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Something good comes out of Microsoft

B

Brazen

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The concern arises from third-party software that hardware makers commonly install on new computers in exchange for a fee, many of which have not been tested and certified by Microsoft to work with Vista, the executive said. They include things such as links to online services, and demo versions of programs.

"We call them craplets," the official said.
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Kinda funny, because if you are issued a Toshiba laptop internally it comes with so much Toshiba sh1t on it, it's unusable (this was on XP anyway).
 
Originally posted by: stash
Kinda funny, because if you are issued a Toshiba laptop internally it comes with so much Toshiba sh1t on it, it's unusable (this was on XP anyway).
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Wow, so the end-user has to reinstall Windows?
 
Pretty much everyone at Microsoft installs their own machines. We have RIS/WDS servers if you want to use a standard image, but when people get a new machine, they generally wipe and reload it themselves.
 
Originally posted by: stash
Kinda funny, because if you are issued a Toshiba laptop internally it comes with so much Toshiba sh1t on it, it's unusable (this was on XP anyway).
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Did you notice the quote from Toshiba in the article?

Toshiba Canada product marketing director Todd Smith isn't aware of Microsoft's specific concern but said his company doesn't foresee a problem.

"We're very confident we'll have no issues whatsoever," he said.
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Considering that 'craplets' have been a problem on OEM computers since at least Windows 95, I think Todd Smith is either lying or clueless. As such, I'm guessing Toshiba is going to have a bigger problem with craplets than anyone else. HOWEVER, Toshiba's redemption could just be that they don't load any (or very very few, I don't have a Toshiba, so I dont' know).
 
Originally posted by: StopSign
I refuse to use an OEM machine without reformatting at the start.
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I bought a Toshiba laptop in March of last year and I had to reformat it because there was so much "craplets" that it was unbelievable.

Laptop is nice, though.
 
Originally posted by: stash
Pretty much everyone at Microsoft installs their own machines. We have RIS/WDS servers if you want to use a standard image, but when people get a new machine, they generally wipe and reload it themselves.
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That was about 60% of my job in the past. Figuring out how to strip out the components I needed from the vendor build to put in my PnP and install dirs of our corp build. It was getting real easy on HPs until the merged with Compaq and dumped to good for Compaq. Could not get Compaq to every figure out where they hid a tablet driver. They did not know and I sure could not find it in their encrypted mess. And of course, it was proprietary. So, Toshiba might not be too bad 😉
 
IBM/Lenovo doesn't put any additional garbage like trial software or freebies on their systems but they do put an absolute slew of IBM stuff on their default loads. It's not that bad though. Just load up the default boot and uninstall what you don't want then image it. 🙂
 
Funny, I've never had to deal with "craplets" on the (pre-Lenovo) ThinkPads that I've purchased. All of them were basically stock Windows except for IBM Access Connections and their "Rescue and Recovery" software. No free AOL, no free trials, no pre-installed software (but would come on a separate, original CD if purchased).

Edit: damn, Robor got a word in while I was typing this :s
 
Originally posted by: IdaGno
M$haft invented craplets - Internet Explorer & Media Player, so they do know what they're talking about.
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Yes you are right.

IE and WMP are useless :disgust:
 
Originally posted by: IdaGno
M$haft invented craplets - Internet Explorer & Media Player, so they do know what they're talking about.
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Originally posted by: greylica
Full of bloataware, normally I wipe Windows too. Is a good prevention.🙂
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Please cut out the trolling and be more open minded you guys. Closed minded fanbois (on both the Windows and Linux side) spewing pointless FUD really get on my nerves.

And IdaGno, I could easily say the same thing about Linux. For every app Windows has you have at least two or three times that amount for the same function. Talk about overwhelming amounts of "craplets". :disgust:
 
IE and WMP are useless
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Usefulness is determined by the user, I do find WMP pretty useless and I can imagine that someone would consider IE useless too. But regardless of that fact, it would be nice if they were fully removable.

And IdaGno, I could easily say the same thing about Linux. For every app Windows has you have at least two or three times that amount for the same function. Talk about overwhelming amount of "craplets".
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The difference is that they're not forced on you by anyone. The craplets mentioned in the articled are preinstalled by the OEM and most of the time there's no uninstall option so your only choice is to reload the thing by hand, none of those are true of any piece of Linux software.
 
Originally posted by: InlineFive
Originally posted by: IdaGno
M$haft invented craplets - Internet Explorer & Media Player, so they do know what they're talking about.
Click to expand...
Originally posted by: greylica
Full of bloataware, normally I wipe Windows too. Is a good prevention.🙂
Click to expand...

