The Verdict: The Crapware Con

Posted on 29 Oct 2009 at 14:53

It looks like crapware is here to stay, so what’s the best way to deal with it?

Over the course of this feature, we’ve uncovered two important facts: first, no big-brand laptop (aside from Apple) is free from crapware, but it’s possible to buy a machine that’s noticeably faster and less cluttered than many of its competitors.

We also found that several manufacturers were more guilty than others when it came to adding unwanted software – with Acer, Sony and HP being the worst offenders.

The Acer, for instance, offered an unnecessary Windows Media Center clone and 19 games with only 60 minutes of play, while the Sony VAIO VGN-NS30E/S took more than three minutes to boot. HP’s Pavilion dv6 was little better, with a poor boot time, sluggish performance and flawed applications.

The Dell and Asus machines both included genuinely useful applications and also offered swift boot times and good performance elsewhere

Other machines, meanwhile, proved far more palatable, offering the holy grail of decent software that didn’t prove too taxing on hardware. The Dell and Asus machines both included genuinely useful applications and also offered swift boot times and good performance elsewhere.

Further analysis reveals that, when it comes to performance, it’s the proprietary software that does the most damage. McAfee Security Center, for instance, is present on five of the machines we’ve tested – and their boot times and performance figures spread the gamut from the Dell’s speed to the Sony’s sluggish excess.

Likewise, Norton products sit on both the quick Asus and slow HP machines, and Roxio Creator is present on the relatively nippy Lenovo as well as the Sony VAIO.

The three slowest systems on test are those that cram in proprietary software. The Acer was stuffed with games, media applications and other tools, and the HP system contained children’s desktop software, games and HP’s own Total Care Advisor.

The Sony VAIO, this month’s slowest laptop, boasted a desktop dock, VAIO-branded utilities and the all-encompassing Me & My VAIO media suite.

Stubborn software

Is any of this a real problem? Can’t you just clear the crapware off in ten minutes? Not necessarily. We found that several bundled applications proved difficult to remove.

Much of the proprietary software lacked the traditional Uninstall option in the Windows Start menu and, when loading up the Control Panel’s Programs and Features tool, we found that many tools and utilities were listed by their individual components – therefore requiring plenty of work to rid your system of unwanted software.

Third-party applications rarely proved difficult, with the various incarnations of McAfee, Norton and Roxio uninstalling without fuss.

While crapware may be the scourge of modern laptops, its economic benefits mean that it probably isn’t going anywhere soon

While crapware may be the scourge of modern laptops, its economic benefits mean that it probably isn’t going anywhere soon – especially since third-party companies are willing to pay big money to have their software installed on thousands of laptops.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the sums involved were well into the millions,” said Matthew McCormack, a consultant for independent analysts IDC UK, adding that extra payments are normally available “if a customer ends up purchasing the full version”.

He isn’t convinced that users cough up cash, though, claiming that while “antivirus software is normally pretty beneficial to non-tech-savvy users”, media and desktop management applications offer “significantly less value” for customers – and can be “notoriously hard to get rid of” once they’re installed.

It’s here to stay, then, but at least there are several ways to rid your PC of crapware: applications such as CCleaner can remove every trace of dodgy software from your PC, and it’s possible to wade through Windows’ System Configuration options to make sure your system isn’t bogged down with extra applications.

Couple this with the knowledge that some manufacturers aren’t as bad as others, and the result is one single shred of comfort in a world besieged by crapware – at least it’s possible to fight back.

(Illustrations by Lee Hasler)

Author: Mike Jennings