Sony VAIO Bloatware

Pursuant to my earlier post about all the unnecessary crapware pre-loaded on my new Sony VAIO laptop… I found a way to get a list of all the stuff that Sony loaded this thing up with, above and beyond Windows. You just open the Sony Recovery Center, and click the option to reinstall some of your programs and drivers from the recovery disks.

Here’s the list. The entries with asterisks (*) are trialware. The bolded entries are programs that I consider useful.

  • Adobe Acrobat Professional *
  • Adobe Flash Player
  • Adobe Reader
  • AOL Software Suite *
  • Battery Checker
  • Click to DVD
  • Corel PaintShop Pro Photo IX *
  • Digital Document Shredder *
  • Diskeeper *
  • Grouper ScreenSaver
  • Image Converter
  • Instant On
  • Location Free Client
  • Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Trial *
  • Microsoft Works Bundle
  • MobiTV Icon
  • Napster with 14 day free trial *
  • Norton Internet Security 2007 with spyware protection *
  • PX Engine
  • Quickbooks Free Starter Edition *
  • Roxio Easy Media Creator
  • Setting Utility Series
  • SonicStage
  • SonicStage Mastering Studio
  • Sony Pictures Game Links
  • Sony Shared Library
  • Sony Utilities DLL
  • Sony Video Shared Library
  • Spiderman Screensaver
  • Spiderman Wallpaper
  • Spy Sweeper *
  • System Mechanic *
  • Travelocity Gadget
  • VAIO Camera Utility
  • VAIO Camera Capture Utility
  • VAIO Documentation
  • VAIO Entertainment Platform
  • VAIO Event Service
  • VAIO Help and Support
  • VAIO Media
  • VAIO Power Management
  • VAIO Survey
  • VAIO Video & Photo Utilities
  • WinDVD for VAIO
  • Wireless Switch Setting Utility
  • X1 Desktop Search *

That’s truly an awe-inspiring (or is it stomach-churning?) list. By my count, that’s 46 pieces of extra software, of which perhaps 12 are of any use to me. (Although I suppose in addition to the bolded stuff, I might need one or two of the shared libraries in order to run the Instant On and DVD stuff.)

Some of these choices just baffle me. Why, for instance, include Spy Sweeper, when Norton Internet Security’s spyware protection is already installed (not to mention Vista’s built-in Windows Defender)? Why include Microsoft Works and a trial of Microsoft Office? Why include an old version of Diskeeper that doesn’t even work properly with Windows Vista?

The answer, of course, is that someone paid Sony for it. And they’re passing the cost along to me in the time it takes to uninstall all this shit. So far I still think it’s a pretty good bargain, but not without its irritations.

Update 1/18/08: Bolded “VAIO Event Service” in the list above, as per Orlin’s comment below.