OS cleaner

soccerdad · 2007-02-07, 04:28 PM

I have an HP machine that came loaded with tons of bloatware. Everytime I reload windows (MCE) it loads up all this junk that I have to delete one by one. It also leaves tons of junk in the registry. Are there any cheap programs out there that you can use to select all the junk in one or two steps and clean out all the garbage? I must have 20 extra programs and a dozen systems running in the background that I don't want or need. If not, could I just find a generic MCE disk and install it from that and use my license that I have for MCE? Is there a place that I can download a clean copy of MCE from? Since I have the license, I would not think this would be a problem. :confused:

K.S. · 2007-02-07, 05:15 PM

soccerdad Wrote:I have an HP machine that came loaded with tons of bloatware. Everytime I reload windows (MCE) it loads up all this junk that I have to delete one by one. It also leaves tons of junk in the registry. Are there any cheap programs out there that you can use to select all the junk in one or two steps and clean out all the garbage? I must have 20 extra programs and a dozen systems running in the background that I don't want or need. If not, could I just find a generic MCE disk and install it from that and use my license that I have for MCE? Is there a place that I can download a clean copy of MCE from? Since I have the license, I would not think this would be a problem. :confused:

uninstalling will allways leave traces & crap behind. best way would be a clean install. second best way: get your system as you want it (dump the crap, install what you need) and make a backup-image, that way you're up& running in no time. clean copy: not legally available & not trustworthy Wink

i think there is a way to make a normal installing disc out of a restore image, do a search on google

soccerdad · 2007-02-07, 05:57 PM

Can you do a "clean" vista upgrade (from a fresh clean hard drive), or would I have to load my MCE version first and then the upgrade on top of it? The problem is HP does not give you a regular windows install disk. You get a recovery disc on a partition that you can make a copy of. It already has all the bloat built in and there is no way (that I know of) to just load windows without all the crap.

Carlito · 2007-02-07, 06:17 PM

I don't know first hand, but a fellow employee of mine stated that with vista he had to install the original Windows OS first and then install vista on top.
Again, I'm not certain but this is how vista upgrades were explained to me.

HtV · 2007-02-07, 06:22 PM

Carlito Wrote:I don't know first hand, but a fellow employee of mine stated that with vista he had to install the original Windows OS first and then install vista on top.

I read somewhere that this is right, however you would still be able to do a complete fresh install then. Microsoft just made it harder. It's not enough anymore to borrow your neighbours install-cd for a minute. Wink

beyonder74 · 2007-02-07, 09:07 PM

There is a way to make a new cd from the original by copying the i386 directory to your desktop. Then create a boot image file with BartPE. You can then create a new iso with PowerISO and burn it to a new CD. This should eliminate all the junk that loads when you use the new CD to install. Search GOOGLE for this. There is also a program called nLite out there that is free that lets you add service packs and additional updates and burn a new CD. I have played around with nLite, but never burned anything. People usually do this when you get a PC without a windows CD, but the i386 directory exists on another partition for recovery purposes.

Hope this helps.

soccerdad · 2007-02-07, 09:31 PM

Thanks beyonder74. (and everyone else) I will google around and look at this. Welcome aboard, thanks for your first post Wink

beyonder74 · 2007-02-27, 01:22 AM

Here is a link to a walk through on how to do this.

http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createw...disk.shtml