How Computer Manufacturers Are Paid to Make Your Laptop Worse-gctid84304

[Ajamu]

How Computer Manufacturers Are Paid to Make Your Laptop Worse

                                                                             

 A laptop is a marvel of engineering. So much work goes into designing  and manufacturing all the individual pieces of hardware before  combining them with software that's taken decades to build. After going  through all this work, laptop manufacturers are paid to make their  laptops slower and more frustrating to use.

 The PC ecosystem's race to the bottom and cut-throat pricing means  that many computer manufacturers aren't focused on providing a good  experience — they're focused on releasing the cheapest laptops possible  and making some additional money by loading the laptop with bloatware.

 The Bloatware Is There Because It Pays

 Your laptop's manufacturer doesn't really believe Norton antivirus is  the best security solution, or that some obscure casual game portal has  the best games available for Windows. Instead, they're paid by software  companies to preinstall this stuff.

 Instead, laptop manufacturers load their computers up with shovelware  — so-named because it seems as if manufacturers just shovel a pile of  software onto the computer without much thought given to is usefulness.  This often-useless software slows a laptop down, making it take longer  to boot, reducing available memory, and generally cluttering up the  computer. Toolbars may insert themselves into browsers and pop-up  messages may urge the user to upgrade to paid copies of trial software.  Messages for trial antivirus programs can be particularly scary, warning  users they may be at risk if they don't open their wallets and pay  additional money.

 These programs are generally trial versions that urge you to purchase  paid software, links to places where you can purchase software, or  browser toolbars that encourage you to use bad search engines. Software  companies pay the manufacturers so inexperienced users will end up  purchasing complete versions of the trial software, paying for bad  casual games, and using less-useful search engines.


 

How Much Does Bloatware Slow a Laptop Down, Really?

 Do we geeks exaggerate the significance of bloatware on a laptop?  Benchmarks would help us understand just how significantly bloatware can  drag down a new computer.

 Luckily, such benchmarks exist. They even come from an unlikely  source — Microsoft. Microsoft sells "Microsoft signature" PCs in its  Microsoft stores, which are laptops free of the usual  manufacturer-installed crapware. Microsoft even offers to turn any  laptop into a Signature laptop, getting rid of the bloatware for you  –for only $99. Microsoft is making money coming and going here — you pay  them for a Windows license that comes with your computer and then you  pay them more than the cost of a Windows license so your new laptop will  work like it should.

 Microsoft advertises their signature PCs by pointing out how much  faster a signature PC is than a non-signature PC — these statistics  really tell us how much faster a new laptop is once all the bloatware is  removed. They've now removed the statistics from their latest Signature  PC page — maybe they were a bit embarrassing  to Microsoft's hardware  partners — but we can view them with archive.org.

 Based on Microsoft's tests with six different Windows 7 laptops,  removing bloatware made the laptops start up nearly 40% faster on  average. That's a significant improvement that shows us just how much  bloatware can affect performance.



 Worse yet, a 2009 PC Pro study  found that bloatware could add over a minute to boot-up times, with  Acer's laptops taking an additional two minutes to boot because of all  the included bloatware.

 Banishing Bloatware

 If you have a new laptop packed full of bloatware but don't want to  pay Microsoft $99 for the privelage of getting rid of it, you have some  options:

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• Manually Uninstall Bloatware: You can uninstall  bloatware that comes with your laptop from the standard Uninstall  Programs pane in the Windows Control Panel. You'll need to know the  programs you should uninstall and the ones you should keep. Some  utilities may help you take full advantage of your laptop's hardware,  while some are completely useless. Preinstalled bloatware will vary  wildly from laptop to laptop — if you perform some Google searches, you  should be able to find an explanation of what each program does. You may  even find a a full, user-created guide to the bloatware that comes on  your specific laptop, what it does, and which programs you should  remove.
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• Automatically Uninstall Bloatware: If you don't want to do all of the grunt work yourself, try using the free PC Decrapifier  program. It will scan your computer for known bloatware and  automatically uninstall it. However, PC Decrapifier isn't perfect and it  won't catch all the bloatware.
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• Reinstall Windows: Many geeks prefer to install a clean copy of Windows on their new PCs,  removing all the manufacturer software and starting with a clean slate.  If you opt to do this, you'll need a Windows disc. You'll also need to  download and install the appropriate drivers and hardware utilities for  your laptop afterwards — you can generally find them on the  manufacturer's support site for your laptop.
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 If you've ever purchased a new laptop and found yourself spending  minutes watching the bloatware load every time you power on your laptop,  you can probably understand why so many people buy Macs.

 We geeks may know how to deal with bloatware, but the average  computer buyer is getting stuck with a laptop made worse by its  manufacturer.