Bloatware (New HP Laptop)

[Mr Bean]

Took delivery today of a Pavilion Dv6 laptop today from HP and having worked with Dell, HP/Compaq, Gateway and all the other OEM big box brands out there for years it's always annoying when getting one of those computers having to spend anywhere from 15 minutes (Asus) to two hours (Dell) stripping out all the useless bloatware that OEM companies load their computers.

Yet shockingly I plug in my new HP laptop and sit down for what was a hour and ten minute or so ordeal of deleting twenty to thirty advertisment links on the desktop, thirty useless programs and turning off all the "helpful" (Read useless) programs starting up only to find... I had to whack Norton and a Label making program and that was it aside from HP's own list no links to Roxio's stores no links to other 3rd parties aside from two links to Ebay, total time to remove the bloat ware were under eighteen minutes. Frankly I was shocked I deleted less than 300 megs of crap off the computer. I've freeded up five GIGS a month or so back with a new consumer Dell.

Anyone else noticing this as a new happy trend or is this laptop specific?

[Collossus]

No Its not really a new trend although they do seem to be adding more bloatware as of late, It used to be just a few extra programs that really didn’t take a whole lot to remove. Did they give you a copy of your OS? there seems to be a trend to not give customers a copy of your OS anymore and that really ticks me off because when I bought a new laptop the first thing I would do is reformat with windows, this removed any and all bloatware easily. unfortunately if you want to get a laptop with no bloat nowadays you’ll have to pay for it (Origin, Alienware, etc). I bought an Alienware back before it was owned by Dell and the only thing extra they give is some Wallpaper and maybe the sofware to manage your lighting system.

[Edi]

If you have the sticker with the product key on it on your computer, it doesn't matter what sort of media you install the OS from, it's all legal. If someone copies you an install disk when you already have the key, just go for it. If the key is not on a label that comes with the computer, you can still glean it from the factory preinstall before nuking.

Nuke and reinstall from scratch is virtually the only way to get a clean running Windows on an OEM machine, simply because not only are there five tons of crap that start up with the computer, sixteen tons of shit that's just there taking up space even though nobody ever uses them, the drivers are all out of date by months and other various and sundry issues. Honestly, if you download the latest drivers, flash the BIOS to the newest and then nuke and reinstall from scratch, you're likely to have a far more smoothly running machine.

And as the cherry on top, the OEM preinstalled Windows is usually not standard, but some bastardized, modified and tweaked version that is supposedly "improved" but 90% of the time is just fucked up compared to a clean install.

In the following anecdote, we're talking about desktop computers, but it should serve. On paper, my own custom built computer of vintage 2006 kicks the shit out of my parents' stock HP Pavilion desktop from 2005. Seriously, memory, processor, motherboard, graphics, the works is like comparing a generic family car to a Ferrari.

In practice, what happens is that because I've over time managed to load my computer with all kinds of software that I use sometimes or rarely or that something else I have uses prefers to have around, when it comes to the simple things like web browsing, email, office apps etc that a regular person uses their computer for, their HP leaves my custom rig choking in the dust at a crawl.

Of course, it didn't used to be this way. Previously, their computer came with all the preinstalled bloatware shit on it and it was S.....L.....O.....W as frozen molasses because there was a ton of needless shit there. Then its HD decided to crap itself so I bought them a new one, asked my previous place of employment (a computer repair shop) to burn me a standard WinXP Home Edition install CD and I did a clean install of their machine.

It's been months now and almost every single time I talk to my father (who only knows how to turn the machine on, browse the web, read his email and use a text editing program), he comments on how their computer is so unbelievably fast and how he loves how easy everything is on it now, no waiting, no fuss, everything just works.

It's always been that way. When Windows Vista came out, some computers were advertised as being super fast with it and they almost didn't run. Clean install and they worked as advertised. That's one of the things that has stayed constant for years.

[Terralthra]

The shittiest thing is that even the clean OEM Windows installation process is designed with a two-stage process in mind. The only questions answered during the install proper that you may want to change at some point are about the computer's host name and the admin password, both of which are trivial to change afterward. When it reboots after that, it loads into Windows proper, and immediately goes into a routine where you can set usernames, connect to the internet, configure automatic updates/firewall, and so on.

It's almost as if (gasp) MS wants OEMs to do the first part themselves, then hand the machine to the user before the second step.

God only knows why OEMs put so much bloatware and shit on the machines. Even the people I know who don't know enough to nuke it (or get me to nuke it) don't ever use the crap. They just ignore it and install the programs they wanted anyway.

[Vendetta]

God only knows why OEMs put so much bloatware and shit on the machines. Even the people I know who don't know enough to nuke it (or get me to nuke it) don't ever use the crap. They just ignore it and install the programs they wanted anyway.

Usually they have licensing agreements with the manufacturers of the bloatware. Roxio pay HP a few cents an install to get their product on a few million desktops.

[Jawawithagun]

Same here. I recently got a dv7. Even more annoying I found the various games put on it.

On the other hand, Splashtop is nice, if you just want to quickly go on the web to look up something or post something here.

[Civil War Man]

For the most part, you aren't going to be able to avoid bloatware as a home user unless you order the individual components and build the case from scratch. Though you may have better luck if you order from a smaller manufacturer or get it through a reseller who knows what they are doing (warning: a lot of them don't), especially if the reseller has a good rapport with the manufacturer. The company I work for does a ton of business with Dell, so we know exactly who to talk to to get a Dell without bloatware.

Barring all of that, you can do a fresh install like Edi suggested, go through Add/Remove Programs, or run something that mostly automates the cleanup like PC Decrapifier.

[Zaune]

Worse yet, the new Asus I'm typing this on comes with a program called the "Super Hybrid Engine" or something that appears to control CPU clock speeds, and one of its settings overloaded the graphics card and forced me to reboot. I haven't even figured out how to kill off this stupid drop-down menu for all the shit I don't need.

Express Gate is a nice touch though, if only because it means I can let Significant Other #1's buddies check their email and Facebook unsupervised.

[phongn]

Buy business-class machines if you don't want bloatware? All that stuff serves to reduce your cost and/or increase revenue on the part of the OEM.

[Molyneux]

Buy business-class machines if you don't want bloatware? All that stuff serves to reduce your cost and/or increase revenue on the part of the OEM.

Alternately, buy your computer from an independent company (say, Doghouse Systems). Smaller user-base means that they really can't afford to piss off their customers with useless crap.