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• Talk About OEM Vender Crapware Overkill! [Humorous Image]

  - by Asian Angel

  It is natural to expect some company-branded crapware on OEM computers, but this is just a bit much! View the Full-Size Version of the Image Getting a new laptop ready for a customer…my god Toshiba, WTF? [via Reddit - Tech Support Gore] Our Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 is Now Available Everywhere How To Boot Your Android Phone or Tablet Into Safe Mode HTG Explains: Does Your Android Phone Need an Antivirus?

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• Linux, Where Crapware Goes to Die

  <b>Linux Journal:</b> "This little guy is the "Bonzi Buddy" ape. He was one of the earliest malware/spyware/crapware programs for the Microsoft Windows platform."

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• Where are those crapware desktop icons located?

  - by an00b

  My new Acer Aspire One netbook came pre-installed with Windows 7 Starter and lots of other promotional software. Some of them (like Norton and McAfee) I uninstalled immediately. Others (like the Barnes & Notble Desktop Reader and the Times Reader) I would like to keep until I see whether they can be useful). Regardless, I would like to remove their desktop icons (making them accessible through the Start menu only), in such a way that when I add another user account, these desktop icons will not appear on that user's desktop. But when I checked my desktop folder C:\Users\an00b\Desktop I noticed that it's empty! So my desktop's folder is empty, but the icons are still visible on the Desktop. How is this possible? Where are they stored in Windows 7? These applications fill my tiny netbook's desktop and when I wanted to delete

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• Toolbar Cleaner Strips Toolbars, Add-ons, and Browser Helper Objects

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re trying to remove all the crap off a friend’s bogged down computer, Toolbar Cleaner is a handy little app that does a thorough job stripping away spammy toolbars, dubious add-ons, and browser helper objects. Toolbar Cleaner is a free application that helps remove unwanted garbage from your Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome installations–including third-party toolbars, extensions/add-ons, and browser helper objects (plug-ins that modify your browser behavior and can contain malware). If you’re dealing with a machine drowning under all the toolbars and crapware that have snuck onto the system, it’s a nearly one-click solution to purging all of them. Hit up the link below to read more about the software and grab a copy. Toolbar Cleaner is freeware, Windows only. Toolbar Cleaner [via Freeware Genius] HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8 How To Play DVDs on Windows 8

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• Is Lojack preinstalled on Dell's laptops?

  - by Blorgbeard

  I'm looking at buying a Dell Studio 15 or similar. Unfortunately, they all seem to come with Lojack software included and no option to take it out of the build. I really do not want this software installed on my laptop. It sounds really abusable, and hard to get rid of once installed - it hides in your BIOS and survives reinstalls, etc. Does anyone know whether Lojack comes preinstalled on this machine, or if they just ship you a disc, which could subsequently be broken in half and/or microwaved into submission?

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• What is Acer Mobility Center Plug-in?

  - by Kimvais

  Is it crapware and safe to uninstall or does it have some sensible function?

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• What You Said: How You Customize Your Computer

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Earlier this week we asked you to share the ways you customize your computing experience. You sounded off in the comments and we rounded up your tips and tricks to share. Read on to see how your fellow personalize their computers. It would seem the first stop on just about everyone’s customization route is stripping away the bloat/crapware. Lisa Wang writes: Depending on how much time I have when I receive my new machine,I might do the following in a few batches, starting with the simplest one. Usually, my list goes like this:1.Remove all bloatware and pretty much unneeded stuffs.2.Change my wallpaper,login screen,themes, and sound.3.Installing my ‘must-have’ softwares-starting with fences and rocketdock+stacks plugin4.Setting taskbar to autohide, pinning some apps there5.Installing additional languages6.Tweaking all settings and keyboard shortcuts to my preferance7.Changing the icons(either manual or with TuneUp Styler) Interface tweaks like the aforementioned Fences and Rocket Dock made quite a few appearances, as did Rainmeter. Graphalfkor writes: How to Stress Test the Hard Drives in Your PC or Server How To Customize Your Android Lock Screen with WidgetLocker The Best Free Portable Apps for Your Flash Drive Toolkit

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• Get the MakeUseOf eBook Guide to Speeding Up Windows for Free

  - by ETC

  Our friends over at MakeUseOf.com have released yet another eBook in their series of Guides to, well, just about everything. This one gives you some tips for speeding up your Windows PC. The guide has a ton of different tips, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say you follow every single tip to the letter (since everybody’s setup is different), it does give you lots of great ideas for speeding up your PC, as well as links to resources, and instructions for how to perform various cleanup tasks. The best tips? Make sure to keep your PC crapware-free, upgrade your RAM if you’re low, scan for viruses, and run some type of disk cleanup on a regular basis. Download the MakeUseOf Windows on Speed Guide (PDF) [Direct Download Link] Windows on Speed [MakeUseOf] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware Comix is an Awesome Comics Archive Viewer for Linux Get the MakeUseOf eBook Guide to Speeding Up Windows for Free Need Tech Support? Call the Star Wars Help Desk! [Video Classic] Reclaim Vertical UI Space by Adding a Toolbar to the Left or Right Side of Firefox Androidify Turns You into an Android-style Avatar Reader for Android Updates; Now with Feed Widgets and More

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• What is the best way to clone Win7 machines?

