Hacker News Reader

Comment by thematt | Hacker News Reader

I wasn't aware any PC manufacturers had integrity or consumer trust left, the least of which being Dell. Have you fired up a newly shipped Dell PC lately? It's a cesspool of crapware. No less than a dozen Dell Utilities, "anti-virus", media players, etc.

Don't worry though, they'd be happy to work on your "slow" computer if you purchase the support add-on.

View on HN

Dell, Lenovo, Sony have all offered options for "Clean Install of Windows 7/8" for as long as I remember. And without charge, mostly, despite the discounted pricing the manufacturer could offer by virtue of the "partnerships".

"No less than a dozen Dell utilities" - you mean, like to customize LED colors, change function key behavior?

Yeah. When I bought a Dell a couple of years back, I checked my options carefully and the only crapware it came was McAfee (which, I mean, I'd rather they ship a crap antivirus program by default than leave most customers with no malware protection at all).

I was disappointed to find my new Lenovo Ideapad similarly loaded down with crap. Spent a few hours just installing nonsense.

Pretty much all consumer PCs are that way. Do a clean OS reinstall out of the box. Unfortunately most consumer PCs don't ship with the media needed to do this.

No need for installation media when you're on Windows 8. It has a built-in reinstall/refresh function. Just go to the Start screen and type reinstall.

And I trust the reinstall program that lives on the same system with this crapware why? I want a fresh install from Microsoft-signed media, not the crapware re-installing itself while it wipes all user-data.

In the immortal words of Ellen Ripley: Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

totally agree,lol, i'd format the hardrive too just in case. 10 times if needed...

Indeed, last time I bought a name brand computer (my Lenovo Laptop) I was really disappointed to find how much crap was installed on it. I ended up formatting and re-installing :/

I have a great Dell Latitude E6320. 8G RAM, i5 Sandy Bridge and 250GB HDD. It's basically a tank with Magnesium and Aluminum. It fell from 1.6m right on its VGA connector which was pushed inside, but still works.

First thing I did was installing Ubuntu, though. Same as my desktop Dell.

PS: It's the only computer that gets WiFi while all others find it too weak of a signal. I'm online while all my friends shut their laptops.

I bought a laptop 4 years ago (Dell Studio 17) and I was actually quite impressed with the lack of bloat on it. It was pretty much just the Dell software that you'd expect, and nothing else.

4 years ago wasn't that long ago, I hope nothing has changed...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com