Microsoft Retail Store PCs Will Be Crapware-Free, But Still Not Happy

No one likes uninstalling bloatware, trialware and craplets from their freshly unboxed PCs. Microsoft finally acknowledges this by skipping the unnecessary third-party software in Microsoft retail store PCs. That’s truly great, but they should do a little more than that.

I realise that the key reason behind all that preinstalled junk is to make a profit. After all, there are people who’ll spring for subscriptions because of antivirus nagware or purchase a full version of an application after playing around with the trial. For most of us though, we just plain take a mocking from Mac users as we hit the uninstall button over and over again.

All PC users suffer this process unless we jump through hoops like pleading with Dell or Toshiba during the ordering process, paying Sony off or—if you’re in the US—purchasing a cheap Walmart product. But now, we’ve finally got official agreement that the crapware doesn’t belong on our PCs and a place to purchase PCs with sparkly clean installs. This is an incredible move by Microsoft, and it must’ve taken quite some balls for someone to propose actually going through with it. Only trouble is that we’ll still see bloatware on PCs purchased from other retailers or through direct channels from makers.

So, dear Microsoft, you’re doing something wonderful in your retail stores, but it needs to go one step further. Please cajole everyone else to sell PCs without the crapware, too. Pretty please. [Electronista via Crunchgear]