Desktops forum: Poll: How do you feel about the amount of software that comes on new PCs?

Get your machine built by a custom builder, which you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one if you live anywhere near any city in America or probably the world. They're cheaper, cleaner and can be built to your own specifications and needs.

And ask them not to install any crap (some will if you don't instruct them otherwise). You might even want to install the O/S yourself, although if you're a newbie you might want them to do this for you, which most will without charge. Complications can arise and you might have to know where to find your hardware and network drivers.

(Aside: In the above I just made and corrected a typo that might have created a new, useful techie word, "nardware," meaning hardware, software, and firmware that provides your machine with some real cojones, like DDR3 RAM, internet performance boosters, overclocking software and modem configuration programs, among many others. I mean, the existing terms "hardware," "firmware" and "software" already have a certain double-entendre aspect to them, don't you think?)

If your buying a desktop PC your better off building your own machine because it A)Costs less, B)None of this useless software will be installed unless you install it, C) You wont get stuck with companies building their own custom parts so you cant upgrade it. But if you've never done it before/dont want to attempt such a task and if you cant get a friend to do it for you then you're out of luck unless you buy from small computer stores. No Futureshop, Bestbuy and Curcuit City are not small computer stores. For example near me there is www.infonec.com there used to be a more local store but they dont have the same prices. there are many stores across the country offering PC parts at great prices. In the US there is www.newegg.com . Well enjoy!

I just use the free software, everything else I need I find by looking. Does anyone really believe that the junkware makes your pc cheaper? Only the expensive companies supply it anyway.

When I reformat my harddrive, I hate the way all the junk comes back and I have to delete it again, the old days of cds was easier.

Too lazy to work out where to put all the connectors be build a pc from scratch.

regards

I purchased a notebook for my wife and it came loaded with junkwares. From in your face iTunes, Realnetworks, Symantec, Roxio, etc. And every time the machine had to be sent for repairs (total of 6,3 per laptop) it was returned with all of that crap back on the hard drive.

It's bad enough having to spend time to uninstall it, but when it hides inside the registry or the uninstall program won't work because of the infamous corrupted file (how can that be when it's a new hard drive and it was installed from the vendor's image) it takes more time than what to "reduced price" was worth.

New PCs should come with nothing installed. You get to choose the OS and all apps when you first power it up with a DVD in the drive. Then if you would rather have Linux than Windows, you can makae that choice at first boot-up and save even more on the high price of Microshaft bundled junkola.

But as long as most consumers will shell out for Dell, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba (name means something) they will continue to get preinstalled PS and applications that are useless, and have to pay higher costs (in time and energy if not cash) to have it removed.

I agree with the editor(s) and think that "shovelware" should be shoveled into the cyber waste area BEFORE the PC is shipped to you.
And yes, it is one of the reasons that I prefer to build my own. The price is higher but the experience and choice is worth it.

This message caught my attention and pressed a hot button for me. Each time I get a new laptop, or PC, I spend days deleting this stuff. Almost always run into problems, because some of it does not delete cleanly. I think the vendor should provide the basics, with a key that will allow you to go to the software partner site, investigate the software and decide to download or not. The key could only work for a limited number of software download options and expire on a given date. Everyone gets what they want and the number of potential partnerships for the mfg could be expanded.

It would be helpful and possibly more profitable for the sellers if they were to place installers on the new pc and allow the buyer to pick and choose which (if any) of the apps to install and try. After which it should be easy to remove them or purchase the full version.

I like having software packaged with a computer because I don't have the time to look for any of it.
What I would like to have is a choice of what's out there.
I think if all these software providers would agree with the computer mfg's to make their products available ala carte instead of forcing unwanted "crapware" on consumers, they would be able to "fine tune" into their markets better.
Example being as the 'ol saying goes:"One man's trash is another man's treasure".
If the products were offered as a choice when purchasing a computer, I think that most consumers would be happier with their purchase price knowing that they "got what they paid for".

For me it would be worth buying a PC with some extra software if that ment a lower price. Reason: I'm a computer technician and I have no problem with "Format c:\" and.. no matter how good the company claims thier lame software is I like having a fresh windows install with no BS.

I've had my pc since 1999, at this point it would be 8 years old (and most 8 yr old PCs are obsolete), but nothing in my computer is really that old (most of them I just bought a few months ago), even my computer case is only 4 years old. So, no maufactured PC for me.. thanks, I'll take my self-made PC over any brand.

Well my current PC came with just three bits of shovelware, Bullguard, a half decent anti Virus and spyware with real time protection, on a 100 day trial. Iuse it cos it's free for now, A full version of Nero Express (which I'll keep on using) and something taking over several gigabytes of hard disk space called XP, or is it Windows, from Microsoft? I guess I need the latter two, but I'll be ditching bullguard as soon as possible. Over in the UK, we don't really get shovelware, it's either a full version or nothing, so we're ok there. But I guess I'd go mad if I got loads of trialware pre loaded. It would be too mucg, Aaaaghhhhhhh!!!!!!!.

