I have been using the PDF reader built into Firefox for some time now. No complaints with it. Regarding your unwanted crapware I have been using the custom install for some time after realising some sites were doing exactly what Foxit has been up to. It is about money of course, they get a fee for all those unwanted installs, plus many of those probably do not get removed once the user has made the discovery. For those who may fear using the custom install method it is very simple, you check off all you need and leave out what is not wanted.

My experience with Malwarebytes is its missing some bad guys all too often lately ... then superAntiSpyware seems to get most misses. fwiw; Microsoft now has a new download program.. an 'on demand' security scan... gig file, long scan.. read here.. Microsoft Safety Scanner Bad part is no definition updates... every ten days you have to reinstall the whole thing. Its a large download, and think maybe 1.5hr scan here. Picked up some minor junk the others missed. another fwiw.... For those familiar with Auslogics, 'Boost Speed' a special edition is being given away free... here at ... MajorGeeks ..dont forget to get the promo code there.. Origially found at TipRadar http://www.tipradar.com/giveaway-auslogics-boostspeed-5-special-edition.html

If you are adept enough to install a dual boot setup with Linux, you certainly know how to remove trial and ad offerings that most new PCs ship with. No 'deptitude required. The Linux MINT installer told me it detected a Windows 7 installation and asked one question - whether to preserve the other OS or kill it - and created the dual boot installation for me when I said "preserve it". If I had not resized the slider, Win7 would have had half the disk, and Mint the other half. In my previous Linux experiences, most of the distributions assassinated the existing OS without asking permission. This refinement makes Mint a good distribution for anyone who wants to keep an existing Windows setup because they have some Windows-only software. Yes, removing the bundled "crapware" is easy. But, how would you remove the LENOVO ad that LENOVO inserted into the middle of the installation procedure? Without borking the install? It was a pointy-clicky minimal intervention required kind of installation, which is not true of all Linux distros. Mint is worth posting about in areas where novices hang out . Yes, I can get Libre Office, the GIMP, and all the rest for Windows by downloading and installing them ... the point is that I didn't have to. They "came with" the OS, as usual. Unless I need to do something most users don't, such as video editing, I had not only a working OS, but a system that could do real work with no further effort. Getting more software for Linux is usually just opening the software installer and clicking "Install" in what you want. I'm not sure what you've accomplished is an improvement and not just a change. Read the threads here about browser hijacking and viruses and malware and bad links and google for zero day exploits in Windows and IE. It's definitely an improvement, and perhaps knowing there is a easy to install Linux version out there may help someone get into a safer computing environment. Or update the OS on an old machine to get a couple more years out of it? Or get the whole office on a single OS without spending oodles of money? ========== NOTE: I'm a long-time Linux fan. The last Windows OS I installed as the primary OS on a personal machine was Windows 95, although various jobs have had Windows on the office computers. I have Windows only because some software I have to run can't work under WINE.

You might have some hidden partitions if you look in Drive Management. Me personally,,, I find it nice to backup to a separate partition so when I bork windows in my laptop(often;), a separate data partition has a nice current system image that not only saves really fast, it is instantly available from f8 and loads really fast. And with backup for personal files/images, I can always get back the whoops deleted file by simply browsing to just that one folder/file in the backup, or find that file from a week or two ago that I probably shouldn't have deleted. Faster scans and defrags on smaller partitions. Wow ie10 fixes all my small i's and helps me spell too easy.