Computer newbies forum: pre-installed garbage

When I purchased my new XP it came with many unwanted programs also,including Norton,I believe I read somewhere its called crudeware.

What is your OS?

Try start>all programs>GetVonage>there should be an uninstaller.try this for each unwanted program.

Tom

Click start and then "Run", type in "msconfig" (just the word, not the puncuations) then when the menu opens go to "Start up" or Start" just depends on your OS. You will then get another menu and there you will see all the rubish you don't want so just uncheck the Items you want to get rid of. They will still be there but will not start when you start up your computer,
regards, Tony

I know this is a silly question...but how do I find the file? I found the shortcut, I went into "search", typed in the target that was in the shortcut under properties, and no item was found. I am probably not doing it right...obviously!! Liz

when I click properties then under "shortcut" there is an option to open file location. When I click on this it takes me to "program files". There are 2 files listed for this paticular program 1) core_startVonageand 2)Vonage. When I right click either one of these files there is an option to delete along with ..run as admin...scan...pin to start...add to quick...send to..cut...copy...create shortcut...delete...rename and properties. If I delete it this way; is it the right way? Thanks..Liz

As long as there is no standard uninstall listing in "Add/Remove Programs", then the "easy sign up" icons stuff can be safely deleted using the method you've chosen.

Hope this helps.

Grif

I'm always hesitant to offer suggestions to folks on how to remove pre-installed software on a recently purchased computer without actually being there to see things for myself.

While I like to think of myself as more computer literate than the average American consumer, I had a fair bit of trouble (i.e. more trouble than I had anticipated) removing the flotsam and jetsam of pre-installed software from my daughter's HP laptop, which we purchased 7-months ago.

Certainly some of the posts on here are correct in the advice they offer, but I personally found that even after deleting folders, files and using the Add/Remove Software feature, the laptop would sometimes act erratically trying to find and run software that I thought I had completely deleted.

Instead of taking the more dangerous route of trying to delete/remove software applications, it may be more prudent to simply delete the various shortcut icons from the desktop and turn-off those unwanted programs from starting via the msconfig option as another post referred.

Ultimately this route leads to fewer issues with your computer's registry; cleans up your desktop; removes unneeded software from hogging your computer's resources (because you stopped them from automatically running at start-up), etc., while not causing the host of issues that can crop-up when one tries to delete software that was installed by another party.

Hope this helps.

Re-formatting is a bit drastic, especially if you're not computer-wise or you haven't got an OS disk and license. And if you use the OEM recovery on the computer it would just re-install the same files.

Find the program's folders by looking in C:\Programs. If there is an uninstall file, use that. If there isn't, try the ControlPanel - Add/Remove programs.

If you can't find uninstall files, you must delete them manually, but first, do Start/Run, type "msconfig". Under the Startup tab and also the Processes tab, disable any of the tripe that you are sure is relevant to the files you want to delete.

Return to C:\Programs and delete the programs manually.

After uninstalling or deleting, use the Search function (with "search hidden files and folders" enabled) to find remnants that have survived and then delete them.

Download Ccleaner and get it to scan the registry for remnants. Let it delete any it finds but allow it to make a back up.

If you want to get rid of Norton, visit their website to download the Removal Tool. After you have used that, carry out the above procedures.