Sony junk, which I don't want.

Therefore, I would like help in determining, what is really essential to reinstall from the Sony site, after a clean install.

Of course, most of that is obvious--that I need to reinstall the video and audio drivers, etc. What I have questions about are several of the Sony utilities and applets, that are available for download from the support site.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNSZ780&LOC=3

For instance, I have absolutely no interest in any of the Sony media junk. I have my own media software, and have no interest in having sony applications running constantly in the background, indexing my media files. That kind of stuff is definitely out, click to disc and other such crap.

But--I have questions about what some of the other Sony apps and utilites are, what purposes they serve, etc. Perhaps some here can help me to determine which I want to reinstall.

For instance, the "Original Function Setting Update". That looks like part of the Sony media crap, so probably a no-no. Correct?

What is the "SmartWi™ PRL Updater"? Does that really provide any useful functionality, regarding wi-fi connectivity, not already provided by Windows? If so, please explain.

What is the " VAIO® Smart Network Utility"? Similar to the last question. What functionality, regarding network connections, does that offer, not already provided by Windows? Really useful, or not? (If so, please explain why.)

What are the "Sony Notebook Utilities"? Is there really anything useful in that package? Is it important to install?

What on earth is the "Sony® Programmable I/O Control Device Driver", and the "Sony® Firmware Extension Parser"? What do they do?

Is there really a need for the "VAIO® Control Center"?

What is the "OCA Marker Update"?

Is it important to install the "Sony Shared Library"? If so, why?

I would appreciate getting some information and insight about all these apps and utilities, in order to know what is reallly important to install on the machine, after a clean install.

Thank you for your input.

 

bumparoonie