So here in the next few months I am buying a new laptop and I have been looking through all the manufactures to see what deals I could get on a new laptop. I was on the Sony web site looking at Vaio's and Sony offers a feature when you buy Windows 8 Pro they will do a "Fresh Start" which means just Windows 8, no bloat crap ware. Now yes I know that I can easily do this but I like the idea of a manufacture that offers this. I haven't found one but I was wondering if you guys know any that do?
Thanks, I think all companies should offer this. The only place I also have been able to find is if you buy from the MS store, at least that is what I got from the whole MS signature.
It reduces the price of the machines to include this stuff. People want lower cost computers. For many, it's going to come down to whichever computer is cheaper.
People perceive value in some of this stuff and it causes them to pick 1 computer over another. And even those who format and reinstall, do end up installing quite a bit of this stuff again on their own. Sure, we skip the toolbars and the trial apps...but we get AV programs, we get things like Adobe Flash Player, .NET Framework, etc.
I just recently bought a Dell. I was able to decline the Trend AV and skip that, but I wasn't able to skip the Office trial. It also had Windows Live Essentials installed as well.
I haven't heard of OEMs doing that before. The only two I think of is Vizio and Microsoft, both basically do the Microsoft Signature service, meaning a fresh and clean install of Windows 8. That in turn makes the price a tad higher than others.
Interesting that Sony offers that, I imagine that's only online though and not in something in store.
I'd probably take the crapware bloated version of Windows and just do a clean customized install of Windows 8 myself and save some money there.
It is only available on Sony Website and it is only the models they offer for "customization" and in order to get it you must upgrade the $50 for Windows 8 Pro.