Kodak Crapware.

I know a lot of people have written about this previously, but I wanted to write about it in case anyone missed it.  

The Curse of the Kodak Easyshare Software.

So, when you buy a Kodak Digital Camera (in my case a CX7530), you also get a CD which insists that you MUST install it before you do anything else.  So you do.   And then suddenly your PC becomes all unresponsive, takes 15mins to boot up, and after all that, the EasyShare software is basically a pile of crap bloatware which doesn't really manage your pics all that well.

So you try something like Picasa, which kicks ass!  However, you find that you can't talk directly to the camera, because SleasyShare has taken over.  Even uninstalling doesn't help.

So how to get around it?

Well, first of all, disconnect your camera from the USB.  Then, uninstall the Kodak Software from Add/Remove Programs.

Then, head on over to http://wwwuk.kodak.com/global/en/service/downloads/private/xp_vista_98_ClearUtility.jhtml?pq-path=12361 where you will find a cleaning utility.  Run this, and it will delete any of the CrapWear left on the system.  A quick reboot, and you'll find that all of a sudden, Picasa (and Windows directly) can talk to your camera.