A Question About Laptops

Hi,
I'm about to buy my first laptop. I've been using a desktop for many years and am fairly knowledgeable about computers. I've gotten the impression somewhere along the line that a laptop must be used with the operating system that came with it when it was purchased. I've always set up my own computer operating system and software, and really don't like all the extraneous crap software that seems to come with laptops these days. I've always run a very lean and clean machine. Do I have to use what I get on the machine or can I reformat and load my own? Thanks in advance.

 

I've always done what you want to do. I have had the following brands of laptops
AST(don't know if they are still around)
Compaq
Toshiba
LG the last one is what I'm using now best laptop I've ever owned, but it is high end
Toshiba is an excellent machine. They both came with minimal crap ware and I just cleaned off and reinstalled only what I wanted. Have had zero problems I'm in the IT business and offer different laptops to my clients, I've even sold some high end Acers
and they alsso let me clean off bloatware and reinstall no issues. The higher end units run around $800.00 (I'm in Canada) As I tell people all the time you get what you pay for.
This LG I'm using now is 3 years old next Feb. the battery still lets me go for 3 hours
hope this helps
Merry Christmas
plus

 

This is not the case. You can install Vista on XP machines and vise-versa. The real limiting factor is whether or not the manufacturer supplies you with the drivers necessary. The only way to know for sure is to pick out a model and then go to the manufacturer's website and check out what OS drivers they provide.

As above mentions, you are not limited to the OS installed on the machine. Also, if the laptop has a license for Windows XP, but comes with a bunch of extra stuff and you want to reformat it, you can use a retail disk of Windows to do so. This, of course, will install Windows without any extra stuff. Following me so far?

Formatting the laptop to get rid of manufacturer's extras may be a little extreme. Most of the things they put on there should be removable through the add/remove programs in the control panel (programs and features in Vista).

Also, there are specialized programs out there to remove manufacturer's extras, some on Major Geeks. I don't know of any though, as I have never used them before. Anybody else know of any?

 

Didn't take me long to find it. Under drive cleaners.

http://majorgeeks.com/PC_De-Crapifier_d5223.html

You will have to tell me how it works for you. I forgot to mention in the earlier posts that almost every manufacturer puts extra things on their computers.

I recently bought a EEEpc (It is a laptop, even though its called PC) from Asus. I am very satisfied with it as an internet browsing, document creating type computer. It is designed to be small and lightweight for easy carrying (IMO the main purpose of a laptop). It also has about 6 hours of battery life when in use and generates little heat as opposed to gateway which will burn a hole in your pants. The only real drawbacks to the computer is: 1) slightly smaller keyboard, but the buttons are 95% size 2) fast, but not a powerhouse like most new computers 3) small screen, which makes sense since it is a small computer. You can still hook it up to a monitor.

There....I helped.

 

lol, my third post in a row. I guess I was too late to edit my previous one.

The reason I started posting about my EEEpc I bought was to say it didn't come with anything extra I had to remove. The only thing Asus had on there was a trial version to NOD32, which I have been using. Odd...I was sure that it was only a 30 day trial, but I've had the lappy for at least 2 monts now. :confused

After posting about all the great things about the laptop, I forgot the reason I mentioned it the first place, so I had to post this one explaining that. I swear I'm not just trying to increase my post count. :liar