Comments on: PC makers walk fine line with 'crapware'

Computer makers tweak their approaches to avoid alienating customers while still trying to milk third-party software's cash cow.
Images: Bogged down by bloatware?

[Heebee Jeebies]

This is why...

I have always built my own computers. Then I am in control and besides not getting a bunch of crapware I have no interest in (even if I had use for one of the programs I would never buy from a company that pays to crapware peoples new computer) I can make sure that I get top quality name brand standard components and not a bunch of cheap crap from Asia that has no names, poor support, and lousy drivers.

Robert

[gggg sssss]

DIY made in asia

So your DIY computer is made out of what? memory from Korea, drives from China, a motherboard from Taiwan, video card from Singapore what part of Asia did I miss?

[veg4life]

Buy HP from Business Division

Just bought HP computer. When I went to see what software there was - they had installed a total of 12-15 items total. No games. No crapware. Nada.

[noldrin]

The problem is drivers

I don't care what they do with the default install, I just want to reinstall a clean system. The problem some of them don't give you install disks and you can only restore off partitions. They also don't give you driver disks which limits using another copy of the OS. I'm staying away now from the big companies, especially compaq

[veg4life]

How 'bout a free Google Machine

How 'bout a free Google machine? Or $99 Google machine? Linux based, Firefox, Open Office, Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentation, Thunderbird email and lots more freeware?

Google gets $$ from you clicking on their ads.

thoughts?

[DecliningUSDollar]

No Thanks Google Man

Free Google machine - no thanks!

Dude, all we want is the GD computer that we bought from Dell, Toshiba, Sony, etc. to NOT be loaded up with crap!

[law_hog]

FORMAT C:

Reinstall the OS

Crapware gone.

[TucsonAlexAZ]

reinstall from where?

When was the last time you saw a retail PC come with an XP CD? Most only come preinstalled or if there is a CD its the OEM build with all the crapware. Of course, you could always download a version of Windows but then you run into the WGA.

[law_hog]

FORMAT C:

Reinstall the OS

Crapware gone.

[kblam]

Uninstall them! Duh!

Just uninstall all crapware! What's the friggin' outcry about?

[mike071581]

Have you ever tried?

Have you ever tried to uninstall ALL the crapware?

Once you do you'll want to reconsider your post.

[sknnyppy]

Delete crapware

I buy cheap with all the features for less. 10-20 minutes deleteing crapware is so worth the price tradeoff. My 6 year old E-machines is still churning along and I paid didly for it compared to a Mac or a larger brand PC. If your time is worth several hundred or even a thousand dollars for that 20 minutes, by all means spend it. Not me!

[jstacat]

What If new Cars were done this way??...

And find out you need to replace motor, steering, tyres, windows etc just to get reliable, safe use ... See how unreasonable it is to need to rebuid your New computer and fill up with accys, just to start using it?
Soon, Very soon we all catch on, then fix root of problem, A new replacement for MSFT shall arise :)...J Bo

[godam_registration]

Lols a fancy blinker that stops working in a month

Or expensive regenerative brakes that play an ad every time you use them. I bet consumers would love that.

Say! A business idea. jstacat you wanna start a company...

[godam_registration]

Crapware is like viruses

...no one writes Mac versions 'cuz it's a waste of time - Macs are so rare.

[mike071581]

You shouldn't have to shell out extra $

Maybe I'm mistaken but you shouldn't have to spend more $$ to get less. Think about that. Dell recently started charging $2 to remove the games from computers, $2 to remove Outlook Express, $10 to boot to the hard drive. What else are they gonna nickel and dime us for- packing tape? If I wanted this crap I'd go out and buy it. Sony said they get up to a 30% response rate on this crap. Well that means up to 70% of users DON'T want this crap! What ever happened to listening to the consumer?

I'm a system admin and recently brought 4 Dell's - it took me 6 hours to completely remove the software from just 1 computer and I couldn't even remove all the programs completely.

Have you ever clicked ?no? to the license agreements? When the computer first starts I decline all license agreements yet the programs don't uninstall. Needless to say I am now formatting and starting from scratch but you have to pay an extra $10 to get the windows CD in order to reload it. After spending a few thousand $$ on computers I shouldn't have to spend a few hours re-loading each OS.

Is it asking too much to get a clean copy of Windows without having to pay extra?

P.S. Does anyone else see the idiocy of paying extra to speak to someone speaking English for technical support?

