Blogs The Most Annoying Crapware

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2009/09/16/the-most-annoying-crapware/

 

IBM laptops come with a HUGE number of bloatware. my friend's T60 thinkpad had 512MB of RAM, and straight out of the box, XP uses over 500MB of RAM, how is anyone supposed to use it like that?

HP is pretty good though, my HP netbook only came with AIM.

what i HATE is when driver software insist on installing their own control panels. ATI and nVidia are fine because they have a lot more options. but why does Realtek want to install a cheap interface when Windows can do everything? why does every USB wireless adaptor vendor have their own wireless program?

speaking of control panels, ATI somehow thinks you want to access their CCC even when you are in other folders. (older drivers, haven't tryed new ones) i just hate File menu's first item is ATI CCC in every directory.

 

Hm... i am on a similar spree ATM. I am looking for 40GB of lost HDD space on my missus's Lenovo notebook... looks like IBM's Rescue and recovery is using it. Annoying.
When i select all files on C:\, i get 55 GB total. Treesize, perfectdisk, all report the same. BUT, the HDD itself says 90/140GB used... WTF!!!

 

Some good points there - my opinion is that any company that installs crap like Symantec or McAfee by default deserves to be shot through the lungs and then *really* hurt. 'Replacement' control panels are epic fail too (I loathe the ATI Catalyst Control Panel)

Having said that, it seems that Dell have cleaned up their act a fair bit. Granted, the last machine I got off them had Linux pre-installed (Ubuntu 8.04 isn't bloatware, but Dell's remix of it is crap) but the last Windows-based machine of theirs I had didn't require all that much in the way of cruft-removal.

 

Just bought my mother in law a new HP laptop from PC World (she wanted the security of a big retailer, + it was her money, so who was I to argue?)

After wading through all the crap the staff wanted to install ("but you get Norton for free!" "I can donkey punch you for free, don't want that though do you?"), thanfully there wasn't too much installed on the laptop to begin with, but the installation CD (which included all the necessary drives) was RAMMED. Even included a trial version of Norton (it's following me around!).

I actually spent more time uninstalling programms than setting the laptop up. Just so much horrible bloatware and endless back-up programs that probably wouldn't work anyway. Pah.

Shout out to Wireless Programms too. Windows handles Wireless networks fine, why does every Tom, Dick and Harry wireless network dongle manufacturer feel the need to insist upon their own worthless immitation?

 

Probably a recovery software section BentAnat.

I hate this kind of evil peddling that goes on, for me Java is guilty as well; wanting to install bloody search toolbars.

 

Actually, there are a couple of freeware products i realy used to like on windows, BS player and Foxit but both now come with crapware so i've got an oss movie player and just use the default adobe reader not that adobe are much better. Seems a shame since i've paid money to freeware products in the past but if they insist on bloating with "extras" i tend to just move on.

 

meh, its all just advertising so the companies getting a larger profit margin by screwing the customer.

i dont let anything bar the program install, if i cant stop it, then i find another app to do the job

 

I spent ages trying to work out what "Abode" was from the third paragraph before I realised it should say Adobe! Go me!

Also to a certain extent my thoughts on crapware are: if you're daft enough not to read what you're installing you (semi-)deserve the crap you get along with what you wanted. It's sadly to be expected in these evil times.

 

Not all wireless cards have additional software with them. I bought an ultra-cheap MSI 802.11g PCI card, installed it into the PC, rebooted into XP, ran windows update and it found and installed the atheros driver. Windows wireless utility ran fine with it just like that, no need for any additional software with fancy graphical interfaces!

I hate the way that itunes installs and auto runs a process called ipodhelper (or something like that). Why would I want that running? I've not got an ipod, I've never had an ipod and I don't ever want an ipod. I just wanted to listen to a radio station that only broadcast through itunes!

 

You forgot to mention the biggest piece of crapware around: Games for Windows Live. It seems as though you can't install a PC game these days without being forced to install this POS.

