Rudolph in North East, MD asks:
My computer has all kinds of applications and programs I don’t use and some that I never even wanted. Should I delete whatever I don’t need or just leave it alone?
The start of a new year is a great time to do some virtual housekeeping. Computers, phones and other devices are often bogged down with what is know as “bloatware” or extra, unused applications that take the form of games and apps intended to assist you with everything from predicting the weather to navigating the world. At a time when many of us are feeling bloated from too many cookies and glasses of wine enjoyed over the holidays, both humans and machines could benefit from having a little less extra. If you’re a small business owner and want an expert to figure all of this out for you, we do offer Technology Expense Management. We look at your various software to determine what is benefiting you the most, and what’s costing you the most money.
Most bloatware is pre-installed on devices by the manufacturer who is often paid by software vendors to push basic versions of their products in hopes that the end user will be wooed into purchasing the full versions. Urban Dictionary defines bloatware as follows; “A piece of software, hardware or website that attempts to do too much and becomes utterly useless for users. An example of bloatware would be a word processing application that also tries to be your page layout program, drawing tool, and web browser; absorbing half your hard drive and all your RAM in the process.”
Unused applications can take up valuable memory and could conflict with other applications. Some retailers will elimate the bloatware for a fee, but with a few simple steps, you can shed much of it yourself and you will be left with a leaner, less cluttered and faster machine!
1. Take Inventory: If you haven’t used it, you probably don’t need it; take stock of what you have and if you have not used a certain program or application in a long time, it can probably go the way of the dinosaurs.
2. Find Suitable Replacements: it’s not always about giving the boot to programs you don’t need, sometimes you can find an application that performs the same function, but takes up less RAM. In some situations, Microsoft Outlook can be replaced by Thunderbird and iTunes can be dropped in favor of DoubleTwist.
3. Enlist the Decrapifier: PC Decrapifier (www.pcdecrapifier.com) is a free program that can remove unwanted programs and trial offers on your PC. It will list the programs and then prompt you to select which ones to kick to the curb.
4. Start At the Beginning: If only it were always this easy. Go to Start > Control Panel > Uninstall a Program and you will see a list of all the programs you’ve installed on your computer and you can select the ones to go.
5. For Really Stubborn Ones: A few programs will not have uninstall options or the uninstall feature is unresponsive. In these cases, you can boot the PC into Safe mode by holding down the F8 key after you power on the computer. Look for the offending program in Add or Remove Programs (XP) or Programs and Features (Vista) and try to uninstall it.
6. Wipeout as a last resort: If none of the other tips has solved your bloatware problem, another option is to erase your hard drive and reinstall Windows. WipeDrive removes data by overwriting it with random information. This tool will erase everything on the drive, so back up what you need to a disc or an external drive and make sure you have the discs for the operating system before wiping so you can reinstall them on the clean hard drive.
7. Call Teltek IT! Our expert technicians are here to help you and your devices slim down for 2013. Bring us your machine and we’ll take out the stuff you no longer need.
Teltek is proud to offer IT services as the fourth component to our multi-systems approach as your single source technology services company. This Managed Service Provider (MSP) offering completes our longstanding goal to provide our clients with a one-call resource for all of their business technology needs. IT outsourcing, remote back up and disaster recovery, helpdesk support, computer network relocations, security products, computer repair and server/desktop virtualization are just a few of the services available.