[Llib Setag]

BLOATA!

http://www.apple.com/getamac/

Watch the "bloated" video commercial...
funny, but true.

Bloated behemoth dinosaur from Jurassic Park One in Redmond, WA.

[Seaspray0]

Skewed commercials at best

Technically, everything beyond the ability of the operating system to start and run a program is bloat. This includes internet browsers, text file readers, audio/video players, picture viewers, calculators... these are applications that are included with the operating system but are not required to make the OS work (including apple). People do not complain because they want these applications. As for what the manufacturers add... It depends on who you buy from. My recent purchase included a DVD player app and office 2003. That's it. I WANTED those additions and will not remove them even though I can. It is in no way how the commercial depicts it. I can state the same for the one about the webcam. Apple isn't the only maker who builds webcams into the laptops. I could go on but what's the point? Apple fans will still believe all those adds are 100% true.

[EvanTribley]

I'll take all the junkware

Seriously, if I can save some serious money I have no problem with them completely loading up the hard drive with a bunch of crap. Like any new computer I have gotten, the first thing I do is reformat the HDD.

[Not-a-Blogger]

Totally agree, if its cheaper then I want all the crap they can fit on it

re-partitioning makes it a moot point.

[4honor]

I reformat my computer too!

Haha, that's what I do too, just buy the computer without any software (like no MS Office or upgrade to XP Pro) to save money, then wipe the drive clean, install a better version of XP (like Pro), and you have everything clean. Too bad most regular users out there don't know how nor do they have the resources to do the same... :(

[Clues]

"Crapless" PC's still loaded with Crapware

Even if you pay the bounty to remove the classic form of crap-
ware the main crap, Windows, is still there. Is it worth forfeiting
your soul and first born signing the ULA, just to end up chained
to a copy of Vista. Vista is likely to be slow and crippled in nearly
every way except it's draconian DRM which has full reign over all
you wish to do. Vista is sort of like the ultimate retarded Bush
clone operating your life from inside your computer. That's why
the three digit IQ crowd are all stampeding for the Mac. The
faint hope that Microsoft could produce anything original and
functional has been dashed and who is stupid enough to
sacrifice your life to Windows waiting another five years to get
an overpriced non-functional version of Microsoft enslavement.
Are you smarter than that?

[Gail_C]

Crapless PC Still Loaded........

You sure have a lot of pent up anger. PC users, Republicans, Microsoft, who else? The original article didn't even mention Macs. Why does every discussion have to spiral into an us vs. them?

[comptiger5000]

Very True

True, Windows itself does count as crapware, but that's why my comp is dual booted between xp-pro and Fedora 6.

[PCCRomeo]

This is the very reason why I got a Mac...

Yea it came with Microsoft Office and iWork trials, but hey, I bought
Office anyway and all I had to do to remove iWork was drag the
folder to the trash and viola! All "crapware" gone. PC's would be
sooooo much better if you had the option of not having all the junk
installed. But by that time, you could just get a Mac for the same
price and the whole world would just be a better place!

[rapier1]

Except its not all gone

The problem is that OS X moved away from the traditional Mac file
structure and it now stores supplementary files in a growing
number of other places on your harddrive. So you may get rid of
the application but a good number of files it used might have been
left behind. There are a number of other posts regarding this
problem in this discussion.

[Not-a-Blogger]

Then instead of paying +20$ for crapless PC you paid 100-300$ more nice job

Ntxt

[PC72]

Two solutions:

(1) Buy a Mac,
(2) Buy a PC and immediately reinstall Windows from the included Windows CD. Enjoy PC - sorta.

[Not-a-Blogger]

Solution 3 build your own PC install what ever you want, save over 1 and 2

ntxt

[st.walters]

Simple Solution....

Why not just have an option for everyone that is: OS only.

Simple, straight forward. They can send you all the crapware, but the only thing on the PC is the OS. And notice I"m not saying Windows only. I mean OS only. Linux, Windows, etc.. doesn't matter. I'd even be willing to pay extra for it, since the first thing I have to do when buying a new PC for a client is format and reload it.

[Mark Greene]

How to uninstall programs on a Mac

Drag its icon to the trash. The end.


OSX allows ancillary files to be bundled with the main
executable.

That means nearly all programs are contained in a single icon.

I know I sound like a "fanboy." But dang, I can't believe the crap I
had to deal with on Windows that I can now forget about.

No reinstalls, no defragging, no viruses, no spyware, no
unistalls, no installshield, no thousands of dialogs, no "I'm a
genius, I noticed you plugged in a mouse" pop-ups, no modal
install programs, no crapware, no networking hassles, no need
for norton scans, no safemode...

