PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Dell has begun to allow US customers the option of whether to have ‘bloatware’ installed on PC’s bought from the company. The decision to give purchasers the choice comes after hundreds of angry customers complained on Dell’s corporate blog.
Ben Ames, reporting for PC Advisor writes that many of the posters claimed, “it can take a savvy user hours to remove unwanted programs, and those who are less sophisticated may never be able to reclaim the wasted memory”.
Dell has said that it will allow purchasers of Dimension desktops, Inspiron notebooks and XPS PCs the option to not have bloatware installed. However, it has said that it will still pre-install some software onto the PCs including Adobe Systems’ Acrobat Reader, Google’s Google Toolbar and trial versions of anti-virus software such as Norton and Symantec as it believes these programs are vital to a new machine.
Often, third party software publishers pay to have their software pre-installed on new machines in an attempt to encourage new customers to sign up. Among the most common software found on PC’s include AOL, Google and trial-based anti-virus software.
