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Microsoft Watching OEM Bloatware for Windows 7

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US

Microsoft’s keeping an eye on the amount of bloat that OEMs will be loading into Windows 7.

We all love to build our own PCs and besides the cost savings, we like the feeling of having a virgin install of an operating system rather than one that’s been “customized” with bloatware. We’ve seen it all before on our laptops, when Windows starts up and the system tray fills with things we never wanted in the first place.

If Microsoft (along with the rest of us) have its way with Windows 7, useless and slow startup programs will be kept at bay from pre-installs.

“We're all about putting the stopwatch on how quickly a customer gets to a usable experience,” said Mark Croft, the director of Microsoft’s OEM worldwide marketing, in a TechRadar story. “With OEM pre-installed software what you'll see is a little bit of streamlining going on in the initial experience for the customer.”

While speed and responsiveness should always near the top of every operating system’s development goals, Microsoft is more sensitive than ever to how quick Windows 7 will feel.

After Windows Vista earned the reputation for being slower than Windows XP, largely due to increased security and other forward-looking features, many became frustrated with their overall computing experience. Users just saw Windows Vista as downgrade to XP rather than an upgrade.

Microsoft now is putting efforts into making Windows 7 much faster, working with OEMs to reduce bloat, and even smaller things such as improving the response of the Start Menu button.

There are 45 Comments.
Top Comments
  • 22
    hijr22 , April 3, 2009 6:22 AM
    Good job Microsoft.
  • 10
    eddieroolz , April 3, 2009 6:44 AM
    moriconwoah, not microsofts place to tell OEM whta to do with the licences they and systems they build,if the manufacturer decides to add extra applications then they should do so, its up to the end user to decide which ones to keep, a lot of the bloatware is annoying but it is better deciding what you want to keep for free than never being given anything for free!


    You never get it free. You pay it in terms of speed and experience.
  • 10
    captaincharisma , April 3, 2009 7:06 AM
    no half to all of that useless software they put on there is trialware so while the software does have a use that use will be useless after a certian number of days. wish the OEMs allowed an option for us to install the OS ourselves. send me the pc with nothing on it and a copy of the OS and let me install it myself is all I wnat
  • 15
    thedipper , April 3, 2009 7:10 AM
    moriconwoah, not microsofts place to tell OEM whta to do with the licences they and systems they build,if the manufacturer decides to add extra applications then they should do so, its up to the end user to decide which ones to keep, a lot of the bloatware is annoying but it is better deciding what you want to keep for free than never being given anything for free!


    It's VERY MUCH microsoft's place.

    OEMs loading overly slow bloatware onto a PC with Windows 7 means that unexperienced users, likely most of the market, are going to have bad experiences with Windows. Again.
  • 12
    Slobogob , April 3, 2009 7:57 AM
    Finally! We all know those pre-installed applications that are good for nothing and are only demos or trial variants and slow the system down to a crawl. The worst thing is actually that manufacturers advertise the "software" bloat as a feature that is actually worth money. Well, it isn't. Most of it is just junk. I really appreciate that MS is taking this step. It's overdue.
Other Comments
  • 22
    hijr22 , April 3, 2009 6:22 AM
    Good job Microsoft.
  • 15
    thedipper , April 3, 2009 7:10 AM
    moriconwoah, not microsofts place to tell OEM whta to do with the licences they and systems they build,if the manufacturer decides to add extra applications then they should do so, its up to the end user to decide which ones to keep, a lot of the bloatware is annoying but it is better deciding what you want to keep for free than never being given anything for free!


    It's VERY MUCH microsoft's place.

    OEMs loading overly slow bloatware onto a PC with Windows 7 means that unexperienced users, likely most of the market, are going to have bad experiences with Windows. Again.
  • 12
    Slobogob , April 3, 2009 7:57 AM
    Finally! We all know those pre-installed applications that are good for nothing and are only demos or trial variants and slow the system down to a crawl. The worst thing is actually that manufacturers advertise the "software" bloat as a feature that is actually worth money. Well, it isn't. Most of it is just junk. I really appreciate that MS is taking this step. It's overdue.
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