June 1st, 2006
New PC Slower Than the Old One? Could it Be All that Pre-installed Software?
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
A couple of stories in yesterday’s news reminded me of the issues some people see with new PCs … sometimes there is just so much junk running on it, pre-installed by the manufacturer that it seems like you’re not getting much performance improvement. Frankly, all this pre-installed software, almost all (if not all) of which I get rid of, is one of my pet peeves.
There was a story about Dell pre-installing Skype on its new laptops, as well as a News.com piece on trial software (in general) dragging down performance.
PCs are becoming increasingly cluttered with preinstalled software–in some cases the traditional trial offers for Internet service providers like AOL and EarthLink, but also newer applications like spyware-blocking tools which, somewhat ironically, inundate users with pop-up windows advertising their services.
Complaints about the “crapware,” as Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens put it, are prominent in discussion forums and blogs related to PCs. But last week’s deal between Dell and Google to install Google software on new Dell PCs shows that more and more of the real estate on the PC is for sale to application vendors, as PC vendors continue to look for new sources of revenue to boost their margins. Source: News.com
We Say: I certainly won’t say I wouldn’t buy Dell or some other vendor’s system because they pre-install software. But my preference is to start with a bare system (at least the OS, installed, with drivers, of course) and install what I want on it. If I buy a Dell, I usually take a system image, then delete all the software that I don’t want … usually just about everything, take another system image, and then install what I do want. Last time I did that it took an entire afternoon.
I could also have reformatted, but I figured it was safer to not reformat … of course, I did update the drivers. Naturally a totally clean system with just XP installed would be the fastest possible, but like I said, I played it safe.
geekybob says:
I designed images for Dell and HP/Compaq PC’s in corporate enviromnents, so I always repartition and rebuild a new PC (after capturing the OEM image, of course). I use Ghost Explorer to recover any files I may need from the image.
Exception: Media Center PCs. I leave them alone. It’s bad luck to mess with them: even updating the drivers can make them go all loopy on you.
Another exception: a 17″ widescreen HP laptop I bought two weeks ago for my stepson. This thing had so many hardware & software bells and whistles that I would have needed all day to re-create them on a fresh build. I stripped off the junk and sent it on its way… I can always whack it later!
June 1st, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Mr_Flesh says:
I usually just wipe and reinstall OS. There’s nothing on a computer I want when I pull a computer out of the box. And who knows what they’ve made the default settings.
June 1st, 2006 at 7:12 pm
John says:
I just build my own computers…..Then I get exactly what I want….
June 1st, 2006 at 9:31 pm
ed3 says:
My knee jerk reaction is also to wipe the machine and start from scratch… It’s very easy to do in a corporate environment where you have all the resources you need. But what about the home user??
Not every pre-built home system comes with the necessary media to reinstall. How many home users actually spend the extra $50 for the OS media option?? In many cases all the Dell/HP/Gateway provides is a preconfigured disk image with all the crud already installed. You end you up right where you started from.
June 2nd, 2006 at 4:56 am
John Corliss says:
The big problem with a lot of computers is that they’re still going the old “Restore Disc” original hard drive image route, which means that you can’t install your OS, drivers and software individually. Before I buy a computer, I always ask if it comes with separate discs for each of those. If not, I move on to another vendor.
Once I get the computer, the very first thing I do is to format the drive and start from scratch. That way, it’s what I want… not what the vendor wants me to have.
June 2nd, 2006 at 5:40 am