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MS Will Remove OEM 'Crapware' For $99

Posted by Unknown on from the i-thought-that-was-called-ubuntu dept.

walterbyrd writes about a program from Microsoft to clean up bloated base installs, for a price. From the article: "Microsoft even offers up numbers to show how detrimental this OEM-installed crapware is to your system. Microsoft claims that Signature systems start up 39 percent faster, go into sleep mode 23 percent faster, and resume from sleep a whopping 51 percent faster compared to their crapware-ladened counterparts. (A 'Signature' system is one without crapware). But now, Microsoft will offer customers the opportunity to give their Windows 7 PC the Signature treatment by bringing it to a Microsoft Store and paying $99, according to the Wall Street Journal."

41 of 474 comments (clear)

  1. We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by vwpau227 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm sure we are not alone, along with other computer stores in the area, we do a "wipe and reload" of the OEM Windows (XP, Vista, or 7) for $65 plus the applicable taxes, and we'll even load the latest service pack for Windows on the computer. It can make the computer run faster, but frankly I don't think it is really necessary for most new computer systems. The Acer TravelMate and Acer Veriton (business class) systems that we sell comes with very little in terms of additional OEM bundled software.

    --
    These are the good old days you'll be telling your children about. Make them worthwhile.
    1. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I did it to my Dell at home for free.

    2. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by erroneus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Steep? Not so sure about that. We're talking about a process which takes a considerable amount of time. Of course, when I do it, I pay particular attention to verious details such as reloading the applications software as well as device drivers. I'm not saying it's "hard" but it is time consuming.

      My first reaction was "Do they uninstall HP printer drivers?" I swear, I used to love HP printers. But lately I haven't seen a "driver only' install in place. It's always dozens of programs monitoring and reporting on printer things... paper, ink/toner and all that. Still not as bad as a Xerox program which consistently prevented a machine from shutting down normally, but it's kind of ridiculous.

    3. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I could do that, but then it wouldn't be as compatible with some of the crapware I do want to run.

      No, and I don't bother to reinstall Windows either. I just uninstall the Dell junk I don't want to use. There are also couple of items that are somewhat useful and already included in the (cheap) price I paid so I left those alone.

      IMO, uninstalling Windows and installing Linux is just trading one set of headaches for another. Not worth the trouble in my case, though it is for some.

    4. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ah, but what they're selling is that it's done by "trusted" Microsoft people and what you get is a Certified Microsoft Windows Enter-Buzzword-Here. You always pay more for a name brand, even if you're getting the same thing. Or in this case, the same name brand.

    5. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting

      For all the crap Sony does, they get some things right. When I bought a Sony laptop for a client, I had to make system restore DVDs (it had a SSD and the restore partition was eating up too much space). During the process, I noticed a "minimal" restore option in addition to the complete restore. I did some reading and found that it's just the OS and necessary drivers. None of the crapware that normally comes preinstalled.

      So I wiped the drive, did the minimal restore, and it was exactly as advertised. Clean system, all drivers preinstalled, no crapware. Hats off to the Sony engineer or manager who insisted on that feature.

    6. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by KDR_11k · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I got the driver package labeled "IT professionals only", that didn't include the crapware and was 1/10th the size to download.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    7. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by NiceGeek · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ah, hyperbole. "Every couple of weeks"? Since I installed Win 7 on my PC, I've been asked to authorize it exactly *once* and I've even swapped out the motherboard since the initial install.

    8. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by mysidia · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There are plenty of Microsoft Certified Professionals out there that work in a computer store

      Those certifications are skills accreditations based on passing a test. Just because the professionals doing the work carry a personal Microsoft certification, does not mean that Microsoft certifies or stands behind their work product or controls the results in any way whatsoever.

      Just because the work is done by a MCP does not mean the actual work is certified by MS; the MCP is not employed by Microsoft, so Microsoft does not certify all their work, they only accredit their ability to pass certain tests.

