There is an unfortunate tendency among manufacturers of printer, scanners, PCs, and other products to add as many "extras" as they can to the installation CDs. Usually, the additional programs are relevant to the product -- they don't want to get their customers annoyed -- but sometimes, these extras can take up hard drive space, slow up your system, and generally be more of an irritant than an advantage.
For example, scanners usually come with an OCR program that lets you convert your scanned documents into editable text files. They often also come with photo editing programs, or photo organization programs, or other related software. That's all very fine -- unless you already have a photo editing program that you're happy with.
Since it's never a good idea to install software you don't need, there are several steps you should follow before installing your printer driver.
- Check the manual and the box to see what other programs are included. Decide ahead of time which you want.
- When you begin to install the driver and other software, don't automatically accept everything the program offers to install -- only install what you really want to use. (If you change your mind later, you can always go back and install the other software.)
- Watch as the installation program starts and note if it looks like anything other than the driver is being installed. If you think there might be, go to the Windows Start menu and see if any new programs have been installed.
- If there are new programs, make sure that they aren't necessary before you uninstall them. For example, it's doubtful that you'll need a photo editing program, but you don't want to accidentally uninstall an application that helps you configure your printer.
- If something is touted as a "trial version," or only works for 30 days, then you can be sure that it's promotional software and not necessary. Feel free to uninstall it.
