PC Decrapifier

[Adrian II]

Stupid question here.... what exactly is 'bloatware'?

Let me explain this by example.

Like the Lemur here, I run a bunch of 'family and neighbourhood' computers. We mail and surf, we play games, we download from sites, USB sticks and CD-roms, we do everything that's out there.

I have managed to keep them virus-free for six years by three simple devices:

1. Avira AntiVir Personal (freeware)
2. Eusing Registry Cleaner (freeware)
3. The Human Brain (shareware) that says, i.a., "when in doubt, do not open attachment"

In short, everything else is bloatware: it bloats your computer, eats into its memory, slows down performance and causes game CTD's and other malfunctions.

Now, a lot of this bloatware is either hidden or interwoven with essential software. Producers do this in order to prevent your from wiping it. What we are looking for is a freeware program that disentangles this mess, marks everything useless or harmful with a and destroys it at your command. That includes unnecessary services (that run during other programs), code bloat (unnecessary code produced by inefficient software) and redundant or false registry entries (which slow down your performance).

P.S. FYI I am a complete moron when it comes to computers, I hardly handle MS-DOS and it took me a year to understand what 'updating your drivers' meant. So if I can manage to keep computers clean and fast this way, every other imbecile can.

[Caius]

I managed to had clean the pc from all the crap out there...with IE and all. I had clean my pc, looks like i was wrong.

[Drisos]

3. The Human Brain (shareware) that says, i.a., "when in doubt, do not open attachment"

I have this program too! Works amazingly well! It malfunctions sometimes though, when I get home in the middle of the night after a heavy thursday evening.

Not going to crappy sites, not opening attachments to crappy mails, etc etc, those help a lot.

I'm on AVG + Spybot:S&D, and have CCleaner for cleaning up once in a while.

[Adrian II]

I have this program too! Works amazingly well! It malfunctions sometimes though, when I get home in the middle of the night after a heavy thursday evening.

Not going to crappy sites, not opening attachments to crappy mails, etc etc, those help a lot.

I'm on AVG + Spybot:S&D, and have CCleaner for cleaning up once in a while.

Yeah, it's a pity that its use is limited and some can't afford the license. Usually, that's how the leaks in your security start.

[Adrian II]

I apologise for the doublepost, but it's been a while since the last one and there is a new development.

Oh well, not a spectacular one. But today being a good day for experiments at the Adrianses, I decided to give this thing a try. So I installed and ran the Decrapifier on a 10 month old Acer with Vista Home Premium -- and I was quite disappointed.

First off, I got a message saying it couldn't find any crap on my computer that was worth wiping. I suppose that by their standards I have sufficiently decrapped the thing myself over the past 10 months.

However, after I had closed the program and rebooted (ever the cautious amateur) it appeared that it had inadvertently wiped my usual start page and replaced it by the MSN start page.

Something I hadn't asked for.
Cleaning personal preferences or caches isn't even in the list of options of the Decrapifier.
Yet it had managed to do this.
Without my consent.

And in computerland, my friends, that is a definite no-no.

[Lemur]

Well, that answers that. Thanks for playing.