 

I am a big fan of Digsby the multi protocol IM tool and they have changed that to include and absolute sh*t load of crapware. Granted they are not installed by default but you do have to click accept or decline for each one and I imagine if you are not careful it is quite easy to be click happy and just click accept.

 

Just about everything apart from the OS installed by Sony on their laptops is crapware.

 

I think the worst thing about this crapware is that is confuses the hell out of the end user.

Imagine you know nothing about computers and you buy something from a big name, such as Dell. You get home, turn it on and you are bombarded with notifications and subscription messages for things you have no clue about.

I remember setting up a Dell for a friend and it look me a good 10 minutes to get past all the popups and to the desktop. Cleaning out all the gunk takes an age too.

But companies are driven by profit and I bet these crapware companies pay a shed load of money to have their software loaded on ready to annoy the user with subsription notifications. It was just the logical step on from bundled software discs.

 

Dell.

Need I say more?

 

Totally agreed Jamie - laptops are the biggest and worst culprit imo.

They've become the default kind of computer purchase for folks who are casual computer users, since you can put them away in very little space and don't need to worry about a proper desk etc to put them on.

But they bundle them with so much crap it's untrue, AV software, webcam stuff, picture management crap, DVD software. Too much to digest for ordinary folk.

In fact, in my experience, some people will just click to get rid of it (and not solve what it's asking) then put up with popup boxes, tray icons and other crap forever.

 

Updater programs which run in the background 24/7. Many companies are guilty of doing this in the past and some still continue to do so. If I haven't run the program I do not want you to ask me to update it!

In fact I'd go as far as to say just about any program which installs a service which runs when I don't want it to. iTunes is one of the worst, installing 3 services last i checked. Why do I not have the option to disable them when I'm installing it? They are useless for 99% of users so why have them on by default.

ANY company who thinks I want their toolbar is deluded! Browsers are crowded by default as it is (bar chrome) and any extra toolbars which add no new features and have been redundant since the quick search box was implemented are just annoying.

Don't get me started on laptop manufacturers who install hundreds of crapware programs. I uninstalled these programs from a friends laptop shortly after it was bought and saved them over 15GB of data. That is rediculous for a few pieces of bloatware.

Nero - one of the best examples of bloatware if ever I've seen one. A program which takes almost 1GB of space when <100MB is needed! Glad that program has been replaced with free alternatives!

Also all of the ones which have already been mentioned.

 

I recently reinstalled windows XP and forgot how much programs try to install bloatware.
Azureus - yahoo toolbar
Windows Live Messenger - 3 or 5 extra useless pieces of software
CCC's need to have an 'open catalyst control center' button every time I right clock on empty space somewhere
most of the other software also tries to get me to install some useless toolbar.

these days I make sure to go for the customize installation option when installing stuff. I think even a few games have tried to get me to install toolbars and crap like that. It makes me want to go on a shooting rampage with projectiles shaped and painted to look like the yahoo and windows live toolbars. At this rate I'm willing to bet someone will write 'would you like to install our toolbar?' in their own blood on the wall of their padded cell in a mental asylum.

 

My recent laptop purchse wasn't actually too bad(Sony) I was surprised given that my other half recently got an acer one and the amount of crap installed was unbelievable- countless game trials and random rubbish. Needless to say my first move after getting new computers is to download and back up network drivers then format it. Luckily windows 7 has been
on msdn for a while so vista was avoided!!

I did notice though that Internet explorer automatically installed msn on the laptop and as the setup failed- I tried to cancel it- on start up it would run the setup everytime. Bloody annoying.

Apple don't get off scot free in my opinion, not only am I forced to use iTunes, but this then forces me to install QuickTime. Thanks but no thanks!

 

kind of funny that you have to connect by wire to use windows update to get the drivers. if the wireless card's driver isn't available, then you will need to go through the installer, and that's when they sneak their crapware into your system.

so far, Windows 7 has not failed me in networking adaptors/drivers on my netbook or desktop with 2 wireless dongles. and with its ability to install 99% of all drivers through update, i think these crapware that came with drivers will die out soon.