(image courtesy of Ars Technica)

After seeing ZDNet blogger Jason Perlow shed some light on the topic of OEM PCs and the amount of crapware they stuff on it, I’d like to add to what has been said in that article and voice some of my opinions on the matter. I’ve touched on this topic a few times in several articles in the past, but I feel like it must be said again: OEM PC manufacturers and the crapware that they cram into the PCs that they sell make it seriously slow and unstable, and this is part of the reason that Microsoft’s reputation is in the toilet. After reading Jason’s article it reminded me that the one thing that might just ruin Windows 7’s launch and overall reputation is OEM PCs that will come with the OS.

My friend purchased a Toshiba laptop in 2007 that came preloaded with Windows Vista Home Premium. It was slow and sluggish, and at times when you boot up the PC explorer.exe wouldn’t even launch! It couldn’t have been viruses or spyware as we had virus protection on the PC and my friend is a pretty tech-savvy guy, but in the end I suggested that we reformat the PC with a fresh copy of Vista Ultimate and not the recovery disc that came with the PC to avoid the crapware again. After I did the clean reformat of Vista Ultimate and installed the correct, up to date drivers all was working smoothly and it remained to work perfectly fine up until I installed Windows 7 on it in more recent times. I suspect that along with the bloat, there was some incompatible drivers loaded onto the system that caused such instability.

It’s no wonder the guy who plays the PC in the Apple ads is fat; his weight symbolizes the amount of bloat that’s crammed into these OEM PCs! So, what exactly can be done to solve this issue? A JCXP community member has suggested that Microsoft put a much needed leash on these OEM PC companies and put guidelines in place that limit the amount of software that the OEM manufacturers can pre-install on each system, but along with this Microsoft will also need a way to ensure that the proper drivers are installed on each system. This could work, but Microsoft still wouldn’t have control over the complete “experience”, meaning that while the PCs may run Windows smoothly the customer support, etc. would still suck.

I suggest that Microsoft have their own lineup of PCs so that they can have complete control of everything to give the end user a quality experience. Of course OEM PCs can’t and shouldn’t be eradicated altogether, in which case the guidelines would be the best that Microsoft can do to control the monkeys behind these OEM PC companies, but they can take matters into their own hands and start churning out their own line of PCs. However, while this would be awesome, it would also be completely pointless and even hurtful to Microsoft’s reputation if they don’t execute this correctly. For example, if they make the lineup too complicated and give the PCs a name along the line of: “Microsoft Windows Lifestyle PCs for Businesses and Enterprise”, it wouldn’t work too well.

There is also the problem of them repeating the very mistake of the OEM PCs and stuffing their own lineup with bloat thus doing no good whatsoever and again, hurting their reputation because of the fact that the bloat is their fault even though they could have stopped it from being there in the first place. I’d be really happy if the following criteria were met if Microsoft did make their own PC lineup:

• They kept the line as simple as possible while providing good PCs for everyone, from the basic user to the enthusiast/gamer
• They didn’t stuff the PCs with any bloatware for any reason and ensured that the drivers were the correct ones
• The cases were simplistic and had that look provided by Lian Li cases (though a more personal preference)
• They provided quality support for the PCs that would make it as painless as possible to resolve issues

Whether or not they do go ahead and sell their own PCs on the market, I still think that they need to do something about the crapware stuffed on OEM PCs by putting guidelines in place that are required to be followed if the OEMs want to bundle in Windows with their products. Doing so would benefit the reputation of both the OEM PC companies and Microsoft alike, but in the interim I think it needs to be made clear to people that if their OEM PC is acting up, they shouldn’t jump to conclusions and blame Microsoft for it.

Editors Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the GeekSmack staff or our community members.