What software can I dump from a Dell?

Hi!
I'm working on a Dell computer with a Celeron chip that is slower than it should be even with dial-up. I would like to pare down some of the software, because the owners are 87 and don't do much except e-mail and downloading pictures.
I know there's a piece of software that gets rid of extra Dell software, and I think that has been run on this computer, but I still have some questions about extra software.

1) Adobe Reader / Foxit Reader
Can I get rid of Adobe if I have Foxit or are there sites that only will allow you to use Adobe?

2) Wild Tangent and the Game Console
Will it affect the sound system or any of the graphics to remove whatever is related to Wild Tangent?

3) a whole lot of things that I don't know what they are - can I take them out without hurting the system in general?

AOL has 33 listings in the Program Control tab of Zone Alarm free. Some is for AOL 7.0 and some for AOL 9.0. I think it would be possible to remove AOL 9.0 from this particular computer. A lot of them are AOL connectivity services dialer, services installer, services uninstaller (6 of those), Desktop Installer 1.1 (2 times), Open Client Platform Execution Environment (3 times), Toolbar 1.5 (2 times), AOL TopSpeed (6 times), AOL Clnst (1 time), AOL Reg (1 time), AOL SP Scheduler (1 time), AOL setup (1 time), AOL Spyware Protection (1 time)

Additionally, I have 4 more entries in ZA for AOL that look like this:
4184.xxxxa Client version.

Almost everything is loaded with a question mark, but ZA doesn't ever ask if it's okay to use it. I've tried closing the connection to some of them and it doesn't seem to prevent AOL from running.

I have lots more questions, but that's plenty for now.
Thanks for help.
Attlis

 

Recommend that you follow the instructions in this post to help speed up the machine. This will show you how to lower resource consumption.

You may also be interested in PC Decrapifier which will automatically remove preinstalled software from machines from any manufacturer.

You will lose the browser plugin that comes with Adobe, so you won't be able to open PDFs directly in Internet Explorer or Firefox, whichever you use, but I have yet to encounter a site that wouldn't let me download the PDF and open with the program of my choice. IMO, worth the broswer plugin loss to use Foxit.

See this thread for a description of WildTangent... it may be necessary to use some software installed on the machine.

This should be taken on a case by case basis. It probably won't hurt the system itself to uninstall software, but the user might complain if you remove the wrong thing. If you have any questions on specific items to be removed, then don't hesitate to post back!

 

Thanks Mada Milty,
I'll try all that. You may be hearin back from me!
Attlis

 

Did you say the machine has Dial up, not broadband?

Now for some heresy

Disable automatic updates of the anti-virus, windows, adobe and every thing you can think of.

Go into Messenger and turn off start when windows starts in the options.
Ditto any well behaved program (?) like microsoft office.

Uninstall Kodak and Corel photh- thinggy- whatsit.

See if any scanner software can be prevented from starting with Windows.

You can uninstall all versions of AOL, but the one in use. you have to do this in the correct order or you get left with 'tails'.

Look at the start tab in MSconfig. I expect you will find old favourites such as jusched, tkbel, realsched, qttask to stop. Do a test stop and if all is well delete these from the RUN key in the registry. You MAY wish to stop the dell monitor.
HKLM/sofware/microsoft/windows/run

Lastly DONT BLAME DELL. They reduce the price of PCs to the customer by loading all this advertising on at birth.

Studio T :wave :cool :wave

 

I'm working on all the instructions, which sometimes takes me to the task manager. How can I disable/enable a program like mdm.exe, without deinstalling it? Or should I just go find it and deinstall it?

Also, in CCleaner under the tools tab and startup you recommended, I ran across a whole folder of McAfee which includes an .exe file. Since it's not in the add/remove programs, can I just delete the whole folder including this .exe file? In CCleaner it has the word uninstall in the description line of the entry, but when I looked for it in Windows Explorer, it's just an .exe file with nothin about what it does. If it's an uninstaller, should I run it? In CCleaner tools startup it's listed as:
C:\Program Files\McAfee\SpamKiller\MSKDetct.exe /uninstall

Thanks y'all.
Attlis

 

Hi Tim,
Thanks for your post. I tried this and it was already set as deactivated, but it still appears in the Task Manager. Is it something that can be deleted?

 

Dell (and other OEM) tuning is a bit of an art. I tried to indicate this in my previous post.

Remember that the software people pay to have their software there, so they make it akward to remove. They put hooks in the registry and some even put in rootkits.

All this means that removal is often a multistage process and a wrong step can leave fragments as you have found out. You cannot simply delete things.

First of all the best approach is to use the softwares' own removal apparatus. Sometimes you don't need to remove, just turn it off or prevent is starting with Windows so you can call it agin if you later want it. You may even have to re-install it to use the removal facility!

Since you are (I believe) interested in tuning, not removal per se, use the Microsoft System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG) to identify problems, without irrevesible action first. Then remove or stop the problems.

I have also found that after a period of use many computers slow down because of spyware, adware, updaters, scheduled tasks and other things the user has added without fully realising the implications.

The 'Nuclear Option' does not work in tuning nor is there a pill for every ill.

Sorry bout dat.

Studio T

 

mdm.exe is the executable for the Machine Debug Manager service that is installed by Microsoft Office. It is used for debugging macros in Excel and Access (particularly). If you don't write programs in this applications, it can be disabled by doing the following:

1. Right-click 'My Computer'
2. Select 'Manage'
3. On the 'Computer Management' dialog, expand 'Services And Applications'
4. Select 'Services'

You should now see a list of services in the right hand pane. We want to scroll down to machine debug manager, right-click, select 'Properties', and on the dialog that appears, select 'Disabled' to stop it permanently, or 'Manual' to launch it only when needed. You can also press the 'Stop' button to end it immediately. Remember to apply your settings, and you should be good.

If it is still appearing in task manager after this, I would suspect that it is being launched in some other way. This would indicate malware to me... I'd check in the 'Startup' section of CCleaner after disabling the service to make sure it isn't appearing there, either!

 

That was very fun LOL :drool
Thanks Mada !!