I buy computers on a regular basis for the company I work for.  I have bought Dell, Compaq, Hewlett Packard, etc.  They all have one thing in common, they are full of bloat. What is worse, the problem seems to continue to get worse, not better. Let me illustrate this for you a little better.

Back in the 1990′s this problem started to appear in store-bought computers.  Manufacturers started to include their own shells for windows, and a variety of other useless software.  The problem was mild compared to now.  Just as an example, a computer back in the day may have come with an 800 MB (that is megabyte!)  harddrive.  Very small by today’s standards.  The operating system and included software would usually consume about 200 MB, leaving the other 600 MB free for the user.

The most recent HP I just bought for our company had a 160 GB (that is gigabyte!) and it had 86 GB used before I ever turned it on.  That is 53% of the harddrive!  You might think my comparison to the old computer isn’t that bad.  But here is the real difference.  Back then, the operating system only used about 100 MB of space.  That means 50% of the pre-loaded software was the operating system.   Today, Windows XP only takes up about 1 GB of space.  That means the other 85 gigabytes was included software.  That means just over 1% of the included software is the operating system.

But wait!  It gets worse . Normally I erase the harddrives on these and load them up manually with all of the software that our company uses.  But last week my boss told me we were in a hurry and just to get a few essentially pieces of software loaded onto a computer for a new employee and that we’d swap them out in a few days when I got another one loaded up properly.  So I turned the unit on and allowed it to boot to the manufacturer’s software.  It took some time to load up and I was presented with about 15 different nagging screens asking me to register this or that, and update this and that.  I noticed the computer even appeared to be bundled with various different forms of ad-ware and browser toolbars.  I immediately went to the control panel under add/remove programs and decided to start removing things I didn’t want.  It took about 2 hours, actually (I still had an hour left before it had to be finished) and I had managed to remove just about everything that wasn’t critical.   The machine seemed to run a little better.  I thought I’d check the harddrive and see how much space I had managed to save.  Can you believe that the harddrive still showed 76 Gigabytes used.  A fresh install of XP pro usually takes less than 2 GB.  I couldn’t even figure out what was consuming all of the space.  It was ridiculous.

Needless to say, I took the next computer and booted it up to an erase disk and cleared it all off!  After the operating system was installed with all the latest patches and service packs, the amount of used harddrive space was under 2 Gigabytes, leaving the other 158 Gigabytes available for the user.

The easy answer to this problem is that you just reload the computer with its original operating system disc.  Certificate of AuthenticityUnfortunately, most manufacturers don’t give you one with your computer.  However, this is still the best way to solve the problem, so you’ll need to hunt down a CD.  Let me make one thing clear, all new computers that come with an operating system already have a license for using that operating system.  You should have a sticker on the computer somewhere that looks something like the one shown here.  That is your license.  As long as the CD you use is the same version of windows as the license, you’re product code will work to activate it and there is absolutely nothing illegal about doing this.  It also doesn’t really matter where you get the CD.  For example, if a friend of yours has the CD, use theirs.  There is one catch a lot of people don’t realize though.  You cannot use a retail copy of the CD for a computer that comes with an OEM license.  That means that if a friend of yours bought the CD at the store and it came in a cardboard box, then it is a retail version.  It will reject the product code if you try to type in the one from your OEM sticker.  Another place to check is with your computer manufacturer.  Often (but not always) if you call them on the phone you can request a Windows CD for your computer.  There is usually a charge that ranges from $20 to $50 depending on which company it is.  There is another surprising source, as well.  You can actually get one from Microsoft.  If you find the right number to call and say you have a license for Windows, but you do not have the media, often they will sell you one for under $50.   Typically this service is for people who’s computer manufacturer is out of business or can’t offer you one.  There are even places on the internet where you can download ISO images of Windows CDs.  Most of these are pirate sites, and we won’t link to any of those on here.  But you can search for them yourself.

Okay, so you have the CD.  Now what?

Well, before you go much further, you need to get on the Internet and hunt for drivers.  The best place to look is the computer manufacturer’s website.  Go to their support page for your PC.  90% of the time, they will have all the drivers you need available for download.  Make a folder on your desktop and start downloading each one.  It helps to make sub-folders called things like “video” and “audio” and save the files in there.  That way when the time comes, you know which driver does what.   Sometimes there are more than one driver for a particular device.  That means they may have shipped one computer with one device, and others with a slightly different device.  In this case, download all of them so you know you will at least have the right one in there somewhere.  Once you have them all downloaded, burn them to a CD or copy them onto a USB flash drive.

Okay, now you are ready.

Insert your windows media into the drive and reboot.  You’ll need to tell your computer that you want to boot from CD this time.  It is beyond the scope of this document to explain this because it is different on nearly every computer.  Just look for something on the screen when you first turn on your PC that says something similar to this, “PRESS F9 FOR BOOT ORDER” or “PRESS F1 FOR SETUP”  Whatever it is, press that before the BIOS finishes and begins to load windows.  If you miss it, just power the computer off and start over.   You’ll know you’ve gotten it right if you see this message, “PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD”  This message comes from the Windows CD.  So press a key and the windows installer should come up.  It is beyond the scope of this document to walk you through this process.

