Cleaning up new laptop before connecting to the internet

16 years ago

I bought my DD an HP laptop for Christmas. The guy at Best Buy tried to convince me that I needed to pay them to "clean up" the unit before we connect to the internet. I know that the manufacturers get paid by software companies to put their stuff on the hard drives. But I told the salesman that I was sure I could go in and remove that stuff myself. He insisted that even if I removed the programs,there would still be things running in the background and pop-up reminders showing up, and they were the only ones who knew how to take care of them. Now that Christmas is tomorrow, I'm a little worried about what I'm supposed to do once she opens the gift.

Can anyone give me some advice? Best Buy was just trying to get extra money out of me, right?

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Comments (12)

mikie_gw
16 years ago
Give it to dd and dont worry about.
There's not a thing harmful.

Over time you/she/he can clean out the junk.

No rush.
SilverVista
16 years ago
I just went through that with DH's new computer. Not only was I not going to pay some college-age kid to delete a few things, but I also wasn't going to make another 50-mile round trip to pick it up when it was ready the next day. So far, I've taken out all the Norton and AOL stuff. Didn't see anything else that needed immediate attention. Downloaded Open Office and set that as the default for opening text documents and spreadsheets so that it won't activate the MS Office trial. Left that on for awhile so DH can decide if he wants to stay with OOo or pay to activate MS.
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Good information from raven and here's more to think about. Hi sportsman12, There could be a lot of things going on, sounds like it's limited to that computer though, since the other one connects. We should be trying 2 browsers too to see if it's browser related. Have you tried 2 different browsers Internet Explorer and another one like Firefox. Sometimes an Anti Virus or Firewall can cause issues, since that is a new router your firewall may not like it just yet. Restart the computer now keep hitting the F8 key. The computer should boot to the Windows Advanced Options Menu. Once you get there Black screen with white letters, use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode With Networking hit enter now try again to connect to www.Google.com. See if it connects there. This mode runs without Anti Virus and firewall that's why we want to try it. Don't surf in this mode if it does connect here. Some laptops have a wireless switch on them. Does yours? There are 2 small computer Icons down by the clock, right click them and notice the options available in case you have not done that yet. Note any errors. Next we can look in the Device Manger for errors, and or reinstall the Wireless adapter and flush the DNS as that's what appears to be going on. Since you see a strong connection and unable to connect that points to a DNS issue and it's just a matter of flushing it and renewing it. We can get to that if needed.
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As Mikie mentioned, dial-up routers are pretty are rare these days and the ones that do exist are going to be used or rather expensive. She probably doesn't really need one. If she is going to use dial-up, you need to find her an ISP that provides dial-up service. I don't know who they are any more but Google should be able to help. She doesn't need to contact the phone company unless she wants DSL. If she happens to be on one of the restricted minute phone plans, she'll need to change that. Dial-up is just like a voice call and would count toward her call allowance. Unless the laptop has a built in modem, she's going to need an external one that connects via USB. With that setup, there will be no need to worry about wireless networking.
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kudzu9
16 years ago
beache-
Yu did the right thing. Essentially, you were lied to in an attempt to increase their profit margin...they probably make more money from this than the profit they make over their wholesale cost. It's true that many computer manufacturers load up their products with unnecessary crap and "bloatware," but this stuff is easily removed and once done it will not have reminders that continue to popup and annoy you. The first time the computer boots up, look at the icons on the desktop that are for things you don't want, like a contract with some ISP or a 60 day trial of an expensive antivirus product, etc. Write them down, and then go into Control Panel / Programs and remove them. Then delete the icons from the Desktop if they still remain. If there are other things that popup, there is usually an easy way to disable them or uninstall them, like looking for a small box in the popup window that says something like "Don't remind me again." Even though computer makers put this unnecessary stuff on, they don't want to make it so hard to remove that you never buy a computer from them again!

If you follow these tips and it doesn't remove all the annoyances, re-post here with the specifics and we'll help you wipe anything else out, too.
zep516
16 years ago
A good program to use in your case see link.

Here is a link that might be useful: pcdecrapifier
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
16 years ago
zep beat me to it I was going to recommend to you to get pcdecrapifier that is exactly what it was created for.
You will need to run the removal tool to fully remove which ever installed antivirus is on there like McAfee, I had to do all this too for the laptop I just bought my husband for Christmas. I posted recently about a neat site that will let you pick and install a lot of the great free programs we all use from one spot you can go to my post and get that link.
Let us know what the antivirus is that you need to remove and we can give more specific instructions.
A great general use removal program is REVO which is free.
Revo Uninstaller

I personally would not let geek squad touch my computers but thats just me.

you should however do the suggested backup for the laptop so you have your recovery discs should you need them, but windows 7 does include a good imaging program too for backup.

the one thing left to do on my husbands is to wipe off that annoying trial version of office, I installed Open Office and now need to get rid of that trial version but it has been known to cause problems at uninstall so have to do a little more research or let REVO do it.
maime
16 years ago
Raven do you delete everything that Revo finds without any problem?
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
16 years ago
have never had a problem with it, don't recall anyone I suggested it to mentioning any problems, but then there are no guarantees.
maime
16 years ago
Thanks
zep516
16 years ago
I had to use Revo on a McAfee uninstall yesterday. The McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool would not work when running it I got an error "McAfee Enterprise Software Detected" and the Tool shut down and said please contact McAfee. Yeah right! I used Revo in hunter mode and got most of it except for 1 Service running. Had to use Hijackthis to delete an nt McAfee service.
DA_Mccoy
16 years ago
I have heard of "enterprise" level software being difficult to remove. In those cases the "enterprise" classification was for elite-level commercial applications serving corporations. Perhaps?

DA
mikie_gw
16 years ago
revo has messed up a couple things for me recently,
from other peoples computers, so maybe odd installs/reinstalls. I sort of wonder if to place the blame it on the new version..

So rather than trusting it fully now on that aggressive mode, now I look down the list, of the extra's it cleans, take my time with it.
PRO
Christopher Nelson Wallcovering and Painting
16 years ago
I've taken out all the Norton

How, from win7?

Cleaning up new laptop before connecting to the internet

Comments (12)

mikie_gw

SilverVista

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