Yeah, something else, is that just using the plain old Windows Disk, no matter which version, even THAT still installs a bunch of crap that you don't want and then have to search all over the net trying to find those furoums on "how to make Windows run more efficient" LOL

I mean, I don't need nor will ever be using quite of a few of these strange, weird little odd programs that are supposed to be great features for me to use, so I end up just leaving most of those built into the OS programs as is and just try not to think about it too much.
Untill the every now and then time when I happen to do one of those "performance test" on my system and get reminded that I need to find a way to clear thos things out somehow?

But for sure, if you buy something like a Dell, like my neighbor lady did, she gets a "supposed" Windows XP Home Edition Disk with the thing, which in reality is, a messed around with version of XP that is Dell's own version of XP, and thus, she has no choice but to get that crapware installed when ever she needs to reinstall the OS.

Her last puter was an Acer, and it was just as bad, if not worse.

Lame.

Glad I learned how to build my own a decade ago LOL

...............md

If I was buying a car, you get the basics, anything above and beyond that are extras, and I would pay for them, if needed. Why should a computer be different? If I want anything other than the programmes to operate the system, then I should be given the choice to purchase them. I'm in full agreement with Lee and computers should come "lite". Anymore is optional at a price.

Brian Foord Mr.

You spend the first two weeks of owning a new computer cleaning the garbage out. Even the MS Office that's often loaded isn't a full version - how are you saving money by having a version you then have to buy? Just include it in the price to start with - don't pretend the computer is cheap!

I often wonder how people who really don't know computers manage when they buy a new computer. It's confusing enough for someone who does know! So here's all this stuff that this novice has NO idea what it is (because even an intermediate or advanced person doesn't always know for sure) and their system is drained before they even start. They don't know how to properly remove these programs, so their computers really aren't all they could be. Particularly laptops.

I say give us full versions from the start, of things we REALLY NEED - like MS Office and give us a separate disk to install the crapware if we want to or leave it off if we don't want it!

Yeah, but a Mac doesn't solve this issue either.
Cost farrrr more then a regular PC and you're permanatly stuck with using THEIR expensive hardware and configurations.
Besides, they put things on their's too that you don't want, though most of that is still better then the junk crammed on a new PC.
Most Mac users think that when they uninstall a program off their Mac that it's all clean, simply because the Mac OS does a better job of hiding things from the user, but that doesn't mean there aren't still leftovers on your Mac though, cuz they are.
I remember helping the School out that I was attending years back, early `90s, and we had to redo all the Macs in the class room.
What a nightmare that was.
And I like Macs as much as I like a PC too.
So I personally don't think that any computer is immune from this sort of crapware nonsense.

...........md

Ummm... I don't "enjoy" a Dell, HP or anything else like that LOL
"I" build my own, so they get built "exactly" how "I" want them to be, not like a store name brand or a Mac brand where they tell you what will be put into your system and take it or leave it.
And a Mac may have less problems, supposedly, but what no one ever mentions, is how much less software is available for them.
I work in 3D and the best 3D programs around, are ALWAYS lagging to get the Mac versions put out.
And that goes for any of the best games around too, if you're into gaming that is.
By the time a Mac user gets a game or a bit of software, the PC world is already onto the next versions.

And also, the simple fact that once you buy a Mac setup, thats pretty much where you stay, sicne you have no options to every upgrade the thing or make any changes to it and IF you did have any options at all, it's ONLY with expensive Mac componants, which are expensive, not because they are built any better then any other brand out there, but because it's a monopoly on the parts, with NO compitition to bring the prices down.
So there ya go, you're stuck paying for over priced parts.
I remember to this day when I went to buy a Mac modem and it was like $100 bucks, and this was years back for a 28.8k modem.
I looked on the PC side of the isle, and guess what, they had the EXACT same modem as was in the Mac package, on the PC version was only $65 bucks!
Soo, you pay more for the Mac name then for the proiduct.
Since it was just a modem, I decided to break the Mac rules and buy the PC modem, was the same thing anyway and it worked the same way too, plug in the fone line and there ya go!

But hey, this topic is about crapware, and for the most part, I guess a Mac does have less of it, but, then if people would rather pay a zillions more dollars, up to and well over a grand more then the equivelant on a PC just to not get stuck with crapware, then yeah, I say good for them too LOL
Orrr, they could just buy the Business versions of puter, which are still cheaper and not have to worry about crapware, orrr, just do what a lot of us in this forum do, and learn to put together your own system, it's not that hard at all, I've built sooo many over the years, there's nothing to it.

............md

Like most people on this forum, I am fairly comfortable with removing the bloatware that comes on PCs these days: mind you I hate it, and am lucky in that most of my PCs have been built for me by my brother and come beautifully clean!! However, I do look after PCs and laptops for a number of friends who are not tech-savvy and they are basically too frightened to even try removing these programmes because they don't know what they are! Naturally, the first thing I do is remove it for them, but there are a lot of people out there who don't have support and whose computers are running at a much slower rate than should be the case simply because the computer companies want to earn a few bucks!