Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Dealing With "Bloatware"

One of the issues I am now going through after getting my Sony back is having to reinstall software and transfer all of my files back onto it. I have been gradually trying to migrate so I can operate on any PC off of a USB drive and the web, and while I'm not 100% there yet, this has helped expedite this process of getting me back in business.

The biggest headache has been going through and trying to remove a lot of the "bloatware" that Sony preinstalls on the machine. I still don't understand why computer manufacturers do this as it makes their machines run so much slower than they otherwise could and colors the experience of users. It looks like Walt Mossberg has been having a similar experience...

1 comment:

Thomas Van Wyk said...

Actually I'm thinking there's a pretty good reason manufacturers put crapware on their computers: they get paid to do it. I mean it's not like the customers actually like it (I've only ever heard indifference and indignation towards the practice on the part of end-users.) Ever notice that most of that trash is trial-only or functionally stripped-down?

I probably won't ever buy a computer prebuilt now that I know how much money you can save building. But if I do - and I'll probably keep buying laptops - the first thing I'll do is reformat the disk and start with a fresh Windows install sans the bloatware.

Even if you stay with the default Windows install and manually uninstall all the stuff, uninstalling doesn't always clear up your registry!