Thinkpads Forum

Hi all -

Just got a W520 through the outlet to snag the old keyboard...I was surprised it came with not only all the Lenovo stuff, but Chrome (as well as IE 32, 64 bit), Evernote, Symantec VIP Access (which is turning out to be hell to remove). Haven't seen any discussion of Chrome & Evernote coming packaged & wondered if these were standard or options...possibly my outlet purchase wasn't "new"?

In the interest of keeping my SSD unclogged I'd like to remove the unnecessary, but I came across the following on the Lenovo forum re Chrome uninstall causing registry corruption (!):

"Re: Corrupted Windows 7 install on W520 need to reinstall Windows?[ Edited ] .Options
Mark as NewBookmarkSubscribeSubscribe to RSS FeedHighlightPrintEmail to a FriendReport Inappropriate Content....09-29-2012 06:25 PM - edited 09-29-2012 06:29 PM

Did you ever install Google Chrome on this system? If so, is it still installed or is it removed? There is a known issue with the uninstall of Chrome that corrupts the registry. There is a Microsoft fixit script that will restore IE to functioning state again. "

Any thoughts?

X220 is also full of this bloatware. First I removed the Symantec stuff, then the Chrome (that I consider as spyware which is hard to securely remove, especially the "updater") and last the Evernote. I haven't noticed any registry corruption but I recommend to not connect the machine to the Internet before you are absolutely sure that all Chrome components (especially the updater service running under SYSTEM account) are removed to prevent possible infection via the uncontrollable updater service.