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Dell ControlPoint - Bloatware?
Just received a new Dell Latitude 6400 with 2GB RAM and XP Pro loaded, and noticed right off the bat that two seemingly unnecessary app's are eating up a lot of memory:
Dell.ControlPoint.exe - 38 MB
Dell.UCM.exe - 37 MB
Are either of these applications really necessary? I'm not familiar with either of the app's, but I see ControlPoint manages several modules:
Power Manager
Display and Devices (what?)
Connection Manager
Security Manager
I see several associated entries under Add/Remove Programs:
All Day Battery Life Configuration
Dell ControlPoint Connection Manager
Dell ControlPoint Security Manager
Dell ControlPoint System Manager
Dell Security Device Driver Pack
Is any of this software really necessary, or is it just bloatware? It seems to me this could all be removed, freeing up 75 megs of memory. With the possible exception of the power manager, aren't all of these utilities already built into Win XP???
I am pretty new to ControlPoint as well and still have mixed feelings. From what I can tell it is a single utility that combines the fictionally of QuickSet, WLAN Manager, Mobile Broadband Utility, Fingerprint software (I forget what that was called) and SystemSoftare. I guess its not exactly one Utility, but they make it look like one, I think the main ControlPoint and the ControlPoint Connection Manager are seperate processes. If you don't have a cellular broadband card or a fingerprint reader than you probably don't need it, but you will lose the onscreen displays and Dell's new location aware profile management. There are also some settings (Ambient Light Sensor and Backlit keyboard for example) which can be access directly from Windows using ControlPoint, otherwise you would have to go into the F2 BOIS. I hope that helps.
lat6400
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Posted October 7th, 2008 16:00