How to automatically remove unwanted pre-installed software from your computer

Posted on September 16, 2007 at 6:20 pm

So you just bought a new computer and can’t wait to start using it right? So you fire up that bad boy eagerly awaiting the cool new features and instantaneous loading of programs with a single click of the mouse! Annoying and shockingly, your new computer boots up and greets you with popup ads, 100 shortcuts for 100 useless services like AOL or Realplayer, and enough icons in your taskbar that it extends half way across your new widescreen display!

Before you can even click on anything, your computer is automatically connecting to the Internet to download the latest updates for all of the trial anti-virus or anti-spyware software and speaking out alerts to you about dangers you didn’t even know existed! So your new computer experience has now turned into the pre-trial software equivalent of computer hell.

Just to uninstall all of those applications manually would take several hours depending on how many pre-loaded applications are there. Instead of wasting time doing it yourself, you can use a nifty little program called PC Decrapifier, which is free and very easy to use.

PC Decrapifier was written by people like yourself who became annoyed at the fact that big companies like Dell, HP, Toshiba, Gateway, etc sell advertising space on new computers so that they can make more money at your expense. PC Decrapifier will find the “crap” on your computer, allow you to choose what you would like uninstalled, and then automatically start removing each application.

The program has a large list of trial software applications that are usually loaded onto new computers and which, if it finds, will show up in the list to be removed. These applications include QuickBooks trial, NetZero, AOL, Norton trial, Microsoft Office trail edition, PC-cillin, and lots more.

Once installed, the program will first create a system restore point just in case anything goes wrong. After that, you simply select the items from the list and click Next.

PC Decrapifier is free for personal use and only $20 if you want to buy it for commercial purposes. I have not tried this program myself, but it definitely is worth trying out on a brand new computer. Personally, the best way to setup a new computer is to simply reformat it using the original operating system cds because none of the trial software will be included, only the core OS files. That way your registry is not being corrupted either.

Any questions, post a comment!

[tags]remove unwanted software, pc decrapifier, uninstall software[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

4 Responses to “How to automatically remove unwanted pre-installed software from your computer”

Michael F said on : July 31st, 2008 at 10:17 am

This program works! I just bought a brand new Toshiba Satellite with tons of crap installed and this program got rid of all the fat!

Brenda said on : March 15th, 2009 at 3:53 pm

Dear Computer Guy: I am learning new things about the computer everyday, but I still consider myself to be a bit technologically-challenged. I’ve come a long way from 20 years ago when I was afraid to hit esc for fear of losing everything and a very long way from programming in Basic B using punchcards. I figured that anything loaded with my computer must have a value and had been afraid to remove any of it, despite the fact I don’t play games on the computer and haven’t figured out how to use an MP3 player, yet. But, finally I removed Semantec myself because I was so sick of it popping up all of the time. I sure wish I had found your site a long time ago. Thank you very much!

Joe Geek said on : June 2nd, 2009 at 1:35 am

I’m going to give this a shot. My new Dell has an abundance of junk I do not want nor will I ever use.

Mike’s Musings » How to automatically remove unwanted pre-installed software from … Says:

[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptPC Decrapifier was written by people like yourself who became annoyed at the fact that big companies like Dell, HP, Toshiba, Gateway, etc sell advertising space on new computers so that they can make more money at your expense. … [...]
September 17th, 2007 at 9:42 am