Default manufacturer programs that ship with a PC

We all know about the programs that you remove when you have a new PC. You remove the antivirus trial for 30 days, you tweak your system ; you add programs, etc. But I have one question.

Has anybody ever found the programs that ship with a default PC useful? I'm not talking about Adobe air or Norton 360, I'm referring to programs that ship with a certain computer. All the programs that come with a Dell or Toshiba or HP, are any of those programs worth keeping on your machine?

I believe some of them are-I have Toshiba face time on my machine and I find that to be a really useful feature, but others like Toshiba app place or Toshiba real-time to be not effective for my needs. I'm sure there are others but those are the ones I can think of right at the moment that came with my particular PC.

So, the question is what do you do with all those extra programs? Do you keep them or do you get rid of them to regain extra space? And yes, I know that space isn't too much of a premium these days.

Matt

 

I personally never found anything useful for me.

No.

Wipe them and the entire disk altogether. If working in someone else computer I remove them from startup, to improve boot time and general computer performance (not because of the used space).

 

ThinkPad's come with some useful software, in particular the following:

ThinkVantage System Update - updates drivers and the manufacturer supplied software.

Active Protection - works with a sensor in the laptop, and parks the hard drive heads when motion is detected to protect the hard drive.

For most other notebooks the included software isn't so good, for example the ASUS Live Update software has only ever found updates on one laptop I ran it on.

The best way to avoid included software is to buy a barebones laptop - as don't come with any operating installed, and you have to install Windows from an actual Windows DVD, so you end up with no 3rd party software.

 

First rule of hard drives: Wipe anything when you get it.

 

It's just a matter of personal opinion. Usually I prefer to have at least most of the manufacturer's software installed. When I purchased my barebones laptop I downloaded the software from the manufacturer's website.

 

Well if you want to be sure your not infected with Malware shipped straight from the OEM manufactiourer then you must wipe the hard drive. Look up Microsofts recent test of manufactiourers in China, 25% had the Nitol botnet on them. '99% of laptops & workstations are manufactiored in China and MS proved that some are infected from point of purchuse with malware.

Do you really want to take that chance?

 

Most definately. Not that I'm going to buy a new computer for years. But, from what I have just read, the primary source of infection is from Chinese brand computers using pirate copies of Windows. So, in reality I believe the chance of a brand name laptop being infected is very slim.

I do buy used laptops from time to time, and sometimes I reformat them and sometimes I don't. I am prepared to take a chance because:

I install Malware bytes and run a scan with that. If anything is missed by Malwarebytes, there's a good chance I will find something amiss on my own.

There's even a small chance that I will install antivirus software, and maybe that will find something.

But for me, the main point is that I'm not at all paranoid about my computer being infected. I've yet to find a malware infection that I have not been able to remove. I only do a reinstall in cases where the malware has rendered Windows pretty much unrepairable. Having said that, I have revived some extremely damaged Windows installs.

 

I ordered all my DELL'S online and only got a few DELL apps that are nice to keep, plus the Free McAfee or Norton AV which I promptly uninstall as soon as I finish setup before they get a chance to do anything.

 

I always wipe entire HDD or SSD when i have a new manufacturer pc, i think is more safe and i'm sure all the latest apps and drivers are up to date.

rules.

 

My last few systems have all been from a local OEM, and did include some pre-installed stuff. I took out Norton IS (fortunately nowhere near the hassle that I've heard NAV is, or was), and I forget what else was on it, but I did keep Farstone's Restore-IT which has proved very useful a few times. It's essentially a disk-imaging app, far more reliable than Win's System Restore which I ditched shortly afterwards.

 

What I find a good preinstalled software on my Aspire Desktop is Clear.fi. This streaming suite so you can easily stream movies to dlna certified devices.