Please cut out the trolling and be more open minded you guys. Closed minded fanbois (on both the Windows and Linux side) spewing pointless FUD really get on my nerves.
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I don't blame anyone for considering IE and WMP to be craplets. I don't use IE, and would rather do without it, although i do like WMP10 (WMP11 just annoys me). But some people don't.

And IdaGno, I could easily say the same thing about Linux. For every app Windows has you have at least two or three times that amount for the same function. Talk about overwhelming amount of "craplets". :disgust:
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The nice thing about linux though, is you have a choice on what applications you want installed. Most distrobutions allow you to litterally strip your installation down to nothing during the initial installation, so you don't even have to go back and uninstall. Even after something does get installed, with today's package managers it is easy to remove every remnant of a piece of software. So the short of it is: I don't think you can call them craplets when you have to choose to have them installed; that defeats the whole purpose of the term.
 
I get more questions from my non-technical windows-using friends and family about craplets than actual malware. Most of them have a constant stream of popups above the system tray from "such-and-such Security Centre" and "such-and-such Support Manager" saying things like "Your X is out of date" which can basically be translated "Pay us more money to extend the trial version of something you don't understand and didn't ask for. Or else you'll start getting annoying popups. Dell and Toshiba come to mind, in particular.

This is why I dislike companies who accuse microsoft of unfair bundling. There are certain things ms needs to integrate because the rest of the industry has proven far too incompetent in the integration department. I don't care much about media players or browsers, as it's nice to be able to replace those, but security stuff is just too far beyond most users to handle.

And while I'm ranting, similar things need to be done for support of peripherals like printers and cameras. Bundle small drivers and utilities with the operating system, handle them generically and tell the hardware vendors that they are not allowed to produce the stupid bloatware they currently do. The last time I installed hp printer drivers on a windows machine, the smallest install I figured I could safely do was 200Mb which is simply retarded for the simple purpose of putting a document on paper. The brief experience I've had with camera software from companies like fuji and cannon has been far worse. Cameras just aren't that complex. You support a standard and you copy or move files off a mass storage device for use in the user's program of choice. Don't need an install process that takes an hour, don't need multiple services running, don't need photo management software tailored to that specific camera. Apple has done quite well with this with iPhoto and printer drivers, although the bundled utilities for all the printers they support do take a lot of space.

Phew, sorry. Just needed to vent a bit 😛
 
Originally posted by: kamper


And while I'm ranting, similar things need to be done for support of peripherals like printers and cameras. Bundle small drivers and utilities with the operating system, handle them generically and tell the hardware vendors that they are not allowed to produce the stupid bloatware they currently do. The last time I installed hp printer drivers on a windows machine, the smallest install I figured I could safely do was 200Mb which is simply retarded for the simple purpose of putting a document on paper. The brief experience I've had with camera software from companies like fuji and cannon has been far worse. Cameras just aren't that complex. You support a standard and you copy or move files off a mass storage device for use in the user's program of choice. Don't need an install process that takes an hour, don't need multiple services running, don't need photo management software tailored to that specific camera. Apple has done quite well with this with iPhoto and printer drivers, although the bundled utilities for all the printers they support do take a lot of space.
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I couldn't agree more. I hate the crud that is required by some cameras (kodak easyshare comes to my mind). Why can't they all be sensible and use the mass storage device driver. HP printerss can usually be stripped down to install just a driver, but it is not easy, and their default craplets are also very intrusive and annoying.
 
Yeah, my uncle got a toshiba laptop and there was so much crap on it that the system ran slower than P3 laptop it replaced. I didn't have time to do a clean format but i uninstalled as much junk as i could. It was horrible.
 
Since we are on a rant... I want to know who the freaking idiot is who decided that the Synaptic (sp? - does not look sp right) touchpad should have the exact same PnP ID as a PS/2 mouse. That is a person who ranks just below the inventor of the necktie on my list of "beat to a bloody pulp". If you have the touchpad driver in a DevicePath, it will install along with the systray craplet if the build runs on a desktop. I had to use some stupid instrumentation to determine if the OS was going on a lappie or desktop and only load on certain lappies.
 
I want to know who the freaking idiot is who decided that the Synaptic (sp? - does not look sp right) touchpad should have the exact same PnP ID as a PS/2 mouse.
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Probably the guy who made them compatible with PS/2 mice.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
I want to know who the freaking idiot is who decided that the Synaptic (sp? - does not look sp right) touchpad should have the exact same PnP ID as a PS/2 mouse.
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Probably the guy who made them compatible with PS/2 mice.
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Which is fine... but it has the same PnP ID! Not even subsetted, same vendor (IBM). Grrr...

 
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