Problem is...pre-built machines never actually come with a Windows disc, hell some don't even come with restore discs, you have to make your own. So if you actually do want to wipe it and do a clean install...you have to buy Windows yourself.

Same.

I used to buy retail PCs (usually HPs) and could always do the basics like change/add memory, swap video cards, etc.  Then I got sick of it, spent a bit of time teaching myself how to spec out PCs, and now I will only ever use high quality PCs I spec out and build myself (putting PCs together is cake, it's speccing out the parts that's the trick).

In some cases you might not get a windows DVD with your ultra cheap PC - reinstalling might be a support option only.  (My dad has a problem with his retail piece of crap recently and had to pay extra to get an install DVD and had to have it sent to him).  Or they provide a modified installer that installs the crapware with no option to not install it.

I've never had a problem with disabling stuff I don't want, customizing windows, or removing components I don't want.  It's not like harddrive space is a problem these days so I don't care if windows takes up a few gigs.

 

 

Ouch.  Well, I suppose if you must buy a Dell or an HP, make sure to pick up a Windoze disk and do your own installation. Its perfectly simple, just mind numbingly boring.  But then you have peace of mind, and aren't tied to a single machine.

 

I got my mom a cheapie HP once (oddly, while you can build a quality computer much cheaper by doing it yourself, those type of places  can actually sell *crappy* computers a bit cheaper than you could assemble them for) and it was so loaded with garbage the performance was terrible.  I went through my normal Windows de-bloating/optimizing routine and I couldnt figure out what half the background services running were, above and beyond the normal windows garbage.  I looked for a reinstall disk and it turned out you could only resintall from a partition on the HDD...probably with all the same garbage on it again.  I just nuked the whole thing and loaded it up with a spare XP home I had floating around and it ran fine.

 

All the computers I've had built if I didnt do it myself  were done by smaller independant builders, and they all came with OEM OS disks.  I would recommend this route over Dell.  I reinstall OS if the machine even looks at me funny, so I can't imagine being without installation media.

I always do a clean install regardless if it's a PC I built, or one like my HP laptop.  I see no reason to pay for something as easy as doing it yourself.

As a member of technet, I've had the opportunity to read the EULAs of all Microsoft OS's (Well, all their products really)

All that happens is that the company liscenses the product from Microsoft.  The main issue is, while all the Microsoft EULA states is not to install it on another pc, retail pcs use OS's as a 'pocket padding' type of thing, installing this crap and knowing full well if you try to warez/torrent it, it would be illegal.

If you have a retail pc, and a xp (of the same type), or any vista disk, put the thing in, install it (make sure it matches), and just enter the passcode for the OS.

Here's the thing.  Putting bloatware on your pc is not a contract or an EULA.  Why?  Because you pay to take it off.

Hum... No edit.

If they were under contract they wouldn't be allowed to remove the bloatware.  It's just a way to get money from idiots.

I should confess that I haven't bought either of my last two PCs. The last one I bought was the first off-the-shelf box I'd bought in quite a while and the first time I learned it was even possible to sell a PC without install media for the OS.

I liked the lazy idea that commodity PCs might have meant saving me some of the time it used to take to get a new box nicely configured. I should have known better.

But the main reason I posted this and linked the article was that I was interested in responses from other, more "pro," folks in IT-land and whether y'all think we might actually be seeing a *positive* aspect of commodity PCs, namely the mass user base getting knowledgeable enough to properly scoff the ad-fest that so many "new PC experiences" seem to be these days.

Could we actually expect to see most new PCs in big-box stores come with just an OS (and maybe the OEM's idea of a PC health and support package)?

And I want my freakin' edit button back.

I find that the edit button usually appears if you switch over to another SD site real quick.

 

 

For those who want to get rid of bloatware on Propriety machines (dunno why anybody 'd wanna buy one), head over to Majorgeeks WWW Link and get Decrapifier.

Here is some info from the developer....

"The PC Decrapifier will uninstall many of the common trialware and annoyances found on many of the PCs from big name OEMs. Below is the current list of software and items that the PC Decrapifier can detect and remove. You get to see the list of items it detects and then choose what will be removed automatically.

The user can select exactly what is uninstalled from the list below

QuickBooks Trial
NetZero Installers
Earthlink Setup Files
Corel Photo Album 6
Tiscali Internet
Wanadoo Europe Installer
Get High Speed Internet!
Internet Service Offers Launcher
Dell Search Assistant
Norton Ghost 10.0
Norton Symantec Live Update
MS Plus Photo Story 2LE
MS Plus Digital Media Installer
McAffee
Norton Internet Security
Google Desktop
Google Toolbar
AOL US
AOL UK
MusicMatch Jukebox
MusicMatch Music Services
Wild Tangent Games (Dell/HP Game Console)
Norton AntiVirus 2005
Norton Security Center
Norton AntiSpam
PC-cillin Internet Security 12
Corel Snapfire Plus SE
Yahoo! Music Jukebox
Vongo
Office 2003 Trial Assistant
Norton Protection Center
HP Rhapsody
ESPN Motion
Dell URL Assistant
Orange Internet
Digital Content Portal
Yahoo! Toolbar for Internet Explorer
Norton Internet Security
muvee autoProducer 5.0
AOL Install
Run Registry Entries
Desktop Icons
Startup Menu Items
Reset IE Home and Search Pages
Corel WordPerfect
Roxio RecordNow
Sonic DLA
Sonic Update Manager
Sonic RecordNow Audio
Sonic RecordNow Copy
Roxio MyDVD LE
Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
Quicken 2006
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
Microsoft Office Activation Assistant 2007
Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI
Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 14
Roxio Express Labeler"

Why pay to get crap removed when this is freeware and does exactly what they (manufacturers) charge 440 - $50 for.

Hope somebody finds this of use/help to clean up their machine.

I find things working "properly" to be much better than workarounds. Also, I use no other SD sites, so I have no shortcuts to them and am not interested in testing to find out just how quick "real quick" is.

Generally I just pop over to GalCiv2. (By replacing whatever is in forums.~~~.com) That brings me directly to where I need to be, and switching to the GalCiv2 site has worked every time for me. As for how long it takes, I suppose that depends on your computer and connection. Generally only a few seconds for me.

But yes, I'd prefer it working properly as well.

 

The OEM disk is not an install disk but a restore disk. You can certainly use it to restore the original OEM image but that of course leaves you with all the crap that you wanted to eliminate in the first place.

That's definitely a better option but that assumes you have a separate install media for the OS which most folks would have to purchase separately.

I did actually use this but there were a number of items on the machine that weren't on the listed apps. The other point in my case was that HP embeds a bios/driver auto update mechanism that is threaded throughout the system. The only way to get rid of that was surgical extraction from the registry and deletion of a multitude of startup items.

As far as why anyone would want to buy one it's most likely that they just don't know any better or are afraid of going to someone like ibuypower or newegg to build their own. In my case I was just being lazy as the last time I had purchased an OEM machine was before 95 was even out and all you needed to do was take your hard drive from the old machine and put it in the new one and you had everything just as you had on the old machine. You might have to change a video or other driver but things were far simpler. Anyway next machine I buy will definitely *not* be from an major OEM.

In the new update (the latest version of the postbox, in particular), the default behavior of the enter key seems now to insert a paragraph tag, rather than a line break. You can still do a line break via shift-enter, though.