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I am cleaning my harddisk of unneeded programs...I want your opinions pls!

Discussion in 'All other topics' started by Raynold, Nov 16, 2007.

  1. Raynold

    Raynold Member

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    Hi! My harddisk is slowly being consumed by softwares/programs installed in my pc and I am now in the process of purging those unneeded(based on my day-to-day usage) program/s but I have questions that I want answered first plus your opinion/s on whether to keep a program or not.
    1. Yahoo Mail=Can I just uninstall it since anyway I can access my Yahoo Mail by going to http://uk.yahoo.com/ in my browser...and thus re-claim 31.75MB(entry in my Add/Remove) of my HD? What will be the effect/changes, as far as accessing my email, if I uninstall Yahoo Mail?
    2. Microsoft Outlook Express=I haven't used it eversince(don't know how to use it either) plus I've read ThunderBird is a better alternative. Any opposing opinion as to why I should not uninstall it?
    3. Apple Software Update(2.1MB in my Add/Remove)=do I really need this? My OS is MS Windows XP Pro(SP2).
    4. ArcSoft PhotoImpression5=I haven't used it. Anybody who have found good use out of it?
    5. CyberLink Power2go and CyberLink PowerDVD=can't remember having used it eversince. Are these good programs I should retain or probably will be of use to me in the future?
    6. ATI Catalyst Center=this one is consuming 65.3MB of my HD. Can i just get rid of it without harming my pc?

    I hope you could help me decide what to keep and what to get rid of. I'd also appreciate suggestions as to "alternatives" to these 6 items if ever there is a better one which are worth installing. Thanks!
     
  2. GrandpaBW

    GrandpaBW Active member

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    I'd suggest getting a larger hard drive. How big is the one you have now?
     
  3. Raynold

    Raynold Member

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    120GB hd ko pero ngayun palang 32GB na ang ubos...wala pakong mga music files kasi nadale ako ng virus dati sa Limewire kaya nadala na ako mag-DL ng songs dito sa pc ko. At saka gusto ko talaga yung mga essential software lang ang matira sakin...ni wala pa nga akong games dito sa pc ko. Usually surfing lang naman ako...StumbleUpon, emails(Yahoo), ocassionally eBay, friendster, video-sharing site like Youtube etc at saka ABS-CBN for my wife.
     
  4. Raynold

    Raynold Member

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    Sorry I got confused...I thought I'm logged in to another forum. Excuse my reply in my native language. I've a 120GB HD but as of now I've already used-up 32GB. I do mainly browsing interesting sites(StumbleUpon), emails(Yahoo), ocassionally eBay, Friendster, video-sharing sites like Youtube, Dailymotion & Stage6 etc...and for my wife watching streamed soap opera videos. I don't have music/game files yet in my pc...I've stopped downloading them from P2P(Limewire) since I got hit by a virus about 6mos ago. Aside from reclaiming valuable bytes from my HD I've read also that having lots of unnecessary programs installed will hamper the performance of a pc...that's why I plan to purge my pc.
     
  5. Pop_Smith

    Pop_Smith Regular member

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    I would go through and delete anything that you haven't used in >6 months (or >3 months depending on how often you are on your computer) via Add/Remove programs.

    It has a "last used on" date that I find helpful when looking to clean out my hard drive.

    On your programs listed in your 1st post, You can uninstall Yahoo! Mail. Doing so won't effect your ability to get to your mail online.

    You can get rid of "Cyberlink Power2Go". Its a burning application and if you don't burn music or movies etc. then there is no real need for this software.

    CyberLink PowerDVD is software that lets you watch DVDs and other media. If this software is taking up more then 27MB I would recommend un-installing it and getting VLC player instead. You can download VLC here:

    http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_players/vlc.cfm

    ATI Catalyst Center is a suite for your graphics card. However, in your case you probably only need the display driver.

    I am not sure what graphics card you have, so I would suggest you go here and pick the appropriate one out for your computer:

    http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

    Once you select the appropriate graphics card for your PC it will pull up a page that lets you either download the Catalyst Software Suite or the Display Driver. Just download the display driver and install it, this will save you some room over the suite.

    Be sure to uninstall the Catalyst Center before you install the Display driver.

    Peace
     
  6. Raynold

    Raynold Member

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    Thanks for your informative reply Pop Smith! I've got more questions here:
    1. Why is it when I looked into my Add/Remove I can't believe the "dates last used" like AVG Antivirus(July 30 '07), CCleaner(Jan 21 '07), and Windows Internet Explorer(Dec 9 '06)...those dates are certainly wrong. I use AVG & CCleaner daily and IE intermittently. Is there a way to correct the "last used dates"?
    2. I have Windows Messenger in Start>All Programs and I'm planning to get rid of it(I'm using Yahoo Messenger anyway) but there's no uninstaller(or I don't know where to look) and there's no entry about it in my Add/Remove. Isn't it that Windows Messenger is not very popular and can I just remove it and how?
    3. Can I remove MSN? It has an entry in my Add/Remove...I've never used it...don't know what it's used for. It has the 3 subfolders(MSN CoreFiles, MSNIA, MsnInstaller)...25.3MB total.
    4. You didn't comment yet on MS Outlook Express, Apple Software Update, and ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5...I'm eyeing these 3 also for deletion.

    Thanks again!! And btw, my graphics card is Radeon X1300 Series.
     
  7. Pop_Smith

    Pop_Smith Regular member

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    Your welcome Raynold, sorry I forgot to comment on a few things, I was running a little short on time yesterday. :p

    Now that you bring the "Last used dates" up I am not sure why its doing that.

    I believe Windows Messenger is just an icon, I am not sure how you can remove it.

    You can remove MSN if you are not using it.

    Outlook Express can be removed but its really hard and I wouldn't recommend it.

    Apple Software Update lets you see updates for things such as iPod software and Quicktime. You can safely remove this.

    ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5 is a photo editing program so if you don't play with pictures on your computer then you can remove this as well. Here is the website for that product:

    http://www.arcsoft.com/products/photoimpression/

    EDITED by Pop_Smith: Also here are the drivers for an Radeon X1300 on Windows Media Center Edition:
    https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/gamesite/7-10_xp32_dd_53250.exe
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2007
  8. Raynold

    Raynold Member

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    Thanks Pop Smith for your informative and reassuring replies...I will now have the courage to permanently delete those unnecessary programs I have in my pc and hopefully reclaim valuable bytes from my harddisk. Again, thanks!
     

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