Dear Acer, Sony, Toshiba, HP, Dell, along with a few other OEM manufacturers,

All of you create great, quality machines that people around the world have enjoyed and continue to enjoy. Whether people want powerful PCs for video editing, gaming, or other resource-intensive purposes, or they want simple netbooks, you have all provided them with what they needed, at times with the components chosen and “personalized” using online build-your-own-PC tools, resulting in a more suitable PC for people than that of pre-built systems sold on store shelves.

That being said, there are some major pitfalls that can completely ruin the experience of the end-user that has plagued your machines for a good while now, and one of these issues is “bloatware”—software preloaded onto the machines that are usually sponsored by companies, such as games, anti-virus software, and an array of other programs that affect performance and take up disk space. Maybe you’re aware of this (I’d be rather surprised if you weren’t), but the presence of these applications are what cause many PC issues, alongside the issue of incorrect and incompatible drivers being installed on the machine.

It’s been proven time and time again that bloatware can clog up a system and dramatically affect performance when compared to a clean Windows install, and, while more technical people are able to eradicate this issue on their own, the less computer-savvy crowd is left to put up with the issues caused by bloatware. Whatever anyone’s point of view on Mac systems are, they really do “just work” for the most part because they’re not as clogged up, the drivers on them are the correct ones, and there’s decent quality control measures in place to ensure that the system’s that end up in the homes and offices of the end-user aren’t buggy and slow.

If each OEM system came with no bloatware and merely a clean install of Windows, along with all the compatible drivers, Windows would also “just work”. I’ve observed this myself and some other people I know who repair computers have seen it all too often: systems bogged down by bloatware. This isn’t just an “isolated issue” of any sort; it’s a widespread problem that needs to be fixed if Windows and OEM PCs are to give people a good overall experience. I’m fairly certain that the experience with Windows Microsoft intends its users have is greatly diminished due to OEM machines.

It’s pretty evident that Microsoft recognizes this problem and has even taken a step forward at addressing it. Now, at Microsoft stores, “Microsoft Signature PCs” are sold, which are basically OEM machines with a clean install of Windows, only having some useful, freeware Microsoft applications pre-installed such as the Windows Live Essentials and Bing 3D Maps. These programs don’t bog down systems and add basic functionality that is otherwise absent from 7 due to antitrust issues (which, in my opinion, are ridiculous).

Unfortunately, dictating to OEMs what is acceptable in terms of bloatware and quality control may be viewed as Microsoft being an evil ol’ monopoly, so it may be fairly difficult for them to draft guidelines for pre-installing Windows on OEM machines that would cover many bases—including bloatware. Microsoft should certainly push harder for less bloatware, but should they fail at this, then you OEM’s should definitely take matters into your own hands if you have any respect whatsoever for the end-users, and want them to have a positive experience using your products.

Until then, IT professionals and enthusiasts everywhere will continue to wipe the OEM install of Windows in favor of a standard clean install.

Sincerely,

-Paul, and many others who agree with me on this.