      Now presumably, they are certifying the work done by their stores in some way, like most businesses do.

      There are plenty of professionals who have paper Microsoft creds that are not really qualified, and could not get (or keep) a job at a M$ store doing the work.

    9. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by EdIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

      1/10th?

      My jaw dropped when I saw Dell pushing a 700+ MB printer driver. You have to look for it but you can find a 6MB driver only install instead.

      How on earth you need 700MB for a printer driver and software is beyond me..

    10. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually friend its really not, you just haven't had anyone show you the correct way to do so. before you do a wipe and reinstall you need to go to WSUS Offline and have it download any patches and service packs you need for later. In mine I have every patch and service pack from Win2K through Win 7 X64 so no problems there, just launch once a month to have it update the latest patches. If you use MS Office you can have the service packs and patches included with WSUS, same with MSE antivirus. At this point you can download the latest drivers if you wish, but I only go for the graphics and wireless usually as I've found some of the OEM drivers for sound and NICs to be more buggy than the Windows defaults.

      Next once the OS is installed you run WSUS, depending on how far behind your OS disc is from current this could take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour but since its all automated who cares. My discs have the last service packs already so only the patches after the last release are needed, about 30 minutes or so depending on the system. after that has finished and you see all the drivers are checked out you simply go to Ninite and pick any of the third party stuff you need,browser, Libre office, codecs, flash, whatever. the only third party I use that I don't get from Ninite is either Pale moon (a Firefox fork compiled for newer CPUs) or Comodo Dragon (Chromium based with some nice security features) but since I have both of those on my network drive along with WSUS no time there. Once that is installed i go to Ninite and pick Klite, flash, Hulu TV (my customers enjoy having Internet TV) LO, Foxit, and PDF Creator. I usually give them Comodo Internet Security but if you use MSE or Avast you can just skip that step or grab Avast at Ninite.

      Voila! You are talking about maybe an hour, hour and a half tops and since the majority of it is fully automated you only have to look in once in a while and see if you are ready for the next step. Since I usually have the systems on my KVM all I have to do is click over once in a while, couldn't be simpler friend. That is why I only charge $50 plus tax for the same service MSFT is wanting $100 for so I don't see why MSFT couldn't do it even quicker and cheaper than me.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    11. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by Pentium100 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      One fun thing with HP driver I experienced is this:

      I have a HP Professional Series Color 2500CM printer (quite old, but can print on A3 pages and the cartridges are very easy to refill, making the printing very cheap). The printer is old enough that Windows XP has a built-in driver for it, and it works quite well. Once I decided to download a driver from HP and try that out. It showed error messages saying that the ink cartridges and print heads have expired. As it turns out, HP has burned expiry dates to the printheads and cartridges, but the Windows XP driver does not check, which allows me to use the parts until they wear out (the yellow ink cartridge was supposed to expire in 2002 and I'm still using it).

    12. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by Iamthecheese · · Score: 4, Informative

      I looked into it once. Drivers for every nearly related printer in every language, an extra bloated install program to choose which the user probably needs, spyware, more spyware, drivers for related all-in-ones, extra bloated "user friendly" crap, useless programs supposed to be usable for things like screen capture, photo editing, scanning, photo archiving, thumbnails, and sample data.

      --
      If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    13. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by catmistake · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just a wild guess, but I'm thinking you're not their target market.

      Not quite. Microsoft isn't using surgical precision to target scattered customers hiding in the wilderness. If nothing else, Microsoft's flagship product —which is merely the latest rehash of the operating system developed by and unwittingly freely donated by Digital Equipment Corporation, i.e. NT— is a swiss army knife of desktop operating systems (and fully recognizing this is a tremendously generous characterization of it, boy do I wish that's all it were). Microsoft wants it to be everything to everyone. They want everyone to pay and repay for many many licenses of Windows.

