Comments on: Preinstalled “OEM” Software Needs to STOP http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/2009/03/preinstalled-oem-software-needs-to-stop/ Computers are hard. Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:10:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Nick http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/2009/03/preinstalled-oem-software-needs-to-stop/#comment-201 Nick Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:53:35 +0000 http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/?p=231#comment-201 Very very true. Norton and McAfee are both very guilty of injecting their unnecessary crapware in to browsers. I remembered the day I uninstalled Norton and my boot time was literally cut in half... I swore off any Symantec products ever again. I don't like what Microsoft has done to Movie Maker. The XP version was sooo nice, and every version since then has removed features and made it harder to use. There is actually a portable Movie Maker project out there that is really nice and lets you use the XP Movie Maker in Vista and 7. I should write up an article on that thing because it is bad ass. Very very true. Norton and McAfee are both very guilty of injecting their unnecessary crapware in to browsers. I remembered the day I uninstalled Norton and my boot time was literally cut in half… I swore off any Symantec products ever again.
I don’t like what Microsoft has done to Movie Maker. The XP version was sooo nice, and every version since then has removed features and made it harder to use.
There is actually a portable Movie Maker project out there that is really nice and lets you use the XP Movie Maker in Vista and 7. I should write up an article on that thing because it is bad ass.

]]> By: John http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/2009/03/preinstalled-oem-software-needs-to-stop/#comment-200 John Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:44:10 +0000 http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/?p=231#comment-200 Security software is bad. Norton being the worst. I've seen unactivated Norton Trials, where there's no Norton tray icons or anything, more than double boot time. And what's with security software and browser toolbars? Sure scan websites if you want, but why do I need a half inch of vertical space wasted on a Norton Toolbar? WildTangent games. Normally takes up about a gig of space, these things are like crappy versions of flash games. Thing is most users can't be bothered. They'll happily use Internet Explorer with half the space wasted by toolbars, they'll keep thinking they have virus protections from their expired norton trial (which is still bogging down the PC) even though Norton itself, and Security center are announcing that the system is not protected. At the new "Microsoft Stores" Microsoft is flipping OEMs the bird by giving a fairly clean install. Windows, Windows Live suite (Movie maker, mail client, MSN... not utterly useless stuff), and I think MSE, which is fairly lightweight, and won't expire. Security software is bad. Norton being the worst. I’ve seen unactivated Norton Trials, where there’s no Norton tray icons or anything, more than double boot time. And what’s with security software and browser toolbars? Sure scan websites if you want, but why do I need a half inch of vertical space wasted on a Norton Toolbar?

WildTangent games. Normally takes up about a gig of space, these things are like crappy versions of flash games.

Thing is most users can’t be bothered. They’ll happily use Internet Explorer with half the space wasted by toolbars, they’ll keep thinking they have virus protections from their expired norton trial (which is still bogging down the PC) even though Norton itself, and Security center are announcing that the system is not protected.

At the new “Microsoft Stores” Microsoft is flipping OEMs the bird by giving a fairly clean install. Windows, Windows Live suite (Movie maker, mail client, MSN… not utterly useless stuff), and I think MSE, which is fairly lightweight, and won’t expire.

]]> By: Nick http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/2009/03/preinstalled-oem-software-needs-to-stop/#comment-88 Nick Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:42:03 +0000 http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/?p=231#comment-88 Luckily where I work, we don't sell Sony's computers, so I get to dodge that bullet. I'm not surprised though as Sony has quite the reputation for treating it's customers very very poorly. Luckily where I work, we don’t sell Sony’s computers, so I get to dodge that bullet. I’m not surprised though as Sony has quite the reputation for treating it’s customers very very poorly.

]]> By: Jacob http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/2009/03/preinstalled-oem-software-needs-to-stop/#comment-87 Jacob Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:06:41 +0000 http://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/?p=231#comment-87 If you think some of those are bad you should try to 'clean' a brand new Sony Vaio. I bet they can hold a candle, or some other light producing device, to those Acer and Lenovo machines. If you think some of those are bad you should try to ‘clean’ a brand new Sony Vaio. I bet they can hold a candle, or some other light producing device, to those Acer and Lenovo machines.

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