Delete bloatware or fresh Windows installation?

karnold1

Estimable
Feb 22, 2015
8
0
4,510
Hi,

I just bought my first laptop (Lenovo Flex 2 15D) since my office will now become a baby room. I have always built by desktop because it's often cheaper, got what I wanted and it didn't come installed with a bunch of bloatware that you find in manufacture computers.
My instinct and experience tells me to download a Windows 8.1, the drivers from the manufacture website and reinstall everything from scratch while re-partitioning the drive (including the recovery partition) for my needs. It normally takes me between 1-1.5 hours to format, repartition, install windows and install drivers.

I figured I would check with the forum and see if someone had a method which would get rid of all the bloatware and any hidden spyware Lenovo may have installed which could take less time than a fresh install?

Thanks,
Arnold
 

karnold1

Estimable
Feb 22, 2015
8
0
4,510
Thanks for the feedback.

Does anyone know if I'll need any of the Lenovo software for the trackpad, "dual-mode", etc...?
 
"Clean" install (especially on laptops) in many cases leads to loss of functionality because laptop OEMs don't care to put all of the drivers / software available for download. Have a backup plan if you go with clean install (make recovery media, and make sure it works).

Examine the laptop' volumes for hidden "gems" - folders with installation programs, drivers, etc. Sometimes volumes do not have drive letters assigned, so you might have to do that first.
 

karnold1

Estimable
Feb 22, 2015
8
0
4,510
I managed to backup all the hidden drive just in case. I am now trying to locate the Lenovo application which come with the laptop, especially the application which switches to the "dual-mode" (table style) which also activates a virtual keyboard.

I tried signing up to the Lenovo forum to locate these application but after clicking on the e-mail link to finish the registration it gave me this message "We're sorry, but you have been banned from using this site.". This is the first time I have ever been to the Lenovo website or owned any of their product. Not a very good start so far.

I am hoping maybe someone here may know where I could locate those application.

Thanks,
Arnold
 

giantbucket

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Nov 17, 2013
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10,710
i'd vote for trying to simply remove bloatware. i tried doing a fresh install on Win7 on my new-to-me refurb Dell laptop, and Win couldn't find drivers for most things on it's own so i had to go to the Dell site to get them. which usually brings you right back to the same stuff that was there in the first place.
 

giantbucket

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Nov 17, 2013
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yeah, i'm aware of that. it hasn't affected me (since i have a Dell) but i'd still lean ever so slightly to attempting to remove as much of it as possible rather than doing a fresh install. alternatively, do a clean install onto a separate drive so that if you get frustrated with lack of drivers access, you can revert back to the original drive and its factory OS install.
 

karnold1

Estimable
Feb 22, 2015
8
0
4,510
I am thinking of leaving the Recovery drive and the other hidden partition as is in the event I run into issues and get frustrated, I could simply reset back to factory.
 

Math Geek

Estimable
Herald
if you run a driver back-up software to grab those couple odd drivers "just in case" you should have no issues with a fresh install of windows. i ALWAYS do this on laptops to get rid of all the junk.keep the recovery partition there for now until you are sure you're good with vanilla windows and then delete that as well.

there is so much junk with prebuilt anything, that a fresh install is the only way to go. especially considering all the news lately about lenovo and the adware/malware they preinstalled.
 

giantbucket

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Nov 17, 2013
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hmm, what driver back-up software have you used that would work? i assume this would somehow extract drivers from the in-place OS and save them to a USB drive or something? i might try this on my Dell as well at least as an experiment.
 

Math Geek

Estimable
Herald
this is the one i have used in the past http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/Double-Driver.shtml

it's exactly what you think it is, will scan for all installed drivers, list them and allow you to back up all/some of them to a folder/usb drive. pointing it back to the folder will again list the drivers that are backed up and it will even restore them if you tell it to. took me about 5 minutes to play with it and get it to back up my stuff.

it's free so not like ti cost to play with it :)
 

karnold1

Estimable
Feb 22, 2015
8
0
4,510
I also use Double Driver and have never had any issues.

The only thing I am worried is that the Flex 2 table style mode won't work because Lenovo doesn't provide the required application on their website but I suspect Saturday I will go ahead regardless what information I manage to find on the topic.
 

Math Geek

Estimable
Herald
sorry but i don't know anything about that and how it works. if it is software, i'm sure you can get it somewhere. might take some searching, but i'm sure it is out there somewhere on the intertubes.......
 

karnold1

Estimable
Feb 22, 2015
8
0
4,510
The software you need is Lenovo Transition which is currently at version 2.0. The screen will still rotates, keyboard disable and you can still pull up the virtual even without the Lenovo Transition. From my understanding it's the sensor which controls it all and you can obtain the drivers on the Lenovo website.