{"id":1321,"date":"2008-12-21T08:28:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-21T08:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/12\/tracking-down-and-removing-unwanted-software-bundled-with-a-new-pc.htm"},"modified":"2008-12-21T08:28:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-21T08:28:00","slug":"tracking-down-and-removing-unwanted-software-bundled-with-a-new-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/12\/tracking-down-and-removing-unwanted-software-bundled-with-a-new-pc.htm","title":{"rendered":"Tracking down and removing unwanted software bundled with a new PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard many comments over the years about the volume of crapware installed on new PCs<\/a> but had not experienced it first hand until yesterday, when I was setting up a new Dell Inspiron 1525.<\/p>\n

Even Macs come with some bundled software (e.g. trial versions of Microsoft Office and Apple iWork applications) but I was amazed by the volume of unrequired software that I needed to remove from this machine.<\/p>\n

In fact, I think that now I understand why people think Windows Vista is so bad. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not Vista at all – its all the various add-ons that the OEMs bundle that confuse the user experience with bizarre interfaces and which generally gunk up the operating system by loading additional applications into memory (Dell even has an application to present a poor imitation of the MacOS X dock to Windows Vista users).  I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind Microsoft Works (it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s useful if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a copy of Microsoft Office \u00e2\u20ac\u201c although it should also be noted that alternative office suites are available); I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even mind a 30-day trial of a security suite (even though I think that McAfee, Symantec, et al are preying on the insecurities of vulnerable consumers); but, by way of an example, this is a list of all the items that I removed from the computer I was setting up:<\/p>\n