Once you’ve finished installing windows, you’ll want to check out the device manager.  On windows XP, you can get there by going to the control panel, clicking system, then hardware.  A perfect device manager should look like the picture below.

Device Manager

Okay, if your device manager looks like this, then count yourself lucky.  It probably has several devices listed with problems.  This is where that CD you made with drivers on it will come in handy.  Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this document to tell you how to install drivers.  They don’t all install in the same way.  Generally, try browsing to the files on the CD with windows explorer and double click them.  Many of them install automatically like this.  When you are done, hopefully your device manager will look like this.

Next thing you will want to do is updates.  That may sound boring and unnecessary, especially if your computer appears to be working fine.  But the consequences of not doing it means you may become infected with tons of spyware and viruses very easily.  Just click the windows update icon in your start menu and install every update and service pack it suggests.  You may have to restart the computer several times.  Every time it asks you to restart, just keep going back to the windows update icon and keep doing it until it says there are no more critical updates.

Final Notes.

Congratulations, your PC is free of bloat.  Unfortunately, it may also be free of a few useful pieces of software too.  Common examples are DVD movie playing software, and CD burning software.  There is no easy answer for this, other than to go out and buy some.  about 50% of the time, these programs are also down-loadable from the manufacturer’s website along with the drivers.  But for those of you that aren’t that lucky, I do have a suggestion.  Sometimes the prices of these programs are outrageous.  For example, CD burning software may cost as much as $89 retail.  But, if you check on ebay you can often find these programs for sale for under $10.  Also it is worth mentioning that if your computer came bundled with a program, you are licensed to use that program on the computer.  If you know somebody who has the install CD for that same software, it is not considered piracy to use their copy.  Just don’t use their serial number.

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UAC is designed to make your system more secure.  You should not disable UAC if you are not a fairly technically savvy user.

With that said, let’s get rid of this annoying thing once and for all. Probably the quickest way to disable UAC is from the command line.

To Disable UAC from the Command line:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v
EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

To Enable UAC from the Command line:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v
EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

After enabling or disabling UAC from the command line you will need to reboot for the change to take effect.  It’s really that simple!

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As I am sure the comments below will fill up with hate, I must warn you that disabling UAC makes your computer less secure.  Don’t do this if you are newbie or less technical computer user.  UAC is there to protect you.

Disable UAC the Easy Way on Windows Vista

Navigate to the Control Panel (Click Start –> click Control Panel), and type in “UAC” without quotes into the search box. You’ll see a link for “Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off”:

Uncheck the box for “Use User Account Control (UAC)”, and then click on the OK button.

Reboot your computer.  It’s really that simple!

Disable UAC the Easy Way on Windows 7

In Windows 7, you can navigate to the UAC settings in the Control Panel and drag the slider down all the way to the bottom (Click Start –> Click Control Panel –> Click User Accounts –> Click Change User Account Control settings).

That’s all there is to it!

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Many will not like this fix as it does make your system somewhat less secure.  We think it’s worth the risk, but might not be appropriate for inexperienced users.

Disable UAC Prompts for Administrators on Windows 7 or Vista

Note: See below for a registry fix for Windows Vista Home.

In order to disable UAC prompts for administrators you need to open the Local Security Policy for your computer.  To do this click start and type secpol.msc into the Start/Search box (Click Start –> enter secpol.msc in the search box and press enter).  Navigate to Local Policies –> Security Options.

In the list, locate: “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode” and double-click on it.

Change the setting to “Elevate without prompting”.  It’s really that simple!

Disable UAC Prompts for Administrators on Home versions of 7 or Vista

Windows 7 Home and Windows Vista Home do not have the ability to use security policy options.  In order to make this change, we have to update the registry directly.  Download the attached file, unzip it, and double click TheGeekPub-DisableUACforAdministrators.reg.

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For Windows Vista Home users, you will need to open up regedit via the start menu search box (Click Start –> type regedit.exe into the start/search box and press enter).

Browse down to this registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]

Right-click in the right-hand pane and create a new 32-bit DWORD value called PromptOnSecureDesktop, setting the value to 0 (zero).

Please note that this might make your computer less secure.  We think its worth it!

It’s really that easy!

Download the Registry Fix
If your not too technically inclined or you just like the easy way out you can download, extract, and double-click on the TheGeekPub-DisableSecureDesktop.reg file to enter the information into the registry automatically. To reverse it use TheGeekPub-EnableSecureDesktop.reg file and your back to the original settings.

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Please note this article is for Windows Business or Ultimate ONLY.

• For Windows 7 see Disable UAC blackout on Windows 7
• For Windows Vista Home see Disable UAC Blackout in Windows Vista Home

In order to access the configuration window, click on start and type “security” without quotes into the start menu search box. You should see the Local Security Policy as the top result.