  - by John Hoge

  I'm looking to buy 5 new Win7 boxes and would like to ease deployment by cloning the OS. What I would like to do is install a fresh OS (Dell doesn't seem to sell machines without preinstalled crapware anymore) and then install a few apps on the first one. Once it is just right, I want to clone the OS and install the image on the other four machines and just change the machine name. Is this possible to do without any extra third party software? What I am thinking of doing is backing up the disk image of the first machine to a network share, and then booting the others to the windows install DVD and restoring the same image on each machine. Has anyone had any luck with this technique?

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• Western Digital My Book World drops off network

  - by Macha

  Most of my storage in my house relies on a WD My Book World Edition 500GB network drive. I threw out the vendor crapware they give you to access it (a trial version of Mionet) after it starting nagging me to upgrade, and set it up as a standard network drive using Window's Map Network Drive. However, since then, it has been dropping off the network after 30 minutes of non-usage. The only way to get it back on is to switch it off and on again at the plug socket. Does anyone know what is causing this, and hopefully how to fix it? EDIT: it's the original "blue rings" version with the latest firmware.

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• FOSS Development: Who develops the OS-specific packages?

  - by achristi

  I have a couple of FOSS projects. They can be a bit of a pain to get running unless you've got dependencies in place already, which I figure is par for the course for FOSS projects. We know that each free operating system out there has its own package management systems. A few of them, such as homebrew on Mac OS or AUR on Arch linux are very friendly to community contributions. What I am wondering is, who exactly is expected to contribute packages? Primarily I am concerned with the case of small or developing projects, since it's pretty standard for the big projects to be put in there by the OS maintainers. From my perspective, it is something of a chicken-egg problem, because your software will not make its way into a package system if it does not have users, and it is less likely to gain users if it is not easy to install and use. For the sake of discussion, let's assume that the software in question is actually legitimately useful. I can see where people could create crapware or spam and that should obviously be kept out of any package system. So, in summary, whose job is this? Is it spammy for a FOSS software dev to put his own work into various OS package repositories?

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• How to create Restoration Partion?

  - by Fellknight

  For some time now, when buying new computers (laptops in particular) from big name brands-like DELL, HP, TOSHIBA, etc.-most of them come with a "rescue" or "restore" partion instead of installation CD/DVD. Said partitions have everything needed to rebuild the factory installed OS, unfortunately they also include all crapware that the OEM installed on the machine. Is it there a way to custom create such a partition with out all the useless software included?. They seem quite appealing considering they only use about 10GB-20GB of space and offer the pretty much the same functionality as a complete system image/backup.

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• How to partition my hard drive, quicker?

  - by Sam

  When I install Windows 7 on my hard drive, it makes three partitions. One with the OS itself, one with bootmgr inside (that is 100 MiB), and one with the factory image (all the crapware from HP). My final goal is to have the OS on a partition of 100 GiB and keep the rest (900 GiB) for storage. I thought it would be easy using gparted, but it is taking so long. It will take hours. There must a way to partition the drive before installing Windows. Yeah, because what I think makes the shrinking/moving of the partitions take so long is because they are not empty (am I wrong?).

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• Software monetization that is not evil

  - by t0x1n

  I have a free open-source project with around 800K downloads to date. I've been contacted by some monetization companies from time to time and turned them down, since I didn't want toolbar malware associated with my software. I was wondering however, is there a non-evil way to monetize software ? Here are the options as I know them: Add a donation button. I don't feel comfortable with that as I really don't need "donations" - I'm paid quite well. Donating users may feel entitled to support etc. (see the second to last bullet) Add ads inside your application. In the web that may be acceptable, but in a desktop program it looks incredibly lame. Charge a small amount for each download. This model works well in the mobile world, but I suspect no one will go for it on the desktop. It doesn't mix well with open source, though I suppose I could charge only for the binaries (most users won't go to the hassle of compiling the sources). People may expect support etc. after having explicitly paid (see next bullet). Make money off a service / community / support associated with the program. This is one route I definitely don't want to take, I don't want any sort of hassle beyond coding. I assure you, the program is top notch (albeit simple) and I'm not aware of any bugs as of yet (there are support forums and blog comments where users may report them). It is also very simple, documented, and discoverable so I do think I have a case for supplying it "as is". Add affiliate suggestions to your installer. If you use a monetization company, you lose control over what they propose. Unless you can establish some sort of strong trust with the company to supply quality suggestions (I sincerely doubt it), I can't have that. Choosing your own affiliate (e.g. directly suggesting Google Toolbar) is possibly the only viable solution to my mind. Problem is, where do I find a solid affiliate that could actually give value to the user rather than infect his computer with crapware? I thought maybe Babylon (not the toolbar of course, I hate toolbars)?