      Now... I must digress. I had an emotional reaction to this summary that is epitomized in either some Jackie Chan meme I can't quite articulate, or an as yet unknown Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. meme. I had a similar reaction when Defender was announced. I realize that many of us work with Windows intimately, and need the hostile environment Windows creates in the sense that the unacceptable state a Windows installation inevitably degrades to puts food on the table: Windows is our work, and if it were perfect, we wouldn't have jobs.

      But it just seems anathema to me that instead of fixing the product before they sell it to us and our clients, i.e. adjusting Windows such that crapware becomes extinct, Microsoft instead turns around and recognizes that there is this new market here created by a deficit in their flawed product, and now that this market is being exploited by the enterprising individuals that support their flawed product, Microsoft can now step in and directly compete with them. If I didn't know better, and I certainly do, I'd say Microsoft's target market was moronic lemmings.

      It just occurred to me that what you meant was GP couldn't be the target market for this "product," the un-OEMing cleansing, because GP no longer uses Windows. And so I apologize to you because ... you are seriously hilarious and I missed it because I am mildly emotional about the announcement of this new "product," and well, look again at those pictures I linked to and try to figure out just what meme belongs.

      Car analogy time! Lets imagine that the vehicles coming off Ford's assembly line are immaculate, and pass any white glove test. But (allow me to invent hypothetical) evil Ford OEM distributors for some reason feel it's necessary to cover the cars in a fine dusting of filth that is quite tricky to completely get rid of... the yuk seems to multiply. Oddly, it slows the car down and kills its gas miliage while doing it. And now Ford customers have been complaining that by the time they get their new vehicle, its covered in filth and grime. Enterprising Ford dealers build car washes next to their dealerships to not only satisfy the customer as best they can, but also to make an extra buck. So... when is Ford going to start building signature car washes to compete with the Ford dealers and get into this newly recognized car washing market? While the GP is saying "screw cars! I can't take the filth they attract," I'm (please find the meme for me, I'm tired) saying "Dammit, Ford... you've been selling these filth magnets for ages... when are you going to fix your cars so they can't get dirty??!"

      Well... although my metaphor seems to weaken my own argument, because we all know that in reality, cars really do attract dirt and there's nothing anyone can do about it, operating systems are not cars and absolutely can be engineered to not allow OEM CrapWare® (and to a large extent, can be engineered to be self-secure against malware, viruses and the like).

      --
      The Admin and the Engineer
    14. Re:We do it at our store for $65 plus tax. by oyenamit · · Score: 3, Informative

      Go to hp.com and navigate to the Support and Drivers section and then to Drivers and Software section. Search for your printer product number. You would be presented with a page that lists all the available downloads for your printer. Look for the section Driver. If you are lucky (like this page), the download under this section should be in 10-30 MB range. If so, it includes just the driver and nothing else (no installer etc). You will have to manually initiate installation of your printer and point to this package when prompted for the driver files.

      In case you are not so lucky (like this page), there will be no option to download a driver only package. Instead, you will have to download the full software. Nevertheless, it should not be difficult to locate the actual driver in this package by searching for .INF files. After that, just manually initiate installation of the printer.

      I don't know how much the concept of universal drivers has caught on, but HP provides drivers which can print to a variety of different physical printer devices. So, instead of downloading a different driver each for your different printers, you just install one HP Universal Printer Driver. This driver can print to all of your printers. It reduces maintenance effort since you need to update only 1 driver. Universal drivers are especially useful in office environments.

      I am not sure where the drivers marked "IT professionals only" come from.

  2. PC Decrapifier: Free by Sarusa · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://pcdecrapifier.com/

    I tell everyone who gets a pre-installed PC to run this.

    1. Re:PC Decrapifier: Free by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 5, Funny

      I tell everyone "leave me alone, what do I look like, a tech support volunteer?"

      --
      This space available.
    2. Re:PC Decrapifier: Free by bhcompy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not that it makes a difference. The people that have crapware can't read code.

    3. Re:PC Decrapifier: Free by mozumder · · Score: 4, Funny

      I looked through that site. Didn't see anything useful there, just a bunch of linux distributions.

