Crapware

[Ron Texas]

I bought a laptop, Lenovo brand. It was loaded with crapware. I clicked and uninstalled it. One program would not uninstall. It was some kind of audio enhancer which promised surround sound with only 2 channels. I wish that I had written the name down. It began with an "N". After some searching I found information on how to get rid of it, or I thought so. It would not go away. Then I noticed Equalizer APO wasn't working. No matter what I did the program would reinstall. There is only one reason for this behavior in a free program. It's collecting all sorts of data.

Finally, I reset the laptop. Equalizer APO was working. I uninstalled McAfee AV. Then I noticed Microsoft's Devender AV was gone. Lots of searches produced no working solution. The analysis was a policy had been installed to turn off the AV. It should have been uninstalled when McAfee was removed, but it persisted. The machine was new so I took it back.

A few years ago this kind of stuff did not happen. I'm annoyed.

 

[amirm]

Crapware has been going on for decades. PC companies get paid to install these things and so they do. My Lenovo is not too bad as I opted out of a bunch of stuff. Sad thing is that it has bled to Android phones where carriers force stuff that can't be uninstalled.

 

[McFly]

"Bloatware" in the biz

 

[Ron Texas]

Crapware has been going on for decades. PC companies get paid to install these things and so they do. My Lenovo is not too bad as I opted out of a bunch of stuff. Sad thing is that it has bled to Android phones where carriers force stuff that can't be uninstalled.

This is the first time I ever had crapware that could not be removed. I have to assume it was phoning home big time for anyone to have designed it to be so persistent. There were also pop-ups on the Lenovo advising me of valuable offers. I can't turn on my TV without a page of advertising. I've been through the Android thing.

 

[RayDunzl]

Can you do a "clean install" using the product key on the unit?

How to Easily Reinstall Windows 10 Without the Bloatware

The “Reset Your PC” feature in Windows 10 restores your PC to its factory default settings, including all that bloatware your PC manufacturer included. But the new “Fresh Start” feature in Windows 10’s Creators Update makes it much easier to get a clean Windows system.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[mhardy6647]

Win 11 (I presume?) -- Home or Pro?

 

[Zensō]

Crapware on Windows boxes is perhaps the best justification for the existence of the “Apple Tax”.

 

[TheWalkman]

Buy a Mac and never look back.

 

[JSmith]

I uninstalled McAfee AV. Then I noticed Microsoft's Devender AV was gone

McAfee can be difficult to remove all components. If removed properly MS Defender should be available to take over.

Make sure McAfee is completely removed, so after uninstalling, restart the PC and run through these steps to make sure it's all gone;

http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=T...

After uninstalling McAfee open Windows Defender settings and in Windows Defender Security Centre "fix" anything that's flagged.


JSmith

 

[Ron Texas]

Some answers:
Win 11 home.
Since Win 10 each machine has a digital license making it possible to do an install without a serial number. I wasn't in the mood to do that when I could just return the machine.

 

[pavuol]

Maybe Huawei offered some software services to Lenovo..

 

[Durnik]

MS Edge, Cortana, Windows Store, Xbox software...

This is the first time I ever had crapware that could not be removed. I have to assume it was phoning home big time for anyone to have designed it to be so persistent. There were also pop-ups on the Lenovo advising me of valuable offers. I can't turn on my TV without a page of advertising. I've been through the Android thing.

 

[dedobot]

Buy a Mac and never look back.

Until the next macOS update ruins something useful to you. All OS'es have pros and cons , there's no safe heaven .

 

[somebodyelse]

My Lenovo is not too bad as I opted out of a bunch of stuff.

You mean they actually learned from the Superfish scandal? Crapware that injected ads and violated privacy was bad enough, but using a UEFI mechanism to reinstall it if you ever removed it was worse. The icing on the cake was the security vulnerability it contained.

 

[JSmith]

MS Edge

You be surprised actually... now it's Chromium based it's actually faster and better then Chrome.

Their market share in the browser space has increased to over 30%, compared to 6% and under for IE/Non-Chromium Edge.


JSmith

 

[MaxwellsEq]

They may be auto-installed from the BIOS.

 

[JktHifi]

Buy a Mac and never look back.

But it can’t play Battlefield V from EA games.

 

[thewas]

The more pro Lenono Thinkpads I buy for work usually don't have much bloatware, the HP laptops we had bought are a nightmare with their "HP Secure" software...

 

[Tassin]

Have bought hundreds of Lenovo ThinkPad for the company over the past 5-6 years. First bullet point in the SOP is to start with a clean ISO-install from MS.

 

[Ron Texas]

You be surprised actually... now it's Chromium based it's actually faster and better then Chrome.

Their market share in the browser space has increased to over 30%, compared to 6% and under for IE/Non-Chromium Edge.


JSmith

Around here we use Edge exclusively. My favorite feature is the tracking cookie blocking.