[nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware

Ed Barnes edbarnes7 at gmail.com
Tue May 29 23:18:29 UTC 2018 

Hi Dan, is the usb flash drive an option in the boot from if you turn on the
laptop and press f12 to bring up the boot menu.
Keep in mind that the usb flash drive needs to be inserted on many laptops
to show up as an option in the f12 boot menu and you will probably need some
sighted assistance to navigat the boot menu to start the setup.
You should be able to format the ssd during the windows install if you boot
from the usb stick.
Or, if you have another notebook you could take out the drive temporarily
and use diskpart.
Good luck and hth - Ed Barnes

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dan JanJanin via
nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2018 3:11 PM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'
Cc: Dan JanJanin
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware

Hi Tom,

Your re-post of this topic couldn't have been more timely - my wife just
purchased an HP Envy this past weekend.  It came with Windows 10 Home on it,
and I want to get Windows 10 Pro on it.

The problem   is that the UEFI BIOS won't let me upgrade using the disk I
have because, as I've learned in the process, the old Windows 10 Home key is
stored somewhere in the BIOS.  I read an article online that said to create
a bootable USB flash drive of the  CD (I have an ISO from MSDN), and then
add a file called pid.txt with the Windows 10 Pro key in it to the SOURCES
folder, I could get around the BIOS issue.

That sort of worked.  I couldn't boot from the floppy but in my frustration
I clicked the setup.exe on the flash drive and it did upgrade the OS to
Windows 10 Pro.  Great, right?  Well, it let a copy of the old Windows Home
on the drive in WINDOWS.OLD folder which is taking up a lot of space on the
small SSD that is the boot drive.  Trying to delete seems to be a real
problem.  So either I need to figure out how to  fully delete WINDOWS.OLD or
how to boot from the flash drive.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tom Moore via nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2018 9:35 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Tom Moore <tommym2006 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware

In the past windows needed drivers for certain raid controllers to be able
to complete the install.
This isn't the case so much anymore, but they have left the option in so
that if this needs to be done it can.
To load drivers when needed
To load the driver on the screen where it lists the hard drives to do the
install on there is a button for loading additional drivers and all you do
is point to the folder that contains the info and sys files.

Tom


t


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson
via nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2018 11:24 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware

Tom,

Could you explain what you mean by "side load?"  I am going to check the
documentation that came with my system to see if I need to take similar
steps should I have trouble.  I have already had some issues with Windows
updates not happening but I'm not sure whom I should blame for that.
<smile>.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tom Moore via
nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2018 10:15 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Tom Moore <tommym2006 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware

Hi,
When I did my install the ssd did not show up in the installer because the
driver for the controller was not included in the standard install image.
This is why I had to side load the driver.
I have done lots of installs and this is really the only time I was in the
situation that I found myself needing to side load a controller driver.

Tom


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson
via nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2018 10:34 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware

Tom,

You have certainly grabbed my attention.  While it is perhaps not common for
a laptop to have two drives, I have a desktop with an SSD drive and a
standard hard drive and there is no partition.  I suspect this configuration
is very common.  If I create a startup DVD from this desktop, I can see that
possibly any drivers are included.  However, as was mentioned earlier, one
can also "reset" a PC effectively reinstalling Windows from files on one's
hard drive, and one could theoretically install Windows from a DVD created
by another computer as long as it is the same version.  I gather you are
saying that in some cases the SSD may not be accessible when one does a new
install without being certain you have the driver available or "side
installed".  I assumed an SSD has the software within it to emulate a hard
drive.  What is it that you found you needed to do?

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tom Moore via
nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2018 8:55 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Tom Moore <tommym2006 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware

Hi,
I wasn't trying to scare anyone.
Most machines will install right off the usb media or dvd that you make.
My machine was a special case because it has two hard drives in it and most
laptop style machines do not.

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
via nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2018 9:16 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware

Hi Chris.
I saw you said that, but it sounds very painful to me.  I really do not
enjoy messing about with the nitty-gritty of PC's.  If installing Windows is
as simple as, say, installing Jaws, or updating IOS, then I could tackle it,
but if I have to do things like "sideways installation of drivers", forget
about it.
Tracy

> I know I'm repeating myself, but when I bought my HP Envy, I just 
> installed a clean copy of Windows to remove all of HP's software and 
> the trialware that came preinstalled on my system. It didn't cost me 
> any extra. I just followed the instructions at 
> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10startfresh
>
>
> On 05/28/2018 01:22 PM, Tracy Carcione via nfbcs wrote:
>> Thanks to everyone for all the interesting suggestions.
>> It seems like not getting bloatware makes a laptop more expensive, 
>> maybe.  I suppose the bloatware sellers give a kickback?
>> I'm going to ask my boss for ideas, too, as he really knows this stuff.
>> Tracy
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michael 
>> Doise via nfbcs
>> Sent: Monday, May 28, 2018 1:19 PM
>> To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
>> Cc: Michael Doise; Nancy Coffman
>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Laptop without bloatware
>>
>> A good way to shop for Windows laptops is to look for one that says 
>> it is a Microsoft Signature edition machine. This ensures that you 
>> get the intended Windows experience without bloatware.
>>
>> Hope this helps you guys.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On May 27, 2018, at 8:23 PM, Nancy Coffman via nfbcs 
>>> <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>> Keep us posted on what you find please. I think there are a lot of 
>>> us
>> looking for one of those.
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On May 21, 2018, at 12:32 PM, Chris Nestrud via nfbcs 
>>>> <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>>> I recently bought a Lenovo P51. It was pretty much standard Windows
>>>> 10 as far as I could tell, maybe one or two Lenovo-specific apps. 
>>>> Nice keyboard including numpad, good build quality, fast, no issues.
>>>>
>>>> Chris
>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, May 21, 2018 at 01:19:10PM -0400, Tracy Carcione via nfbcs
>> wrote:
>>>>> I'd like to research laptops without any of the usual bloatware 
>>>>> loaded.
>>>>> I'm thinking all I want is the OS, and I'll add what I want, thank 
>>>>> you very much.
>>>>> Can someone suggest the right words for search for such a thing on
>> Amazon
>>>>> or Froogle?  It's easy to search for something "with" but not so 
>>>>> easy
>> for
>>>>> "without".
>>>>> Or, if someone has bought such a machine, what brand and where?
>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>> Tracy
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>
> --
> Christopher (CJ)
> Chaltain at Gmail
>
>
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