i know it has to be here, i did search.. what can i delete?

[rrgane]

i am a not only a newbie to my new (used) T40, but to laptops in general. i got a 2373 75u, purchased the recovery disks, and now am all good to go.. except..

there is a ton of crap installed! on a desktop i would know what i can safely add/REMOVE (most everything), but with a laptop there are battery monitors, wireless utilities, etc etc. that i have been blissfully ignorant of until now..

Could anyone tell me how important the following are.. i can sus out the rest

Access IBM Message Center ---- what does it do?/important?
Access IBM Tools ---- what does it do?/important?
Agere Systems AC'97 modem ---- utility? or drivers?
ATI Uninstall Utility ---- uninstall my uninstall utility? hrrm that has some metaphysical implications that hurt my brain
ATI HydraVision ---- Underwater Viewing Utility? seriously any ideas? Important?
IBM DLA ---- DLA? could be less cryptic? Digital Laughing [censored]? Don't Lay About? Did Lengthen Anotomy?
Lenovo Battery Program ---- i have one in quick launch, and one in systray which one is this?
SoundMax ---- utility? drivers?
Support.com Software ---- what does it do?/important?
ThinkPad Power Management ---- Different from Lenovo Battery Program?
ThinkPad UltraNav ---- WHAT IS THIS?
ThinkVantage Access Connections ---- again, WHAT IS THIS?
ThinkVantage System Update ---- Well, whatever it is.. here's the update!


Thanks for indulging me

[jdhurst]

The only two things on that list that do nothing useful is Message Center and Support.com and you can uninstall them. Message Center works, but is not useful in my opinion. Support.com is old and the last time I tried no longer connects. All such software is being superceded (for better or for worse) by System Update.

The rest of it is all useful and half of it is vital. You should have Access IBM as a shortcut on your desktop. Start there and read up on all but the above two and see what they do.

... JDH

[richk]

I am usually pretty quick to delete unnecessary junk and I agree that the only things to remove are support.com and message center

[underclocker]

Those two items have to go. I don't use Access Connections, so I pull that one, too. (But I know some love it.)

[dr_st]

DLA and Hydravision can probably go too.

[jdhurst]

Those two items have to go. I don't use Access Connections, so I pull that one, too. (But I know some love it.)

I would not remove it. One may not use it initially, but given a good network card (IBM Atheros 11 a/b/g for example) with a known good version of Access Connections (4.23) on a properly built XP Pro platform works wonders. Until you need it, it can sit unused.
... JDH

[EOMtp]

Those two items have to go. I don't use Access Connections, so I pull that one, too. (But I know some love it.)

I would not remove it.

That's good advice -- keep Access Connections even if you don't think you need it right now. (Note: Once you remove it, you will have to uninstall and reinstall 3 or 4 other components, which are not obvious, before you can get it working properly.)