What would you consider Bloatware?

[bagelred]

I did a factory reset of my 2 year old Acer AM3400-U2502 Desktop, with Windows 7 Premium. Giving this computer to my father.....anyway, after the reset, I'm trying to cleanup some of the unnecessary programs off the hard drive.

But sometimes I'm just not sure what items are necessary for functioning of the computer, or programs might need later, etc. Should I leave all these Microsoft programs? The Acer programs? I'm never sure........So I figure I'll just ask here.

So if this was your new computer, looking at this list, what would YOU get rid of right now off this machine. Maybe list what you definitely wouldn't need and other items might/might not need.

For the record, I added Firefox, Chrome, and Avast myself.

Thanks for advice.

 

[hikaricloud]

Avast is bloatware!

All kidding aside. I'd call Microsoft Works bloatware if you aren't going to use it...it's kinda a bit useless anyway. I'd replace it with OpenOffice if you don't have a full copy of Microsoft Office. Which also means you could get rid of the Office Activation Assistant if you aren't going to use it (I see you have Home and Student, but do you have the activation for it?). Anything Windows Live if you aren't using it. MyWinLocker should go. Acer games or arcade deluxe if you aren't going to use them. Acer screensaver...I don't even know why you would need that. Same with welcome center, don't think you need that for operation. Registration is up to you, if you're registering it or not. Acrobat.com isn't needed.

Other than that, I'd remove Silverlight if it was my machine, but I don't have a use for it, others might.

 

[PP Mguire]

Anything Acer, hotkey utility, welcome center, Haali Media Splitter, identity card, Adobe products (Chrome doesn't need flash, and has a PDF viewer plugin), mywinlocker, Windows live junk, Firefox, and Nero.

Basically, almost everything there I would get rid of. Install CCCP for codecs and the splitter, and use imgburn for burning utilities.

 

[bagelred]

OK thanks for help. I'll probably be more conservative than you guys. But Windows Live stuff is going to go.

MyWinLocker would NOT uninstall. You go to remove page and asks you to INSTALL. No uninstall option. Strange to say least.....now I want it gone out of principle. LOL

What does that "Media Splitter" even do? Is that necessary?

I probably should have asked the opposite question "Which stuff on the list should I definitely NOT uninstall?" Realtek Drivers? ATI Catalyst?"

 

[hikaricloud]

Definitely don't uninstall anything like drivers or ATI.

Haali is just a media codec thing. Don't really need it if you install VLC or K-Lite Codec pack, not even sure if you really need it anyway...but go ahead and install something in its place just to be sure.

Here's something for uninstalling MyWinLocker I came across:

Performing the below steps will help you uninstall mywinlocker from your computer most of the time.
1. Click on Start and then Control Panel
2. Double click on Add/Remove Programs and then locate mywinlocker in the programs list.
3. Click Remove or Change button to begin the uninstall process.

Then, please go to:
1) Start button and select Run.
2) Type “regedit” in the command box and press Enter
3) Then expand the HKEY LOCAL MACHINE, plus next to SOFTWARE. Here, you will see all the programs locate on your computer. And locate whether there are related entries to mywinlocker. If so, directly right click it to select “Delete” to remove them.
4) Then expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER and perform the same above steps.

The above steps help you to delete the related registry entries of mywinlocker from your computer. But before, please do remember to make a backup of the Windows registry: Registry / Export Registry, save it on your Desktop or somewhere else.