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• Dell Inspiron 1564 overheating but fan not switching on, how to diagnose?

  - by Smugrik

  I've got a Dell Inspiron 1564 laptop that is about one and a half years old. Since about a week, the laptop started to overheat, causing it to switch off unexpectedly... The cpu fan is working erratically, it can start to spin for a while, doing its job and cooling down the cpu before it stops, but then the temperature goes up, and the fan doesn't reacts, once the temperature reaches a critical point (over 85 celsius, checked with speedfan...), the laptop switches off... I already cleaned the vents and fan from dust, to no avail, and it was actually quite clean anyway. Drivers and bios are up-to-date, no crapware was ever installed on this machine. I don't know how to diagnose the problem, could it be the temperature sensors that sends wrong information, so the fan doesn't reacts? but then I believe the computer wouldn't detect the overheat and stop... Is there a way I can pin point the problem? Maybe some low-level diagnostic tools to check functionality of sensors and fans??? The warranty is already over so any suggestion would be welcome. Thanks!!

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• Windows XP restarting repeatedly after a fresh restore

  - by DWilliams

  I don't normally deal with Windows but someone wanted me to fix their computer with Windows XP on it. It was just restarting every time it tried to boot. It would not go into safe mode, the result was the same regardless of the selected mode. The computer is like 4 years old and has been running the same installation for that entire time, so I figured the easiest solution was just to back up their files and re-install. I loaded the computer up with a live CD and copied their files off to a USB drive, then proceeded to run HP's "factory restore" feature (which I'm not particularly fond of, I'd rather have a disk to install from than reload all the crapware HP gets paid to install for you). It restored, and I put all their files back, installed their programs, and started the full windows update process. Everything seemed great so I left and told them what to do once it finished. A few hours pass, and my phone rings. Apparently it started doing the exact same thing as before once the updates finished. I don't have the computer sitting in front of me now so I can't really provide any more information than that. What could be causing this and, more importantly, how do I fix it? The fact that the same problem resurfaced after the restore makes me think it's either a hardware problem or an update breaking the computer.

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• Indentify Codecs & Technical Information About Video Files

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Have you ever wanted to play an audio or video file but didn’t have the proper codec installed? Today we’ll show how to determine codecs, along with a host of other technical details about your media files with MediaInfo. Installation Download and install MediaInfo. You can find the download link at the bottom of the page. Note: When installing MediaInfo there is a recommended software bundle which you can opt out of by selecting Do not install option. Each recommended software choice may be different, like in this example it offers Spyware Terminator. The cool thing though is they use Open Candy which opts you out of the install. Just double check to make sure you’re not installing extra crapware. Using MediaInfo The first time you run MediaInfo it will display the Preferences window. There are various option such as language, output format, and whether or not you want MediaInfo to check for new versions. Click OK. Select a file or folder to analyze by clicking on the File or Folder icons on the left of the application window or by selecting File > Open from the menu. You can also drag and drop a file directly onto the application. MediaInfo will display details of your media file. In Basic view, you’ll see basic information. Notice in the example below the video and audio codecs, along with file size, running time of the media file, and even the application used to create the video file (Writing application).    You can switch to some of the other views by selecting View from the Menu and choosing form the dropdown list.   Sheet View will present the information a bit more clearly. You can see in the example below that the video and audio codec are listing in clearly identified columns. (AVC is often more commonly referred to H.264.)   Tree View is perhaps the most detailed. You can see from the example below the codec used for this AVI file is XviD.   Scrolling down even further you’ll see additional information like video and audio bit rates, frame rate, aspect ratio, and more.   In Basic View (and also in Sheet view) you can click to find a player for your file. In this instance with an MP4 file, it took me to the download page for Quicktime. This is by no means the only media player for this file, but if you are stuck for how to play a media file, this will forward you to a solution that works. You can do the same thing with Video codec. Click Go to the web site of this video codec to find a download.   MediaInfo is a simple but powerful tool that can be used to discover the details of a media file, or just to find a compatible codec. It works with most any video file type and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Some Mac and Linux versions, however, are currently command line only. Download MediaInfo Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How to Convert Videos to 3GP for Mobile PhonesFix for VLC Skipping and Lagging Playing High-Def Video FilesUsing VLC Player Under VistaUse Your Mac Mini as a Media Server Part 2How to Play .OGM Video Files in Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 2010 World Cup Schedule Boot Snooze – Reboot and then Standby or Hibernate Customize Everything Related to Dates, Times, Currency and Measurement in Windows 7 Google Earth replacement Icon (Icons we like) Build Great Charts in Excel with Chart Advisor tinysong gives a shortened URL for you to post on Twitter (or anywhere)