In the Local Security Policy window, browse down to Local Policies –> Security Options.

In the right hand pane, scroll down near the bottom until you locate the item titled “User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation”. Double-click this item to open it, then change it to disabled:

Please note that this might make your computer less secure.  We think its worth it!

That’s all there is to it!  It’s really that simple!

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A little background on UAC.  UAC stands for User Access Control is part of Microsoft’s new “feature” to keep your system more secure and less prone to malware, virus and spyware infections.  It works by prompting the user for permission anytime a system change is going to be made that requires elevating the user to administrator.

If you have a program or change you make very often (in our example regedit.exe) there’s a simple trick you can pull on Windows that allows you to run a shortcut without being prompted by UAC.  It involves scheduling a task and having that task kick off your program as administrator without UAC!  If it sounds difficult, don’t worry, it isn’t!

Create a new scheduled task

The first thing we need to do is create a new scheduled task.   Navigate to your Control Panel, open Administrative Tools and then double-click Task Scheduler (Click Start –> Click Control Panel –> Click Administrative Tools –> Click Task Scheduler).  Once on this screen click Create Task.

Give the task a short, simple name, without spaces in it. Now check the box for “Run with highest privileges”.  If you forget to check this box, none of this will work.

Click on the Actions tab, click the New button, and then browse down to the application that you are trying to start.

Close out of the dialogs by clicking the OK button. You should now see a new task in the task list.  Right-click on your new task and choose “Run”. It should launch the application.

Pretty easy right?  We’re half way there!  That’s the scheduled task portion of our exercise.  Remember the name of your scheduled task (exactly as you spelled it) for the next section.  Go ahead and close out of the scheduled task window.

Create a Shortcut to run your new scheduled task

Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose New –> Shortcut from the menu.

It turns out there is a command that will run the scheduled task, passing in the name of the task that we want used. In our example we used runregedit as the name for the task.

Enter the task name of your task in place of the runregedit in quotes.

schtasks /run /tn "runregedit"

Give your shortcut a name, and then click next to create it.

That’s it!  You’re all done!  It’s really that simple!

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Note: This article centers around the use of the Local Group Policy Editor.  The Local Group Policy Editor is not available in Home versions of Windows 7. Don’t worry, because we also include a registry fix for Windows 7 Home to accomplish the same task later in this article.

Let’s get started!

Type gpedit.msc into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter (Click Start –> type gpedit.msc into the search/run box and press enter).

Once the Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates then select Control Panel in the left Column. In the right column double-click on Prohibit access to the Control Panel.

In the next window, select Enable, click OK, then close out of Local Group Policy Editor.

After the Control Panel is disabled, click on the Start menu button.  You should no longer see control panel listed!  It’s really that simple!

If the user tries to type Control Panel into the Search/Run box in the Start menu, they will get the following error message indicating that access is restricted.

Disable Control Panel with a Registry Tweak

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, you can also use a registry fix to hide the Control Panel. This registry fix will work with all versions of Windows, including Windows 7 Home, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.  We highly recommend you make a restore point before modifying the registry.

Type regedit.exe into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter (Click Start –> in the Run/Search box type regedit.exe and press enter).

In the Registry Editor navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer.  Right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name the value NoControlPanel. Right-click on the newly created Value and click Modify.

In the Value data field change the value to “1” (the number one) then click OK. Close the Registry Editor.  You will need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

After you’ve rebooted, you should no longer see Control Panel listed in the Start menu.

If a user tries to access it using a workaround, such as by typing Control Panel into the Search box in the Start menu…

Windows will respond with the following message indicating access is restricted, just like if you were to disable it via the Group Policy Editor.

If you want to re-enable the Control Panel, go back into the Registry and change the NoControlPanel value back to “0” then reboot the computer.

This comes in handy if you have inexperienced users working on your machine and don’t want them messing with Control Panel settings, or if the computer is in a public area where some prankster might change settings on your intended users.  It’s a simple fix and works well!

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Just hold down the Shift key and right-click on the desktop…

Now choose “Open Command Window Here” from the menu. The best thing about this is that the current path is the desktop, which is convenient for manipulating files on the desktop.

You can right-click on any folder icon in the system while holding down the shift key:

Or inside any folder:

And that’s really all there is to it!

Open a Command Prompt from the Right Click Menu from TheGeekPub on Vimeo.

Simple tutorial video explaining how to open a command prompt by right clicking.

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Removing the Recycle Bin in Vista

In Windows Vista, removing the recycle bin is super simple.  Just right click the recycle bin and click delete.

Remove the Recycle Bin in Windows 7

Right-Click the desktop and choose personalize (or click Start –> Control Panel –> Personalization).  On the right hand panel choose Change Desktop icons.

Now simply remove the checkbox from Recycle Bin.  It’s really that easy!

If you want to add it back at a later date, just return to this screen and check the box.

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