    4. Re:PC Decrapifier: Free by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I openly concede to being completely anti-Microsoft, and proud of it, but even I wouldn't claim that people who buy computers loaded with additional crapware can't read and understand code.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    5. Re:PC Decrapifier: Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Which is just what I expected you to do, try to qualify it by excluding those people who didn't listen to you.

      If they had, well, then they'd be enlightened and thank you. If they don't, obviously it's their fault.

      Typical. Anybody that doesn't swoon over it, they're the ones with the problem.

      And yes, as the other person said below, your advocacy is your own worst enemy.

    6. Re:PC Decrapifier: Free by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 3, Funny

      I tell everyone to simply install Ubuntu...

      Is that how you freed up your Saturday nights to catch various sci-fi marathons?

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    7. Re:PC Decrapifier: Free by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because these users can't find the blue E and think the internets are missing.

      The same users who freak out if the start menu is not there. The same users who look at Unity and go WTF ... same as Metro I may add etc.

      My exwife was one of these users and made me go back to Windows. Why? Because Ubuntu kind of closed too worked on this laptop. There was always an issue. Always a config file to try something out with a cool Compiz graphical effect. Meanwhile her slooow Vista laptop just worked when she turned it on. She viewed Windows as having supperior quality because of that.

      You can get angry at me all you want but it is her opinion. She also uses macs at work and dislikes them but tolerates them. She likes Windows. These same people who stick with XP because WIndows 7 is so radically start menu wise hate change.

      THey will freak out when they put a blu-ray disk in and it can't play, clicking on MP3s wont work, their Ipod can't sync etc. Sure you can use medibuntu repositories to add them to you and I. Does the user even know what a codec is or care that the DMCA forbids mp3 and h.264 support out of the box? No. THey will get angry and blame Ubuntu and you for installing such a piece of crap etc.

      Not to mention people do not give a damn about computers but us. Its like an appliance for them. It is illogical to buy a fridge or LCD TV and replace the LED for fun or the compressor in the fridge for tinkering. Just leave it alone and use it as a tool etc.

      If you hate MS convincing them to use a Mac is a better bet. They just work, have great fonts, aesthetically pleasing, and reliable. That is what a user wants right? Even geeks prefer Windows for desktop use. Not everyone wants an ubuntu upgrade to hose their X settings, because the Linux kernel lacks an ABI ... in 2012!!

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
  3. $99 !!!!!! by Pieroxy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh my... Is this just like going to an MS store and buying an brand new Windows 7?

    Looks like MS wants to double dip here. They force feed Windows licenses to constructors that don't know any better than to crappify it, and then you have to go to MS again to de-crappify it?

    Thieves.

    --
    Write boring code, not shiny code!
    1. Re:$99 !!!!!! by firex726 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      MS does not force anything on OEMs.

      OEMs are the ones making deals with other crapware supplies to put their SW on the computers for money.

      Dell or whoever buys the bulk license from MS, Dell then goes and gets paid to put the crapware on their computers when they are sold. I fail to see how you can fault MS for any of that.

      Don't want crapware, well MS sells a clean version of their OS, and now they are also offering a removal service.

    2. Re:$99 !!!!!! by Undead+Waffle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, MS is somewhat to blame for providing the OEMs with keys that only let you activate copies of Windows installed by their crapware-loaded discs. At least this was the case last time I tried to use a normal disc on a new HP computer (admittedly it was Win XP).

  4. I do it for free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a CD labelled "Ubuntu"

    1. Re:I do it for free... by SuricouRaven · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I used to. Pre-Unity. Now I use Xubuntu.

    2. Re:I do it for free... by Cito · · Score: 4, Funny

      PFFFT! I'm much more cooler than all of you windows/linux/mac fanbois!

      I have no operating system on my computer! only idiots would install that bloated mess.. I have no bloat! I stare at my bios screen and it RAWKS!

      black screen or bios screen... it's all ya need

    3. Re:I do it for free... by spd_rcr · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I tried that too, it also broke all my games and all my productivity.

