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Let’s set the scene, your old XP machine that you have been running for the last 4-5 years has gotten old and it is now time to upgrade. You have saved up and now you decide to purchase brand new shiny Windows 7 PC. You wisely decided to skip the whole Vista episode and you are looking forward to a speedier machine to work with.

You take your brand new machine out of the box and boot it up with a smile on your face like it is Christmas and what the... What is all this? Your brand new PC has been filled up with software that you did not ask for slowing down that dual core processor that promised to speed your PC up.

Welcome to the world of bloatware! Essentially what happens is these third party software companies pay computer manufacturers to preload their PC’s with software which actually make your PC a bit cheaper than what it would be in the first place. So even though this software you did not ask for slows down your PC, it is a blessing in disguise. All the manufacturers are guilty of this.

Some of the most common bloatware programs include McAfee and Nortons, some have said that these antivirus programs are in fact worse than viruses as they are difficult to remove and become a burden on your system, at times slowing your PC’s to such a painfully slow speed that everything seems to move slower than molasses . I always recommend installing a lightweight anti-virus rather than running one of these preloaded anti-virus programs which seem intent on slowing your PC down.

Here are three free programs you can use to remove these unwanted programs and speed your PC up.

The PC Decrapifier
This is a great free program that automates the un-installation process.

1. Simply download from http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/download
2. Choose what programs to remove. If you click on the “What it Removes” menu item on the pcdecrapifier website, it will give you a list of bloatware that you can safely remove from your system without any adverse effects.
3. Start the un-installation process. Other than clicking confirmation requests the whole process is automated which makes it much quicker than removing one by one.

Nortons Removal Tool
If you have installed Nortons the above un-installation process won’t work for you, so you will have to download a program that is specifically designed to remove Norton anti virus. You can get it from the Nortons website here http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039 although there is a list of about 8 versions of Nortons, in my experience Nortons is not very good at telling you what version of Nortons you are running, so choose one that you think sounds right and download it - it usually does the job. After you have removed Nortons it is really important to find another light weight anti-virus to protect your PC. Make sure you install something and don’t leave your PC without protection.

CCleaner
CCleaner is a great program which does four things.

It cleans up most of the temporary files on your PC freeing up space

It enables you to uninstall programs

It easily enables you to stop programs from loading on your PC from start-up