Which things should I disable or remove? & a few other questions.

[natsumerio]

I have Windows 7 home premium 32-bit american english version. I am in the process of disabling & (when possible) removing bloatware from Windows 7, & am looking for suggestions on other things to remove. This is a list of things (technically, keywords for hard drive searches) that I have targeted so far.

biometric

bluetooth

desktop.ini

favorites bar

fax

hibernate

indexing

libraries

mspaint (repLacing with gimp)

notepad (replacing with notepad++)

pagefile

printer

readyboot

readyboost

smartcard

stickynotes

superfetch

tabletpc

uac

volume shadow copy

wga

windows defender (repLacing with avast free antivirus)

windows photo viewer (replacing with faststone maxview)

write cache

wrp

& now, the questions.

1) I have heard some people mention that there are approximately 500MB of some unneeded drivers. Where are they?

2) Is there a tool that will search for things in the registry? I'm NOT referring to registry cleaners (I already use ccleaner & ccenhancer). Windows 7 doesn't search the registry, so I need something that will.

3) Where is the super/hidden administrator account in the hard drive? So that I can remove it, or at least access to it?

4) Does anybody know how to disable the favorites bar in IE-9-beta? Every time that I delete it, it comes right back.

Edited October 22, 2010 by natsumerio

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Windows 7 doesn't search the registry

ummm did you try regedit and the edit--->find function???

Also:

Enable the (Hidden) Administrator Account on Windows 7 or Vista Many people familiar with prior versions of Windows are curious what happened to the built-in Administrator account that was always created by default. Does this account still exist, and how can you access it?

The account is created in Windows 7 or Vista, but since it’s not enabled you can’t use it. If you are troubleshooting something that needs to run as administrator, you can enable it with a simple command.

Note: You really shouldn’t use this account for anything other than troubleshooting. In fact, you probably shouldn’t use it at all.

Enable Built-in Administrator Account

First you’ll need to open a command prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and choosing “Run as administrator” (or use the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut from the search box)

Now type the following command:

net user administrator /active:yes

Edited October 19, 2010 by Kelsenellenelvian

[natsumerio]

That part about the super administrator account should have read that I at least want to DENY access to it, in case hackers try to enable it for their own uses.

As for that search function in regedit, I'll have to remember that. It's too bad that microsoft didn't integrate it into the hard drive search function, but nothing that microsoft does suprises me.

[dencorso]

...but nothing that microsoft does suprises me.

Now, on one hand, you're welcome to tweak into oblivion your Win 7 Home premium instalation: it's your machine, your copy of the OS, and you've paid for both.

On the other hand, if you hate Microsoft with a passion, you'd be better served to switch to a lean, no-frills OS, like TinHat Linux.

If that's not the case, take a long breath and calm down. There's really no need to put things always so forcefully and with such angst. Bear in mind I've just read all your posts, throughout the forums, so I'm not talking about just the latest one above.

[Tripredacus]

That part about the super administrator account should have read that I at least want to DENY access to it, in case hackers try to enable it for their own uses.

If you are going to such lengths to protect your system, might as well just use BitLocker or a related technology...

[natsumerio]

Avast free antivirus & a good firewall have sufficed so far at protecting my pc from others, but why not take precautions like denying access to the hidden administrator account? As for linux, I did try linux before I got Windows 7, & I found them to be inexcusably BUGGY as hell. Kubuntu (one of several that I tried) actually allows you to easily - & accidently - delete it's MAIN interface (not sure what it's called, but it looks like Windows 7's task-bar), which I found out by accident. An OS that is designed to so easily allow THAT to happen (without any WARNING, no less) is something that I would only reccommend to an enemy.

[Tripredacus]

The Administrator account isn't hidden, it is just disabled. You can find it both in C:\Users and in Computer Management.