- Tuesday, 7 July 2009
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My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here - Robert Burns
PC makers rethink preloaded software
PC BOX BUILDERS are thinking of getting rid of the tradition of stuffing your new PC or laptop with trial software that you don’t really want anyway.
The reason is that some retailers, such as Best Buy, are making a small fortune removing the software and charging punters for the privilege.
According to the New York Times software companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars to PC makers like Hewlett-Packard to install their photo tools, financial programs, virus killers and other products, usually with some tie-in to a paid service or upgrade.
PC makers have come to lean on this cash as profit margins become thinner than a French catwalk model who has skipped eating for a month, fainted and fallen under a steam roller.
Circuit City and other US chains also report that users are miffed at the amount digital infomercials which are being packed onto the PC.
The Times claims that HP is listening to the complaints and is thinking of sticking all the advertising and software onto a website where punters can buy and download games, productivity software and other programs.
Cash from the site will be split in some fashion among HP, a retailer like Best Buy and the makers of the software. µ
L'Inq
New York Times
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That would be great, every HP machine is now reinstalled so I actually has a clean installation.
Best news ever!
There is just too much money to be made turning your shiny new PC into a billboard for them to walk away from the practice. Their new proposal won't be anywhere near as effective so it won't happen. The only cure is a fresh install when you get your new toy home. Which OS you load on it is your choice.
i use to buy compacs , but by the time you uninstalled "crapware" you pretty much crippled windows with all the left behind bits n pieces from uninstalling .
so when Vista home premium was out, this time i built my own without all the junkware.
have had 0 problems , even leaving my pc on over 150 hours
You mean you can now get what you want!
Thats a bloody miracle!
Oh hang on you still have to have Vista on most of their pc's, so you have to downgrade to XP or upgrade to Linux to actually use the cpu yourself.
I got a part time job at best buy as a computer tech some time back. At first i thought i would actually be working on computers. The real job was to charge people $20 for "customization" which entailed removing all of those programs and running msconfig. I thought it was the biggest ripoff on customers i had ever seen. I quit shortly after.
Although I hate the junk crap put on computers and don't feel the Geek Squad is worth the money they charge for most things, the "optimizing" price isn't that bad.

Think about it, you go to the Dr most times for him/her to say you're ok, just take an aspirin. You pay that Dr for their knowledge- just as you pay that GS rep for their knowledge. 

I'm tired of people expecting computer companies to teach them how to use the products. I'm tired of people griping because they screw up their own computers and blame it on the PC company or Microsoft.

90% of all PC problems are I/O errors- That's Idiot Operator in case you didn't know.

Don't want to pay for the optimization? Learn how to use a PC. Or at least learn how to not fall for the in-store money making tactics.
http://pcdecrapifier.com/
These bastids are cutting in to my profits! I've made a fair penny cutting out all the crap the big box makers stuff on their retail PCs. Music Match, Norton Trial this and that, Office Trials, and piles of other crap, all set to load at start up can bring a shiny new PC to it's knees. Buyers want a new computer that's faster then the previous, not slower. It is better for the customers though, hopefully what they choose to do next isn't worse.
"The Times claims that HP is listening to the complaints and is thinking of sticking all the advertising and software onto a website where punters can buy and download games, productivity software and other programs."

Don't that mean "where punters can get paid to download" this bloated adware?
I might actually be able to by an off the shelf pc now! and crazily enough I would actually be happy to pay a small price for this service - saves a fresh reinstall after unboxing it.