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Sony announced its "Fresh Start" option at the end of last week, offering to remove the plethora of trial applications, Sony own-brand programmes and third-party offers that arrive on most new PCs.

Such pre-installed packages are commonly referred to as "cr*pware", given their almost negligible value and considerable nuisance factor. However, they are a strong source of income for PC manufacturers, who collect fees from the software makers for installing them on their PCs.

Sony's decision

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to charge people to remove software they didn't ask for in the first place met with howls of derision over the weekend, forcing the company to hastily drop the charges and apologise.

"We didn't intend that to happen," VAIO division vice president, Mike Abary told ZDNet.com, who apparently blamed the announcement of the charge on an internal mix-up. "We're removing the $49 charge."

"We heard the message loud and clear," Arbary added. "Vaio is the poster child for negative experiences people had [with trialware]. We recognise that, and we acknowledge it. We've been really beat up by this issue. We're listening and we're taking action."

Sony will now allow US customers to pre-configure their laptop software - removing all trialware if they wish - free of charge.

Whether this policy will extend to other countries and PC makers over time, we'll have to wait and see. But if it does catch on, Sony's fleeting $50 charge may prove to be a good thing after all.