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• Understanding Windows 8 Recovery options

  - by stuffe

  Background: I am preparing a PC that I am sending to a relative abroad, who has little or no internet access, and next to no sensible options for getting IT support should anything go wrong. As such I am trying to provide a full set of recovery options such that they are able to reinstall the OS with minimum fuss or assistance if required. The PC is a brand new Acer laptop that came with Windows 7 pre-installed (and an associated recovery partition) and a free upgrade to Windows 8. I have installed Windows 8 from scratch performing a format and clean install from media I burned from the official download. The existing Windows 7 recovery partition is still there, and I can still boot from it. I have created recovery DVDs of that in case it is ever lost. Here are my recovery options so far. I can perform a factory reset of Win 7 via the recovery partition I can perform a factory reset of Win 7 via burned recovery DVDs I can re-install Windows 8 cleanly from a DVD All of these are useful, but not what I want, because the first 2 methods use Win 7, and still fill the machine with crapware, and the latter doesn't provide for any post-install customisation and software installation. So, I am looking to see what other options are available to perform a Windows 8 recovery that will be more than a simple install. I am aware that Win8 comes with some useful refresh tools: Refresh your PC - Re-install Win 8 over the top of your existing installation, recovering from any Windows corruption etc. I can run this from my current install, although it says some files are missing that will be provided by me install or recovery media, which seems to be code for stick your install DVD in, and it starts after I do that - unfortunately for this particular laptop you need to specify a particular WIFI driver or the install bombs out part way through with IRQL errors, and this refresh method skips the part where you can load a driver, so it's no use to me. I think I can fix this by creating a custom recovery image using the recimg.exe command but it takes hours to complete so I haven't tried it yet. Reset your PC - Perform a full install and lose all your files. Again it needs my Install media inserting before it will do anything, but then it provides an error (will include later when I recreate it...) Now, these recovery options look useful (in principal, although both are fail for me) but they rely on having a working system to access the tools, which leads me to the last option, of making a Recovery USB drive. I have made a recovery drive, and it should perform loads of useful things, including copying my WIN7 recovery partition to the drive, providing the above refresh and reset options, providing other troubleshooting options and also the ability to restore from a custom image, only none of them seem to work for me. Creating the Recovery Drive - the option to include my recovery partition is greyed out. The partition exists and works fine, why will it not copy it? Refresh - I imagine this would have the same issues as I described before, but this is moot because when I try it says that the "drive where Windows is installed is locked, please unlock the drive and try again" with no info on what that means and how to do it. Restore - Again, probably pointless as I can just use the DVD, but it also errors: "unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing" System Restore - should let me roll back a bad driver etc as per normal in Windows, only it simply says "To use system restore you must specify which windows installation to restore. Restart this computer, select an operating system, and select system restore" ?!?! System Image Recovery - this seems to be offering to restore from a Windows system image, but this is deprecated in Windows 8, although you can still make one if you use the Windows 7 Backup tools, however the resultant file is too large to put on the USB stick as it's FAT formatted, and would be a massive stack of DVDs anyway. So useless. It would be nice it it would work with the custom recovery image you can use with the refresh command, but there seems no option to do this. Automatic Repair - some diagnostics, which seem useless as it happily tells me it can't fix my problem, even though I have none. Command Prompt - yay, this works! What on earth do I want to use it for... Had any of the above worked, it might be useful, but as any form of install still requires you to have the DVD, and any form of custom recovery image also requires you to have either a massive stack of DVDs or an NTFS formatted backup device in addition to the recovery drive, it sort of ruins the point. It doesn't seem rocket science. I want to create a bootable USB drive that I can refresh Windows over an existing install with, perform a clean reinstall to a bare system, or recovery a customised image with existing apps installed. If anyone can point me in a direction that allows me to make a single recovery drive do these all these things, I would appreciate it. I have a 32Gb USB3 thumb drive that I bought for this very purpose, but it's seems to be fighting to let me do anything useful. At this rate I will be making a DriveImageXML recovery stick and dumping the OS with that, which I know works, but isn't so elegant as using the proper tools..

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