Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

[compman25]

So is all running smoothly now??

Perfectly. The only problem was the initial reboot where it blue screened. Had I re-read your guide it would have saved me 45 minutes. I re-installed and read your guide again while doing the second install and just turned it off and back on at the end. Went to Dell's website, downloaded every x64 update, installed them and trueins drivers and it has been perfect. It was actually one of the fastest and easiest windows installs I've done in the last 10 yrs.

[Les]

Good to hear...Threw a rep at ya. Tx again.

[hearingdouble]

OK, about to go ahead - the level of bloatware is definitely unacceptable.

One small question before I begin: will the "drivers and utilities" disc reinstall the Fingerprint Suite? I suspect I'll be needing that particular piece of soft...

[Les]

No actually, the fingerprint suite will not be checked off. I got lost looking for this because of that....

However...no you know...you have to select and install it yourself from that disk...as do you have to insert the webcam disk and reinstall that.

Its all fun.

[hearingdouble]

Cool!

Do you think I ought to back up the RECOVERY partition? And I've heard that some people mention a 4th partition called DELL or something (other than OS, MediaDirect and RECOVERY) - is it okay to wipe this?

[Les]

Im not sure what system you have. I suggest to most to get something like Acronis (trialware) to back up your original complete system.

I have Vista Ultimate so that does the trick.

So, if for any reason you ever want to go back to the factory fresh image, you have disks that will do that.

Most do not. They throw the new disks in and do a clean install. I must admit...I dont know why I would ever go back to the bloatware filled, registry filled setup dell ships.

As for the clean installation, I have had tons of positive response to below. Actually, just today someone responded saying it was the easiest set of instructions he has read in 10 years.

[ky22]

So thanks so far for the instructions, but what if I want to do a clean install w/o MD3.3? Do I just pop my Vista disc in destroy all the partitions and let Vista install? After that install the drivers from the provided disc?

[Les]

Yup...thats exactly it.

[MrDeeds]

Instructions would be that much easier if people installed the ahci drivers during the vista install.

[hearingdouble]

right, all going well so far - just installing drivers.

"Quikset" isn't checked. What is it, and do I need it?