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Crapware is a blight on the good names of many PC manufacturers. 2nd- and 3rd-rate software companies pay PC companies a fee to let them put their crapware on PCs. In nearly every case, crapware is inferior -- sometimes vastly inferior -- to software you can choose yourself
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983


   

Stop paying for software:
Get rid of the junk software that comes on new PCs


June 13, 2010


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2010, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2010, The Post-Standard

   WARNING: Some of you followed a deceptive link and got the wrong software -- and got a message that said you have to pay. The software I am recommending in this column is FREE for personal use. If you are asked for payment, you have the WRONG software. Uninstall it. A new link for a safe download is below.
   
   The best way to save money is to stop spending it. That's the idea behind my series on the best free software for Windows and Macs. This week I'm recommending a free way to remove unwanted extra software from new Windows PCs.
   
   New PCs often come with software you didn't ask for, don't want and seemingly can't get rid of. This junk is called crapware.
   You can get rid of this garbage, for free. I'll tell you how.
   Crapware is a blight on the good names of many PC manufacturers. 2nd- and 3rd-rate software companies pay PC companies a fee to let them put their crapware on PCs. In nearly every case, crapware is inferior -- sometimes vastly inferior -- to software you can choose yourself.
   Crapware comes in three varieties -- free software, trialware (which you must pay for after a period of free use) and ransomware, which starts out free but then duns you for payment as if you had intentionally chosen deferred payment. (Antivirus software from some of the biggest companies in the computer business is notorious for this.)
   Removing this junk yourself sometimes is easy, but usually it's hard.
   First, you have to be savvy enough to identify it. (Most crapware looks like legitimate software. You could easily spend an entire weekend trying to check each program on your PC for the ones that belong in the junk pile.)
   Second, normal uninstallation methods sometimes don't work for crapware. If you've been using Windows long enough, you probably have your own horror stories about software that wouldn't go away no matter how hard you tried to get rid of it.
   The best way to remove crapware is by running PC Decrapifier, a free program that can be downloaded from this safe Website. If you have an older version of Windows, note that PC Decrapifier only works on recent versions (XP, Vista and Windows 7). It does not work on Apple's Mac computers. (Apple, unlike Microsoft, tightly controls the software placed on its computers, so Macs don't have crapware.)
   Ideally, PC Decrapifier should be run it right after you've settled down with your new PC. That way it can strip out everything and leave no traces in the Windows Registry, which tends to get cluttered with hard-to-remove entries after Windows has been running for a month or two.
   But it can still get rid of all the crapware on your PC even if you've had your PC for quite some time. I ran it on my Windows 7 netbook PC after I had cleaned out crapware myself and it still found stuff to get rid of.
   A nice touch about PC Decrapifier is that it doesn't install any crapware itself. In fact -- and this might be hard to believe -- it doesn't even install itself. You simply run it from whatever location you downloaded it to. This is a refreshing added touch to an outstanding program.
   
Programs marked for removal
   These programs are marked for removal by PC Decrapifier. You can tell the software keep any of these programs just by clicking a preference checkbox.
   AOL Install
   AOL UK AOL 9.0, UK Version
   AOL US AOL 9.0, US Version
   BigFix
   Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI
   Corel Photo Album 6
   Corel Snapfire Plus SE
   Corel WordPerfect
   Dell Search Assistant
   Dell URL Assistant
   Digital Content Portal
   Earthlink Setup Files
   ESPN Motion
   Get High Speed Internet!
   Google Desktop
   Google Toolbar
   Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
   HP Rhapsody
   Internet Service Offers Launcher
   McAfee
   Microsoft Office Activation Assistant 2007 trialware
   Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 trialware
   MS Plus Digital Media Installer
   MS Plus Photo Story 2LE
   MusicMatch Jukebox
   MusicMatch Music Services
   muvee autoProducer 5.0
   My HP Games
   MyWinLocker
   NetZero Installers
   NetZero Internet Access Installer
   Norton AntiSpam
   Norton AntiVirus
   Norton Ghost
   Norton Internet Security
   Norton Protection Center
   Norton Security Center
   Norton Symantec Live Update
   Office 2003 Trial Assistant
   Orange Internet
   PC-cillin Internet Security 12 Trend Micro
   QuickBooks Trial
   Quicken 2006 Possible Trial Version
   Reset IE Home and Search Pages
   Roxio Express Labeler
   Roxio MyDVD LE
   Roxio RecordNow
   Sonic DLA
   Sonic RecordNow Audio
   Sonic RecordNow Copy
   Sonic Update Manager
   Tiscali Internet
   Travelocity Gadget
   Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 14
   Vongo
   Wanadoo Europe Installer
   Wild Tangent Games
   Yahoo! Music Jukebox
   Yahoo! Toolbar for Internet Explorer