General question about store-bought PCs

Hey Geeks. Been a while since I've posted...nice to be back, though.

On the island I live on I've become the resident computer Geek (maybe not a task I'm up to, but one I enjoy the challenge of). This means that my friends here come to me when there are problems with their computers.

One thing that all of my friends' computers have in common is that they are laptops and they were store bought (i.e. from Dell or Toshiba or Best Buy or whatever-big-electronics superstore), and thus come with a ton of programs that have purposes unknown to me (and sometimes to them). I'm used to my computers that I bought with OEM Windows (meaning all the programs running on my computer are ones I put there and know what they're doing...sometimes), and so I am a little weary of getting rid of programs on their computers.

However, one of the problems I get with my friends' computers is "it's running really slow." And I have to think that it has to do with the many proggies they've got running. But because I am not familiar with the types of programs these computers run, I, again, am weary of stopping them.

I guess my question is what kind of programs do you find necessary on store bought computers? And what programs do you find unnecessary? I guess those are kinda broad questions, but maybe you have an idea what I'm talking about.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I look forward to your replies.

 

i agree with the Major, its best to get rid of all that stuff.. if u want to find out more about the processes (software) that is running in the back-and foreground i suggest u use the Task Manager and just google the Image Name of a process... in most cases u will find some information on it, especially if its spyware or similar, and then u will be able to decide to keep or to delete it

 

Yeah, I'm all about reformatting and starting over. But, the thing is, don't most of these store-bought computers come with a special version of Windows tailored to that computer? Meaning, the version has the correct drivers for the computer, which is nice, but also come with all those extra programs (free trials of this or that) as well?

Anyway, I'll see how a suggestion of reformatting goes over with the ones that can do that. (One of my friends, who had a thoroughly messed up computer, has a Toshiba with a defective DVD/CD drive, which means it won't read CDs at all, which means it's a real pain in the but trying to do anything with that computer!)

Thanks for the replies.