The company I work at goes through computers fairly regularly. When we get a new computer, someone has to manually go through and remove all the bloatware that comes with the computer. Right now, I am compiling a database of known bloatware and their silent uninstall commands, but many programs either don't have or require a silent uninstall script to be created. I'm wondering if there are any methods that I have missed that would silently reduce the windows installation to just the barebones OS and drivers.
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4As Lucas said. However, if you've got a decent list of how to uninstall crapware consider publishing it to a forum or site - there's probably a number of people that would appriciate it.– tombull89Apr 25, 2012 at 17:52
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5As Lucas said. However, why are you buying computers from a vendor who installs software you don't want in the first place?– Joshua DrakeApr 25, 2012 at 20:33
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4@JoshuaDrake Are there any who don't? Even when buying HPs and Dells through our corporate account at my last job, they still had a lot of crap on them out of the box. Not quite as much as a consumer desktop, but still a lot more crap than a clean install.– TacroyApr 25, 2012 at 22:49
3 Answers
It's called a format. Just use a PXE server with some windows images. When a new computer comes in you automatically install a new windows image on it. In my experience, that's the easiest way.
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22Totally agree, even when you uninstall that bloatware there are all sorts of little artifacts that can cause issues not the least of which is potentially leave security risks.– dc5553Apr 25, 2012 at 17:53
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besides bloatware you more then likely to have the virus of the day delivered by your friendly pc provider! Apr 25, 2012 at 20:54
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What to do with the 'free' Windows license your friendly OEM provides you with? Apr 25, 2012 at 22:57
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6@MartijnHeemels Some of the MS volume licensing arrangements require the purchase of the OEM license with the system in order to use the volume key. Apr 26, 2012 at 1:16
Lucas's answer is the best way to go but if you have a situation where that's not practical you can create a machine image using an OEM install of Windows, customised to your liking. Give a copy of that image to your OEM supplier and instruct them to use it for all future PC purchases. If the supplier won't agree to do that find a supplier who will work with you.
PC Decrapifier is actually pretty good for this.
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2But you would still need to run and select everything manually no? Apr 26, 2012 at 6:18