The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    First impressions about T60 software

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by bastafidli, Feb 28, 2007.

  1. bastafidli

    bastafidli Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    We have just received quite high-end T60 with XP Pro. The primary user of this notebook will use it to basically browse the internet and write in Word. This also reflects the knowledge of that user about the computers. On the other hand I am very experience user and seasoned software architect.

    I was just shocked when I first started the notebook and went through the basic XP setup to see the amount of software poping windows and requesting user response mostly about updating themself as soon as the notebook started. It was quite overwhelming for me so I am not sure how novice users deal with this. Just from top of my head, there was popups and windows coming from XP tour, Lenovo security and fingerprint software, Windows Update, Google update, Symantec antivirus, Installshield update and I am sure I closed few without even reading them. I am sure Microsoft spent millions to improve the first experience of user one it boots XP and manufacturers then basically negate this entire effort by the software they install without integrating it to the default OS experience.

    From this stand point I have to say as a infrequent user of Ubuntu, Fedora and likes that the whole experience of system wide update managers offer much better user experience.

    What are your impressions and opinions about user experience after first booting their notebook?
     
  2. vespoli

    vespoli 402 NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    1,134
    Messages:
    3,401
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Two words: Clean install.

    :)

    I agree, Ubuntu is much less obtrusive.

    Can't blame it on the OS, but rather the manufacturer.
    Some of the Thinkvantage software is useful, but I'd rather pick my own programs.
     
  3. burningrave101

    burningrave101 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    109
    Messages:
    756
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Lenovo is about as bare bones as you're going to get in terms of Windows shipping from a major OEM manufacturer. They're paid by these software companies to install the software and so they do just that. Lenovo machines have very little in comparison to Dell or HP though. You can just uninstall the ThinkVantage tools that you don't want to use on the laptop. The Symantec AV and firewall are pretty decent so I use them on mine.

    If you want, Lenovo has a tool called ThinkVantage Base Software Admin tool that you can download off of their site and you can use it to edit the restore image that's on the hard drive so that when you reinstall Windows from that image it will only have what you want included in the base config.
     
  4. clarkent

    clarkent Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    just curious... instead of a clean install.
    Can't you just uninstall the little programs that you don't want?
    I mean, I am just speculating here as I did not receive my notebook yet, but if there is a bunch of programs I don't like,
    I am just going to do a clean uninstall of that program.

    Is there something wrong with this idea?
    let me know guys, thanks
     
  5. bastafidli

    bastafidli Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Yes, you can uninstall all those programs.

    What I was aiming to was the first impression after the boot of a new laptop. Imagine that you first boot your computer and as soon as you get passed the initial windows xp setup and you get to the desktop all the installed programs start popping up windows and requesting your attention My new updated list of the application displaying distracting stuff is:
    1. XP tour
    2. Lenovo security and fingerprint software
    3. Windows Update
    4. Google update
    5. Symantec antivirus
    6. Symantec firewall
    7. Installshield update (some preinstalled software)
    8. Java update
    9. Verizon EV-DO activation

    That is total of 9 applications that wants something from user immediately after he/she started a new computer. When my "casual user" saw this, she just handed the computer to me to deal with all of this. I would say this is 8 too many of thinks user needs to deal with.

    As far as whose responsibility it is, I believe the blaim goes both to Microsoft and to Lenovo. Microsoft for not providing software developers standard way how to integrate updating of the software to the OS and Lenovo for not realizing this is an issue for users and now working with the developers of the supplied software to integrate it with their ThinkVantage software used to update the rest of the Thinkpad.

    And as times goes I am just realizing more and more than this issue will just get worse and I will have to babysit this computer :). I don't think my casual user wants to hear that she should be aware that from time to time she "should/has to" deal with:
    1. windows update
    2. lenovo update
    3. installshield update
    ... not even mentioning other applications she wants to instal on the box that come with their own update mechanism

    I still have to say I do love the hardware side of our new T60 :)
     
  6. burningrave101

    burningrave101 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    109
    Messages:
    756
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    In this day and age people need to learn how to do simple tasks like running Windows update, regardless of how computer savvy they are. If they can't do simple tasks like this then they really have no business being on a computer outside of supervision because it's usually people like that that completely screw up a computer within a matter of minutes once they start changing things they know nothing about and browseing unsecured websites full of trojans and viruses. ThinkPads are business class notebooks mostly geared towards professionals so Lenovo expects the user to be able to do simple tasks such as these.
     
  7. bastafidli

    bastafidli Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I don't disagree about simple task. But simple task becomes tedious when you have to go to several different applications and do the same task for each.
     
  8. oodsfnsdfz

    oodsfnsdfz Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    150
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Well, you are right. Nobody thought about that before. Everybody is used to these messages. I run updates almost automatically, without thinking :)

    This is not bad idea to integrate all updates. A lot of work to be done by developers at the beginning but, but it is possible. Also lawyers would have some work to do. Imagine: somebody downloads update from Microsoft page, made some other company for their product and this update screws up your notebook... :) Microsoft would need a good defense “entrenchment” :D
     
  9. acaurora

    acaurora Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    259
    Messages:
    1,213
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    56
    When I got my T60WS almost a week ago I did also have equally as many programs bloating my computer. I essentially took out EVERYTHING except for the active HDD protection, the ThinkVantage software(including power adapter/access connections), and System Update 3. That pretty much was all that was left. Computer runs very clean and fast now ;)

    PS> Whatever software that you keep from Lenovo, be sure to check online, as I found out that most of the programs from Lenovo installed on my T60 were VERSIONS behind (aka, System Update 2 was on mine while System Update 3 was already out!). The easy way to do this is just to download System Update 3 and run it. Makes it a lot easier.