Counterproductive Bundled Software

I was setting up a laptop for an old friend recently and part way through it occurred to me what a mess we have gotten ourselves into. Whilst the machine was fully set-up as soon as I took it out of the box I felt I should spend half an hour removing all the sub-standard software which had been included. Nowadays the bundling of software with new machines is big business for manufacturers as they are paid for each copy they include. This does not always lead to you getting a quality product so I have compiled a list of software I believe you should remove on receipt:

Avoid: Adobe Acrobat Reader Why? Acrobat Reader is widely considered to be overly boated and unstable. Superior Alternative: FoxIt Reader (www.foxitsoftware.com) represents a small, capable, stable and free alternative.

Avoid: Trial Internet Service Provider Offer Why? Not only is it unlikely to be the best deal for you but as they are obsessed with bundled installations, the free trial software you receive is liable to be the incredibly bloated, unstable and possessive AOL Online. If anyone would listen, I would actually lobby to have this application legally banned on the grounds that it's completely useless. Superior Alternative: Remove all traces of any free trial applications and instead find the provider that is best for you at a comparison website such as www.moneysupermarket.com

Avoid: Browser Toolbars Why? Unless you have specifically searched these out yourself they are unlikely to offer you features you really want while taking up space in your browser and potentially monitoring your usage habits. Superior Alternative: I personally question the need for any toolbars whatsoever but of course, if you do have a favourite, then simply install just that one and remove all others.

Avoid: Internet Explorer Why? Prone to security vulnerabilities, bloated and in most circumstances feels outdated. Superior Alternative: You won't be surprised to hear that I would recommend giving Firefox (www.mozilla.com/firefox) a spin.

Avoid: Nero Essentials Why? Although I am not averse to the full edition of Nero, which may be bloated but is certainly feature rich, I'm a little less impressed by the free, limited versions that are shipped with many PC's. Superior Alternative: For a very capable, much smaller, faster, free alternative try using CDBurnerXP (www.cdburnerxp.se).

Avoid: Bundled AntiVirus software Why?: Norton or McAfee are normally the AntiVirus suites that are bundled with new computer and are both rather beefy applications. Once your 30 day trial has expired the persistent reminders start begging you to continue your subscription (for a yearly fee of course). Superior Alternative: Rather predictably I would recommend AVG free (http://free.avg.com) for an alternative Anti-Virus application that is both small and very effective.

Avoid: Quicktime and Realplayer Why?: They load automatically once you power up you computer and to add insult to injury are both sluggish and bloated. Their only saving grace being that they allow you to play Quicktime and Realplayer files, although I have personally had to need for either of them. Superior Alternatives: It is fairly likely that at some point a website will require you to have the ability to play one of/both of these formats so please check out the substantially smaller Quicktime Alternative (http://codecguide.com/download_qt.htm) and Real Alternative (http://codecguide.com/download_real.htm).