Microsoft to charge customers $99 to remove OEM 'crapware'

[rms]

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Yo'd think the IT departments would get a clue who they're dealing with.
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They do, but they don't spend their own money. Extra work was probably extra buck in their pockets too.

[kdane4]

wow, unbelievable...

[NickStone]

Am I missing something here? If you have an OEM version of Windows and want to get rid of "crapware" why not simply uninstall it yourself instead of paying MS to do it for you?

[SteveRiley]

Am I missing something here? If you have an OEM version of Windows and want to get rid of "crapware" why not simply uninstall it yourself instead of paying MS to do it for you?

The uninstallers for the crapware often don't work. That's probably by design.

Crapware exists because it's an easy way to make money. No one likes that, but it's reality. The only support I can grant Microsoft for charging to uncrapify is reason #4 I mentioned in my earlier post in this thread.

[NickStone]

...The uninstallers for the crapware often don't work. That's probably by design..

But Windows does have an add/remove app for removing software. Or are Microsoft going to remove this feature in order to charge the end user $99 to remove the software on their behalf?

[oshunluvr]

I have to totally agree with Steve on this one. You need only try and remove some of that software to find numerous registry entries that were not properly removed and often the program file remain. To be fair, I don't have enough experience with Vista/7 to say this occurs often, but in XP this is almost the standard behavior.

Go back to XP and try and remove Outlook Express. It can't be done unless you know how to edit the registry. Other software distributors do the same thing. BTW, this isn't solely a Windows issue - Just ask anyone with an Android (linux) Smartphone about the factory crapware. We have to rootkit our own phones just to remove the bloat.

[SteveRiley]

But Windows does have an add/remove app for removing software. Or are Microsoft going to remove this feature in order to charge the end user $99 to remove the software on their behalf?

Not completely. The Windows (un)installer is a framework. It's driven by scripts and code contained within the installation file. There are no minimum required uninstallation steps, thus a lot of software frequently includes crappy uninstall procedures.

[GreyGeek]

But Windows does have an add/remove app for removing software. Or are Microsoft going to remove this feature in order to charge the end user $99 to remove the software on their behalf?

Steve, of all people, knows that! What he is saying is that the control panel's "remove app" feature doesn't remove crapware correctly. Sometimes, it doesn't even show crapware in the listing, so it can't be removed. Other times it "removes" it, except for the nag in the system tray, etc...

Apps like CCleaner often do a better job or both removing crapware and cleaning up the registry.

[Frank616]

Steve:

Microsoft gets blamed for something that is not Microsoft's fault.

I am no lover of Microsoft, but in this instance, yes, I agree that they are getting the rap for someone else's bad practices.

In some ways, Google is in the same situation with Android and the carriers. The carriers load the phones with bloatware, and Android gets blamed. It is nice to see that Google will again be offering unlocked 'pure Android' phones, even though the original Nexus was not a commercial success that way.

Frank.

[rms]

Hopefully, they'll move all crapware to a cloud and we'll be free!