Users Want Windows 10 to Be Bloatware-Free

alphanumeric said:

One thing that annoys me with this preinstalled junk is, the first time you log in with your Live ID, all those pre-installed apps get added to your "My Apps" section of the Windows Store. Before you even get a chance to uninstall them. And stay there even if you do uninstall them. My "My Apps" section of the Windows Store is full of junk I didn't want and never used. And I will never ever use them or install them again. There is no way to clean them out of the store either. Not without creating a new account. That needs to change. It makes it a royal pain to find the ones I do use from that list.

here, here, totally agree

The few local shops that I know of in my area don't even come close to the prices of the big box stores. The best prices I have seen was at the computer shows. Sadly there haven't been any shows locally in a few years. I'd have to drive all the way to the Baltimore MD area to attend a computer show.

Maybe Medion are one of the better manufacturers regarding 'crapware' then. I have one of their laptops (using it to post this reply) and have had it for a little over a year. It came with: a load of crapware, a restore partition AND a Win 8 DVD.

Soon after receiving it, I uninstalled all the crapware I did not need. Over time the laptop became more sluggish. So I recently reinstalled Windows via the restore partition. It simply restored the machine back to factory conditions INCLUDING the crapware. I then re-reinstalled using the supplied Win 8 DVD. It installed Windows and nothing else.

As a result, my laptop is faster and leaner. So some manufacturers still do offer a Windows disk as standard. They're few and far between though.

lehnerus2000 said:

I agree with your assessment of average users. :)

I would also add that (IMO) the same thing applies with installers downloaded from the Internet.

When I first downloaded an installer, I assumed that the installation procedure was exactly the same as installing from a disc and that every item shown during the installation was a required component.

I wouldn't have classified myself as a "noob", as I had been using PCs since ~1983.

Layback Bear said:

I and many other members on this forum don't have this hassle because we build our own systems and install exactly what we choose to; but we are a small market compared to Joe, Mary and Larry. If I had to buy a complete computer I would use a computer business in my town to build me a computer to my liking. In many cases they will be in the price range of a chain store computer.

I suspect that a lot of average users don't realize that they can get custom-built PCs.

Yeah in the past computers didn't come with bloatware. When I did realize you could get a custom built system it cost twice or three times as much. I also had a bad experience because the shop didn't listen to what I said. At least, I got my money back. I like desktop but now I prefer all-one-desktop with dvd rw drive or laptops without dvr/cd drive.

Mystere said:

News flash: Users want something that costs lots of money at no cost without any obligations to help defray those costs.

What will users think of next?

Nah, they want what they want when they want it and they want to pay what they want to pay for it.

Seriously, it's the manufacturers who want us consumers to pay lots of money for a computer filled with bloat ware that they have already been paidto install on the dang thing! So, they get our money plus the advertisers' money too.

So, nope! In this case it's the other way around.

ThrashZone said:

I would personally just add another 100u.s. for another oem copy of what ever os I wanted and scrub the darn thing after a year once the warrantee is expired for the hardware

That would take for granted there was no activation key for the factory machine.
If you would be smart don't buy a machine without a obvious activation key

Thrash, the OEM key is usually embedded in your BIOS. If you have a friend who had the same exact version that's on your PC, you could borrow it and reinstall. Of course, it would have to be a retail version.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

Progress doesn't always mean what it says. Years ago you used to get a PC WITH an OS Disk, an APPLICATION INSTALL disk and a DRIVERS Disk.

Gone are those days -- today you get a dubious restore partition using proprietary software which often DOESN'T EVEN WORK. !!!

Perhaps a start would be for all PC's to come with a separate OS disk again (even if it's an OEM version) on separate media --a small USB device cost PEANUTS.

Cheers
jimbo

Jimbo, they claim the reason we no longer get those disks is to save money for the consumer. Ha!

Lemme see now . . . approximately $1.50 retail for the three DVDs (OS, Drivers, Trial Software) which can be mass produced. I'd be willing to pay an additional $10 for this media. I don't think the manufacturer gets more than about $4.00 for the bloat ware, so I think that would be fair. In the long run, they'd make money.

Wynona said:

Nah, they want what they want when they want it and they want to pay what they want to pay for it.

That's nonsensical. Nobody wants to pay anything for anything. So if you leave the price up to the users, everything will be free. And of course if you leave the "what they want" up the users, everyone will have 1000 room mansions on miles of property, with no property tax, and they want it now.

The problem with "The customer is always right" is that the customer is so infrequently right.

Wynona said:

Seriously, it's the manufacturers who want us consumers to pay lots of money for a computer filled with bloat ware that they have already been paidto install on the dang thing! So, they get our money plus the advertisers' money too.

That's not how the market works. Margins are razor think in the computer market. The only way to make more money is to sell more volume. The only way to sell more volume is to find ways to shave the price lower than your competitor. So it's just not in their interest to get paid by crapware vendors and NOT lower the price... why build bad will from your customer if it's not going to actually gain you more sales?

Things work in volume in the PC business... if you sell 1000 unites it costs $x per unit but if you sell 10,000 units it costs $x - y% volume discount from your hardware vendors, so you gain much more by lowering your cost than you do by raising your margin.