Windows Which of these bloatware is removable?/Looking for remote desktop app.

I just bought a Laptop (HP Pavillion DV6) for my younger sister's 18th birthday and I am setting it all up for her so she can use it straight away on her birthday.

As with most retail PC's there is a crapton of bloatware on them, I have removed the most obvious offenders (Norton trial etc) but I want to know which of these I can safely remove before I start loading on stuff she may need.


I was also thinking it would be a good idea to install some sort of remote desktop application on it/my machine so I can help fix any problems she may have while away at uni as she isn't the most tech savvy. Can anyone recommend a good free (or cheap) way to do this?

 

> LightScribe System Software
> HP Quick Lunch (I think this is the floating bar with icons)
> HP 3D Drive Guard (I don't know what it is - look it up)
> Shockwave Player (no one uses that plug-in anymore... it used to be barely used when Flash was bare bone (Flash 4 days))
> Adobe Air
> Acrobat.com (just links to Adobe website.. instead of links.. it's a software that acts like a link)
> Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistance if you don't use "connect to home Win7 PC and stream you music and video via WMP12" feature, and you don't use any online service of the Microsoft Live software suite.

The rest is perfect (drivers, and useful stuff) "Microsoft Visual C++" items are library files that some software needs to function. It's not software, just a few of DLL file of a few Kilobytes. Keep them.. I think Microsoft Office and Live Essential needs them in any case, so their setup will install it back.

 

most of it's fine, the ones i'd remove are:

• Shockwave Player
• Adobe Reader 9.3 [replace with Reader X or PDF reader of your choice]
• HP 3D DriveGuard
• HP Setup
• Lightscribe
• Live Sync
• Live Upload Tool

 

The other option would be to disable everything from the start menu that you don't need at boot up. That way it's still on the laptop but but wont take any resources until it's needed. I do this with everything that's installed on my PC so when I boot it's just windows and anti virus booting. Speeds boot time time up a lot.

 

I use team viewer at home for my dad and brother, we use logmein at work. Both free for non commercial use, to answer your other question

 

I use teamviewer and a lot. Good program and swear by it

 

Thanks for the help, I will give teamviewer a try out, it should come in handy when stuff starts going wrong. My mother and sister have demonstrated a great talent in the past for filling computers with virus'.

Where about do I control what starts on boot? I have doe this on my main computer but can't remember how.

 

Click start and then type msconfig, then go into the box, when the options pop up go into start up and uncheck the boxes. Or download CCleaner and use the program start up menu on that to stop progs from starting

 

Not as bad as them sony Vaio lappys.

 

That initial screenshot already has a bunch of programs deleted which were obviously not needed. I had forgot how bad it was TBH since I built my last computer and prior to that I had been using macs for a couple years.

 

For remote desktop, you do know that Windows 7 (Vista too, and I think XP as well) comes with Remote Assistance (I am not talking about Remote Desktop, I am talking about Remote Assistance, different, same excellent engine)

Remote Assistance is designed for people won't know how to configure stuff, or get an IP address. All you need to do is have the Remote Assistance check box enable in the system properties panel, under the Remote tab.

The way it works is real easy.
A panel opens, and asks the person if he or she wants to invite someone, or help someone. She click on "Invite someone you trust..." button, then they are 3 options: Easy Connect, Save invitation file, and e-mail invitation file.

Easy connect, will auto detect everything, communicate with Microsoft server, provide a temporary, connect once code, like: QGSY403J7. Which she give you, and you insert and you connect to the computer. Send e-mail and save file, are teh same, teh e-mail makes an e-mail out of it. She can e-mail you the file, and then she will give you a generated password, like EasyConnect method, you just double click on the file, enter the password and you connect.

Once connected she can grant you control access, and UAC access. By default you can only see the screen. The buttons to give you control access and all that, is on a bar that will show up, which you will see, and can guide her to it, if any problem, as you can see her screen.

What I like about Remote Assistance, is that it gives you 2 different method of connecting. If one doesn't work, most likely the other will (unless she went in the system properties and disable any remote assistance, or she is behind a firewall software or hardware that blocks remote connections... but in which case will affect other programs too, else the firewall is badly configured).

 

I didn't know it had that built in, cheers. I did try teamviewer out for a bit and it seemed really easy and simple though. I suppose there can be no harm in having a couple different options. I'll give the built in one a go now.

 

Sure, have both! At least you'll have plan B if for some mysterious reason Remote Assistance doesn't work, or the other one.

 

I use CCleaner and Bleeping Computer to clean up my start up.