Vongo rant.

[AlecWest]

Just wanted to let off some steam. I recently got a new HP notebook. As a storebought fully loaded unit, and as you might guess, a number of nifty software utilities (few of which I'd use) were installed. I've just spent the better part of a day uninstalling one thing or another ... and installing my own preferred software. While I still have more software to install, my uninstalls went rather well (including removing come-on icons for AOL, etc. But then, I came to Vongo.

A typical uninstall just won't work. Vongo kept coming back ... or at least parts of it. And once, when I thought I'd licked the beast, Vongo "phoned home" and attempted to redownload and reinstall itself. Hitting the cancel button didn't work. It kept on going like the Energizer Bunny. I finally had to do a control-alt-delete and order the process to halt.

Then, I did a Google search for the phrase "Vongo removal." The first thing I saw was an HP forum full of Vongo complainers ... one of whom said he contacted HP for removal instructions. HP apparently won't give them out ... but will offer to remove it for you for $19.95.

Anyhoo, I finally got rid of it the old fashioned way. I rebooted in SAFE MODE, searched for and deleted any file or folder with the name VONGO in it, and then used regedit to delete any registry entries with the word VONGO in tow. Those two steps took me an hour all by itself. But it did work.

The word VONGO is now on my short list of unmentionable dirty words.

[BJ_M]

yea that crap was on my HP laptop also - i removed it by installing XP instead ..

this is a good utility from MS to run after cleaning crap like that up (or something like norton) -- in fact after removing any app..

You can download the Utility from the given below link:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5e1bd/msicuu2.exe

Note: Please do not click on the link. Copy and paste the complete link in the address bar of the Internet Explorer or firefox.

The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility does:

• Provide a dialog box where you can select one or more programs that were installed by Windows Installer. You select the programs on the Installed Products list in the Windows Installer CleanUp dialog box. After you make this selection, the utility removes only the Windows Installer configuration information that is related to those programs.

• Remove the files and registry settings that make up the Windows Installer configuration information for programs that you select.

[yoda313]

that's weird vongo wasn't preinstalled on my hp desktop I just recently bought.

Or if it was I had already uninstalled it without any problems.

Why would they not preload it on the desktops but do it for the laptops??? Do both of you have vista preloaded or are these still XP machines???

[BJ_M]

vista was preloaded - it still is , but i installed xp also and used vistabootpro 3.1 to redo the boot up config as well as created another partition for xp to avoid issues

[AlecWest]

BJ_M, thanks- I'll use that utility. And yes, I had Norton installed, too.

yoda313, my laptop was one of the last 4 in the store with WinXP installed ... and having WinXP installed was a priority with me. Vista would have been a deal-breaker.

[AlecWest]

BJ_M,

All traces of Vongo and Norton/Symantec were already obliterated - and everything else looked pretty copasetic.

[thecoalman]

I really wish these hardware manufacturers wouls stop cramming their crap down our throats.

I've mentioned this before but by far the biggest offender I've come across is my HP scanner, 209MB download to get the drivers..... WTF

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=298548&lang=en#

[BJ_M]

funny that the basic driver for the hp scanner you mentioned for vista and winxp64 is only 3meg

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?os=2093&softwareitem=sj-47402...48%E2%8C%A9=en

[thecoalman]

funny that the basic driver for the hp scanner you mentioned for vista and winxp64 is only 3meg

That's because they haven't had a chance to update all the crapware that comes with the 32bit version. :P

Basically the 200MB is the entire installation disc they ship with the scanner, including the obligatory copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

[BJ_M]

talk about bloated - i just checked the size of the vista install dir on this laptop and fell on the floor ......


wtf ? how could it be this large ?

[yoda313]

hey bj_m thats about what my hp desktop is. I didn't even get a vista recovery dvd with my hp. I only got the recovery section on the harddrive. It's 6.83gb.

[ViRaL1]

As long as other companies are paying them per PC to load up their crap, it'll be there. HP doesn't lose any money if you uninstall the extras or reload. I've only come across a few Vista machines so far, but the ones I have seen come with a standard Vista install disc, not sure if that's the norm.

Not to threadcrap but,

talk about bloated - i just checked the size of the vista install dir on this laptop and fell on the floor ......


wtf ? how could it be this large ?

How large is your paging file?

Is hibernation enabled?

Those 2 alone would cost you 2.5GB on a system with the 'recommended' 1GB of RAM and twice that for the 'optimal' 2GB of RAM.

[BJ_M]

the folder that is that large is only the win vista directory - the page file is separate

[ViRaL1]

Oh, ok. I gotcha. Never looked at mine, but I haven't actually installed the gold version.