#118 - Cleaning up your new PC - death to Bloatware

So you just paid big bucks (hey in this day they are all big bucks!) for your brand spanking new PC. Its now yours to work with and enjoy over the next 3-4 years. But wait! As soon as you turn it on you notice some programs, make that lots of programs, that you don't know what they are and what they are doing on your PC. Well there is the trial ware - trial versions of software that expire in 30 or 60 days out. Antivirus and Office products make up this batch. Then there is the software that is the limited version of the software. Utilities like PC Doctor and Diskeeper make up this group. Lastly there are programs you have no idea what they do or why they are on your PC. This Mac ad really gets the point: http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/getamac/apple-getamac-fat_480x376.mov


This addition of software you didn't specifically ask for has been going on for years. Lately it has got way out of control. All the programs install resident versions for updates, checking out your Internet browsing and generally tying up your memory. Loverly! The first thing I do on a new PC is to get rid of as many of these extras as I can. I also get rid of every trial program that I can find. If you want to try something you'll just download it from the web. I use a program called PCDecrapifier (no kidding that's what it is called) that makes the cleanup a bit easier. Download it here: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/download

Here are some of the worst actors:

MS Office 60 day trial
Symantec Internet Security
McAfee Antivirus
WordPerfect Office
PC Doctor
Network Magic
Any toolbar but GoogleTool bar
Any desktop search engine
All photo programs

I hear that Dell gets $20 per PC to put them on. I wonder if they would charge $20 more per PC to leave them off?