News Dell pre-loads Google toolbar

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/02/08/dell_preloads_google_toolbar/

 

The thing I usually do in the first 10 mins is re-install all my drivers having not had a pre-built system in about 8 years.
However when I did get a dell laptop I spent the first 10 minuites removing all the bundled software.

 

First thing I did when I got my new laptop was install Opera. WHat's a toolbar again? I seem to have forgotten

 

Personally, I have never use a toolbar, and just uninstall them if they get installed.

Stu

 

its about time i backuped up and reformatted actually....damn thats one hell of a job.

but yes, i get so board of install processes and stuff and want my pc back in action and fresh faced that i do agree/click alot of stuff without paying enough attention.....usueally paying by removing some serious crap shortly after my format so i see what they mean.

 

You know, a company I sometimes do work for just bought 5 Dell 5150's and asked me to set them up and get them connected to the network.

Each PC was full of so much random junk (including an horrific AOL floating toolbar) that it took me about 4 hours just to remove all the unwanted software.

Would it be so hard for Dell to include an installer the first time you switched on the PC so that you can choose what extras you want installed? After spending £5000 on their computers, I think the company should be well within their rights to ask for the 4 wasted hours they spent on me refunded.

I can understand some of their lower end £300-£500 PC's being subsidised by bundled software/promotions but on a £1000 computer? Daylight robbery.

 

It needn't be - if you were to make an 'image' or 'ghost' of your system, right after you've installed all necessary drivers and OS updates etc.

Do that, and you could be back up and running again in less than 15 minutes every time you decide it's time for a reformat

 

Seems like a great idea, I did that last time I clean installed. But now, so much has changed it was probably a waste of time. A year's a long time in software. And hardware, come to that.

The ISP packages bundled with Windows were a big grouse of mine, in 95/98SE deselecting them in a custom Setup didn't stop them being installed AFAICR. But I bet they got a lot of n00bs onto AOL.

 

First thing I did with my laptop was remove all the rubbish when I got it, now when I rebuild it I use a standard xp pro disk.

I used to use ghost recovery disks but drivers change so quickly (especially GPU drivers) as does basic software (browsers, antivirus etc) it's not worth it and besides you're gonna spend 2 hours in windows update anyway ghost image or not.

Plus I've never kept a system clean for long enough to make a decent ghost image (I start installing non-esentials)

 

This is what I really hated about buying machines off-the-shelf, aside from them being overpriced. Which is why I really wish that whitebox notebooks would be more of an option. Yes, an optional installer would be one thing, but g'damn I hate putting up with anything being preinstalled, especially annoying crap like toolbars. Maybe I'm biased though, seeing as half the school comps have at least two different toolbars installed, and are as a result dragged down to the point of beyond unusable (as if putting XP on a P2-400MHz/128MB RAM wasn't enough)

 

Only time ive bought a prebuilt system is when I got my laptop. And the first ten minutes of that was starting to install windows xp on it. I agree with most others here, cant they have a "clean" instalation of windows xp. How ever it probable doesnt affect most of us here, as most of us build our on machines.

 

First 10 minutes? Just enough to format the drive and start a clean installation of what I want, not the crap the manufactures think I should have.

 

First ten minutes is Firefox, Thunderbird, GFX drivers and the first reboot. Then I start Windows Update and go off for a few hours

 

Porn

 

firefox, ad-aware, AVG, sygate, The GIMP, Trillian - from a USB stick so I don't have to d/l fresh, then updating def files, setting defaults, and installing drivers for the various scanner, cam, Bluetooth & other toys. When everything's on, I start stripping out what I don't like. And then I defrag & everything just so it's all shiny before I start dirtying it up with use.

 

Its just like any software that comes bundled with ****...you have to be careful or it just spreads...