      Linux is a great idea and has many powerful tools, but for everyone who's not a comp-sci major, the OS is just supposed to launch the programs you want, and preferably do it fast.

      A $99 'lazy tax' for everyone who doesn't want to format their hd, perform a clean install, setup their drivers, and download a ton of patches, etc...
      meh, sounds pretty fair to me.
      Those same people could have avoided all that junk installed on their pc if they'd just bought a computer assembled by an enthusiast company or a local computer shop in the first place. Those low prices at Best Buy or many online retailers are subsidized by all the crap they pre-load the systems with. Complaining about the crapware on an HP is like complaining about the ads on a "Kindle with special offers".

      --
      - tensions in our lives that are attacking our minds, unite themselves together to make our consciousness blind - op'ivy
  5. I wonder.. by Duncan+J+Murray · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder if this will be a problem for linux, if linux on the desktop really takes off. Looking at android, I guess so.

  6. Wow by gman003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And I thought it was a rip-off when an OEM offered to not install crapware for $15.

  7. Re:try $30 no tax cash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess their new motto is "We kick the crap outta crapware!"

  8. Discussed on Windows Weekly by Amadablam · · Score: 3, Informative

    Paul Thurrott discussed this on Thursday on Windows Weekly:
    http://twit.tv/show/windows-weekly/261 (jump to 21:20 and watch for about 5 minutes)
    Paul thinks there was some pretty shoddy journalism with this story.

  9. Oh, so you want the meal without piss in it? by Eightbitgnosis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's gonna cost extra, sir

  10. In related news by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    GM announced that all new cars would be sold with holes in the tires and a low fuel mileage ECM program until you purchase GM select service.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  11. Just do a fresh install by SirBitBucket · · Score: 3, Informative

    First off, I build my own machines. So they are crap free. But all you gotta do is get a real windows install disc, not the one from the OEM which usually just reinstalls all the crapware, and reinstall windows from scratch. Sure you may need a few drivers, but Windows 7 usually handles that mainly automatically. It should take our windows key from the bottom of the machine... That and never runs 32 bit OS...

  12. Surreal by dmbasso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    [I know I'm gonna be modded troll, but whatever...]

    People pay for a computer with an OS, then pay again to remove all the crap that come bundled. Yet it will still interrupt them in the middle of their presentations with annoying antivirus/upgrade/whatever messages, or keep them from using their computer for more than ten minutes when they had to restart, and the system becomes non-interactive updating itself*.

    Then these same people come and ask me: why do you use a free OS? It must be crap! [insert facepalm image here]

    [*true story, happened to my teacher during class. I guess it was deserved, for he had installed Windows in his MacBook.]

    --
    `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
  13. Order without crapware by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative

    The last time I ordered a desktop PC, it was from Central Computers, a computer chain with a clue. I ordered it without crapware, and the invoice actually said "no crapware". Very nice.

    Central Computers, though, is a local SF bay area chain, based in Silicon Valley. They do mail order, but they assume you know what you want. The order menu starts with "select AMD or Intel", and the operating system menu has "No operating system" as an option, which reduces the price by $109.95,

  14. Preaching To The Choir by westlake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I tell everyone to use a far better decrapifier. Those who have listened always thank me profusely every time the subject comes up.

    The probability that a geek will post a oh-so-cleverly disguised link to a Linux distribution as the all-purpose solution to any problem with Windows approaches 100% on any online forum ---

    but the trend line for Linux adoption remains as flat as the Kansas prairies.

    Top 5 Operating Systems From Apr 2011 to Apr 2012
    OS Platform Stats 2003-2012

    The good folks who post to Ars Technica have grown rather weary of the business --- and quite sharp with those who continue to waste their time.

  15. Makes ultraportables even more overpriced... by Kergan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At this rate, people will soon go buy MacBook Airs at Apple stores because they're cheaper than their Windows counterparts.