How to Set Up a New PC Without the Bloatware

A new Windows laptop is rarely slow because of its hardware. It is slow on day one because the manufacturer was paid to install a trial antivirus suite, three games, a photo application nobody asked for, and a “system assistant” that opens every time you log in.

The cleanup is worth doing before you install anything of your own, because untangling it later means working out which background process belongs to you and which came in the box.

Two rules first. Do not run a debloater script. And do not remove the manufacturer’s driver utility, which is the one piece of preinstalled software that earns its place.

Get the setup wizard right

The out-of-box setup asks several questions whose defaults are not in your favour.

• Decline the bundled Microsoft 365 trial when offered. Accepting installs the full suite and starts a clock. You can install it later if you buy it.
• Turn off the optional privacy toggles. Location, Find my device, diagnostic data, tailored experiences and advertising ID are all offered on one screen with everything on. Turn off what you do not want — tailored experiences and the advertising ID are the two that drive the suggested-app clutter later.
• Skip the “customise your device” questions about how you plan to use the PC. Answering them tells Windows which extra applications to suggest installing.
• Think about the Microsoft account. Windows 11 Home pushes hard toward one, and it does genuinely help with device recovery and licence transfer. A local account is still possible on Pro. Either is defensible; just make it a decision rather than a default.

Connect to Wi-Fi and let Windows Update run to completion before anything else, including several rounds of restarts. A new machine often sits several months behind.

Remove what came preinstalled

Settings → Apps → Installed apps. Sort by Install date so everything that arrived with the machine groups together, and work down the list.

If you are not sure what something is, search the exact name before removing it. Audio and touchpad control panels have unhelpfully generic names and removing them loses real functionality — gesture support, microphone noise suppression, fan curves.

The antivirus trial specifically

Remove it on day one. A trial that expires keeps running without updating its threat definitions, which is worse than having nothing, and it usually stands Windows Defender down for as long as it is installed.

Uninstalling through Settings frequently leaves pieces behind. Download the vendor’s own removal tool — McAfee, Norton and the rest all publish one — and run it after the standard uninstall. Then check Windows Security → Virus & threat protection and confirm Microsoft Defender has taken over again.

Defender is adequate for most people and it is already paid for.

What the manufacturer utility is actually for

Lenovo Vantage, Dell Command Update, MyASUS and HP Support Assistant are frequently labelled bloatware and lumped in with the rest. They should not be.

They are usually the only practical route to BIOS and firmware updates, and they supply chipset, storage and power-management drivers that Windows Update does not ship. On a laptop those drivers materially affect battery life and performance, as covered in why Windows 11 feels slow.

Keep the utility. Set it to check for updates rather than to start with Windows and sit in the system tray, and turn off any “offers” or marketing section inside it.

Cut what runs at login

Uninstalling removes the obvious. Startup entries are what make a clean-looking machine take two minutes to become usable.

Task Manager → Startup apps. Sort by Startup impact and disable anything rated High that you do not need the instant you log in. Updaters, cloud sync clients, game launchers and chat apps all queue up here. Disabling is reversible and does not uninstall anything.

Then check Settings → Apps → Startup, which lists some entries Task Manager does not, and Settings → Accounts → Sign-in options, where Automatically save my restartable apps quietly reopens everything you had running before a restart.

Turn off the suggestions and promotions

Windows 11 advertises in several places that are not obviously advertisements.

• Settings → Personalisation → Start → turn off Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more.
• Settings → Privacy & security → General → turn off all four toggles, including the advertising ID and the suggested content options.
• Settings → System → Notifications → scroll to the bottom and turn off Offer suggestions on how I can set up my device and Get tips and suggestions when using Windows.
• Settings → Personalisation → Taskbar → turn off Widgets if you do not use the panel. It keeps a process running that fetches news continuously.
• Settings → Personalisation → Lock screen → set it to Picture rather than Windows Spotlight, which otherwise shows promoted content and “fun facts” on the lock screen.

None of these is individually large. Together they account for most of what makes a new Windows install feel like it is trying to sell you something.

Decide about OneDrive deliberately

OneDrive is not bloatware, but its default behaviour surprises people. During setup it offers to back up your Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders, and accepting moves those folders into OneDrive rather than copying them.

That is fine if you want it and confusing if you did not realise. The common complaint is files appearing to vanish, which is usually Files On-Demand showing cloud-only placeholders, and a C: drive filling up when sync is configured the other way round. Both are covered in OneDrive filling up your C: drive.

Decide now: use it properly, or open OneDrive settings and stop the folder backup before you have thousands of files in it.

Do not run a debloater script

The scripts circulating as “Windows debloaters” go considerably further than uninstalling applications. They remove system components, disable services and edit the registry in bulk, and the usual results are a broken Windows Update, a Microsoft Store that will not open, or Windows Security reporting an error it cannot fix.

Those failures surface weeks later, with no obvious connection to the script, and the standard remedy is a reinstall. On a brand-new machine that is a poor trade for removing a few preinstalled games.

Everything genuinely worth removing can be removed through Settings, which is supported and reversible. If you want a machine with nothing on it at all, do a clean install instead — that is a supported path with a known outcome.

If you would rather start completely clean

A clean install from Microsoft’s own media gives you Windows without the manufacturer’s additions. It is the thorough option and it has a real cost.

Create recovery media first (Create a recovery drive from the Start menu, with system files included) so you can get back to the factory image if a warranty repair ever needs it. Then build a USB installer with the Media Creation Tool and install fresh.

Afterwards you must install drivers yourself from the manufacturer’s support page for your exact model number: chipset first, then graphics, then storage, networking and anything model-specific. Windows Update supplies generic versions of some of these and nothing at all for others, and on a laptop the missing ones are usually the fingerprint reader, the function keys and the power management.

Note that a handful of Microsoft Store apps reinstall themselves on first sign-in even on a clean install. Removing them takes a minute and they do not come back after that.

What you end up with

Half an hour of this work gets a new laptop to log in and be usable in well under a minute, with no trial nagging, no system tray full of things you did not install, and Defender handling security.

What it does not do is make the machine faster in any benchmark sense. Bloatware costs you startup time, memory and attention; it is not why a budget laptop struggles with twenty browser tabs. That is RAM, and no amount of uninstalling changes it.