... except when I boot in Windows, of course...

[Mark Greene]

Clarification

Programs sometimes place other files in the Library folder of the
user or system.

These are harmless if left (assuming they're there in the first place),
easy to identify, and just as easy to erase if you feel the urge.

[bobmarksdale]

In a nutshell

my feelings exactly... except I think you took it too easy on the winblows OS. Wow... who would have thought that a computer might just... I don't know... make sense?

[pentium4forever]

Solution: Custom build--build your own machine

I hate it when I see all these new machines from Compaq, Dell, etc all containing all this garbage. I especially hate the Yahoo toolbar too. Doing tech support, end users always have garbage installed like extra toolbars, I always do "enable third party browser extensions" in IE--I uncheck it. They always thank me for it too. It's all the un-necessary things that are just sickening. It's only logical that they pack extra goodies but well.....it can be a little bit much. Reinstall the OS as a solution? You could but that's going a little overboard in my opinion. The real solution? Build your own machine and load what you want on it!

Must have/great software for a XP or 2000 computer (all free):

Email: Mozilla Thunderbird
Browser: Mozilla Firefox
PDF: Adobe Reader (Fox reader free is a good alt.)
Zip: ZipGenius
Antivirus: AVG
Software firewall: ZoneAlarm (A NAT router doesn't block all outbound traffic normally--like traffic at layer 7 being smtp, it provides an extra layer of protection that can only help) and if ZA installed, disable the Windows firewall as it's utterly crippled only blocking incoming not outgoing traffic.
IM: Trillian
Spyware: Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware

[oxtail01]

you're SOOO SMART, dummy

Average consumers, that's most of us, have no desire nor skills to build their own system (nor should they). Computers sold at retail are consumer products, much like TVs, stereos, etc. that basically requires plugging in to an electrical outlet to work. Some of the so-called crapware offers novices a chance to actually do useful things on a computer, such as copying and ripping music, editing and printing photos, etc. before committing to spending big dollars. By the way, some will argue that you've loaded your system with half-baked crapware.

[AXG]

No crapware please

I agree with the article. Recently when I upgraded my HP laptop to free Vista from HP, along came bundled trial version of MS office 2007. It was so ridiculous that it won't even allow me to copy/paste and most of the icons did not work. What is the point in bundling such a useless trial software? The good thing is I have decided never to buy MS office 2007 because I could not figure anything out from the icons. Though it is always possible to uninstall such useless software, it leaves behind a bloated registry. I do not mind receiving trial software with a new PC but the option to install it should be with me. Any limitations in functionality should also be conveyed in advance before I install.

[flashfast]

Bah humbug!

This article shows how in denial CNet is and has been for a long
time. QUOTE: 'Now the pendulum is swinging the other way.' No,
it swung a long long time ago. We must remember that Cnet
actively encouraged spyware, bundling etc. of 3rd party
programs in its download software section. It was so bad that
my sister stopped using her PC altogether. Then my old aunt,
my niece, tmy brother, bother in law, nephew until we now all
have macs. Apple couldnt have spent billions to destroy the
windows experience as the indoifference of Cnet, ZDnet,
Download.com did. - but they were minor accomplices.

As a windows developer I became frustrated being over-
burdened with email complaints accusing my software of
destroying systems etc. It was so bad it forced me almost to my
knees, so much revenue was lost. The problemm was my users
were not able to view any media files in my programs. It took 6
months to discover the real problem was real i.e. Real Player
hijacking system mime files. That was 4 years ago when I
complained to Real in Seattle and their reply was a rude - you
are an insignificant little fish and to sue them. I reacted by
spending 2 long weeks and 12 hour days forwarding this
correspondence to every website deploying Real player, as well
as any and all forums. PBS, to their great credit, responded
almost immediately by instituting alternative media players such
as quicktime amd Windows media. My story kindled the woeful
tales of many others now aware why their programs were being
zapped out of existnce, and I'm sooooo glad Real are now a
minor playing choice. They might have made a lot of dollars by
hijacking PC's years ago, but look at them today.

I used to love my Windows machine, but the vultures fed on it
piece by piece, and it is not some recent thing nor is it anathema
to some users as this article claims - quote: 'Despite some
outcry from consumers'. SOME outcry? Yeah, right. Most didnt
even complain (who wwas there to listen?) but switched to other
friendlier systems.