Clean install of Vista on a new laptop

[James Ivey]

Hi Everyone,

I've got a brand new Dell Studio 17 laptop that was bought for me. It has
Vista Home Premium, Office 2007, and a whole bunch of crapola I don't care
about - including McAfee (sp?)

Makes me nuts to have all this extra *stuff* on a computer, so I'm
considering wiping the harddrive and doing a clean install of Vista.

In addition to what came with the laptop, I've got an OEM version of Vista
Home Premium I bought not long after it was released - seems like it was oh,
a year, maybe a year and a half ago. This is what I'm thinking of
installing.

I used to format/reload regularly back in the Win95-WinXP days, but its been
a while since I did one so I'm a bit rusty.

Any suggestions? Any major hurdles?

Of course I've got about 10 Dell cds that came with the laptop - drivers and
such.

Dumb idea?

James

 

[oscar]

If the new computer that you received is working, you'd probably be better
off to take your time to tweak the new computer to your liking which
includes uninstalling the Bloatware and adjusting Startup in System
Configuration. You may have more problems trying to get the old Vista to work
(downloading updates and drivers) than gradually tweaking what you already
have.

 

[henny]

Hi Everyone,

I've got a brand new Dell Studio 17 laptop that was bought for me. It has
Vista Home Premium, Office 2007, and a whole bunch of crapola I don't care
about - including McAfee (sp?)

Makes me nuts to have all this extra *stuff* on a computer, so I'm
considering wiping the harddrive and doing a clean install of Vista.

In addition to what came with the laptop, I've got an OEM version of Vista
Home Premium I bought not long after it was released - seems like it was
oh, a year, maybe a year and a half ago. This is what I'm thinking of
installing.

I used to format/reload regularly back in the Win95-WinXP days, but its
been a while since I did one so I'm a bit rusty.

Any suggestions? Any major hurdles?

Of course I've got about 10 Dell cds that came with the laptop - drivers
and such.

Dumb idea?

James

While we all know how you feel about the programs that you don't want or
need.. * don't do it*. This not the old days of 98SE.

Key Codes and Activation are tough. There is no one to talk to in order to
get Activitated.

Pull the unwanted programs out one at a time using 'ADD and Remove
Programs' .
Do a reboot and a defrag and a restore after major extractions. Do one a
day,

The voice of experience speaks the truth.

Jim

 

[Paul Montgomery]

I've got a brand new Dell Studio 17 laptop that was bought for me. It has
Vista Home Premium, Office 2007, and a whole bunch of crapola I don't care
about - including McAfee (sp?)

Makes me nuts to have all this extra *stuff* on a computer, so I'm
considering wiping the harddrive and doing a clean install of Vista.
[snip]

Dumb idea?

I think so. Use Control Panel/Programs and Features to uninstall what
you don't want.

Run through the All Programs list and see if anything in there has an
uninstaller.

I did that for two friends recently and It got everything I wanted to
remove for them.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

Pull the unwanted programs out one at a time using 'ADD and Remove
Programs' .

You're living in the past. It's now "Programs and Features"

 

[Earle Horton]

I did this. Not a big deal. I wound up with OEM XP (Dell version at that)
and Vista Business in place of Vista Home Premium that came on my Dell
Inspiron 1501. The Dell disks that came with my laptop were (1) Vista
install DVD (2) MS Works install CD (3) Dell driver DVD and (4) Roxio
crippleware CD. Your Dell will also have a System Restore partition that is
capable of restoring the computer to factory new condition, with all the
crapola in place. The Office 2007 that comes with your computer is no doubt
the crippleware version too, and people have had trouble either using it or
deleting it, from the articles in this group. McAfee is an acceptable
security solution, but the one on your laptop is no doubt crippleware too.
It will go dead after a month or so unless you feed it money.

You can install Vista either from your own Vista Home Premium DVD or from
the one that came with the laptop. There should be no difference, unless
the newer one is SP1. Then you can install all the drivers you need either
from the driver DVD or to get the latest and greatest download them from
http://support.dell.com. It sounds as if you are not interested in
restoring your computer to factory new condition. You could therefore
delete all partitions from the destination hard disk and impose a partition
scheme that you like. I did this, but I copied the system restore partition
to a Ghost image file first, not that I will ever use it.

I would advise you to at least play with the laptop as is for a few days, to
get the feel of Vista. It is different from XP.

Good luck,

Earle

 

[Guest]

James, Yesterday I Sent Dell Forums Moderator Chris M. A Private Message
Requesting A 32 Bit Windows Vista Ultimate Edition Service Pack One 2 64 Bit
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition Service Pack One Upgrade (Read His Recent
Post About How Dell Is Now Allowing DELL XPS Computer User's 2 Upgrade From
OEM 32 Bit Vista 2 OEM 64 Bit Vista), Early This Morning I Logged Into My
Dell Account And Saw That The Order Was In Production Status, And It Has Now
Changed 2 Shipped Status, With A Estimated Delivery Date Of Tomorrow (DHL
Next Day Air), Just FYI. A Couple Of Special Notes: This Offer Is Not
Available Just Yet 2 Dell OEM Windows XP Users, And You Must Still Have A
Valid Computer System Warranty In Order 2 Request This 64 Bit Vista DVD,
Just FYI. If I Were You, I Would Contact Him Via Private Message And Ask Him
If This Offer Also Applies 2 Non XPS Systems, Just FYI.

 

[Kayman]

Hi Everyone,
I've got a brand new Dell Studio 17 laptop that was bought for me. It has
Vista Home Premium, Office 2007, and a whole bunch of crapola I don't care
about - including McAfee (sp?)
Makes me nuts to have all this extra *stuff* on a computer, so I'm
considering wiping the harddrive and doing a clean install of Vista.

The PC Decrapifier
Features
The PC Decrapifier will uninstall many of the common trialware and
annoyances found on many of the PCs from big name OEMs. Here is the current
list of software and items that the PC Decrapifier can detect and remove.
You get to see the list of items it detects and then choose what will be
removed automatically.
http://pcdecrapifier.com/

 

[Bill Yanaire]

James, Yesterday I Sent Dell Forums Moderator Chris M. A Private Message
Requesting A 32 Bit Windows Vista Ultimate Edition Service Pack One 2 64
Bit Windows Vista Ultimate Edition Service Pack One Upgrade (Read His
Recent Post About How Dell Is Now Allowing DELL XPS Computer User's 2
Upgrade From OEM 32 Bit Vista 2 OEM 64 Bit Vista), Early This Morning I
Logged Into My Dell Account And Saw That The Order Was In Production
Status, And It Has Now Changed 2 Shipped Status, With A Estimated Delivery
Date Of Tomorrow (DHL Next Day Air), Just FYI. A Couple Of Special Notes:
This Offer Is Not Available Just Yet 2 Dell OEM Windows XP Users, And You
Must Still Have A Valid Computer System Warranty In Order 2 Request This
64 Bit Vista DVD, Just FYI. If I Were You, I Would Contact Him Via Private
Message And Ask Him If This Offer Also Applies 2 Non XPS Systems, Just
FYI.

Are you that stupid? Who cares what you order. 32bit or 64bit. BFD. So
you logged in and checked your status. Nobody gives a Rats Ass when you do
with your software. Grow a brain.
And that is a big Just FYI you idiot.