5 ms·

Am I the only one that wipes the OEM operating system as soon as I buy a computer? Even if I'm putting Windows right back on it? I started doing it because of

Am I the only one that wipes the OEM operating system as soon as I buy a computer? Even if I'm putting Windows right back on it? I started doing it because of the crap they bundle in there, but this seems like an unintended good reason to do so as well.

iuytghyjuyh 16y ago
But then you have to go the laptop makers site for any extra drivers - how do you know that they don't have the keylogger in them? Although Intel's own drivers now work better for most embedded Intel chipsets than the crap the laptop maker puts out
wewyor 16y ago
The only problem is that now you have to find a way to download the iso's from microsofts' servers to do it now because most laptop manufacturers only give recovery media that gives you all the crapware when you reinstall. It wasn't that long ago that you got actual windows install media when you bought a computer.
- Silhouette 16y ago
  > It wasn't that long ago that you got actual windows install media when you bought a computer. Oh, I'm afraid that was actually quite a long time ago. However, the last time I checked, Microsoft did impose a condition that mostly affected laptop manufacturers, such that they were required to provide any genuine Windows customer with real Windows media on request, rather than just some not-quite-real-Windows recovery media. Is this no longer the case? If that is still a requirement for installing OEM Windows on laptops for sale, maybe a campaign where a significant fraction of Samsung laptop customers suddenly started demanding real media would attract the attention of whatever fool thought this was a good idea. This is not mutually exclusive with an expensive class action lawsuit, of course. }:-)
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - pavel_lishin 16y ago
    Ah, excellent - next time my parents by a laptop, I'll have them ask for the disk. My dad's laptop crashed awhile back, and he had nothing to reinstall on it. :/
  - pasbesoin 16y ago
    Back in... 2006?, when purchasing a Dell I put down $10 to receive a plain Jane XP Pro installation disk, in addition to the crapware-infested restore disk that came with it by default. More recently, helping a friend with a Dell purchase, I could no longer find that option in the online order flow. Maybe if you call them and ask... (I'm not a regular Dell purchaser.)
    - lancefisher 16y ago
      I've reinstalled Windows on Dell computers for friends that didn't have the discs. I just called Dell, and they mailed me a plain Windows install disc for free. Awesome! I'm not sure if they still do that. With HP, I wasn't even able to pay for an install disc of any sort, and since the recovery portion of the HD was gone I had to buy a copy of Windows. I'll never buy an HP computer for this reason.
      - pasbesoin 16y ago
        I'll add that that disk was actually stolen in a burglary. When I subsequently needed to reinstall, a friend burned a copy of his XP Pro disk and mailed it. In combination with the code on the license sticker on the machine, this worked fine. (I'm hesitant to download an image from an unknown source.) I don't know about Windows 7 -- I seem to recall reading that installation disks for it work somewhat differently, but I don't recall the details.
        wewyor 16y ago
        If you look you can get the windows 7 isos from microsofts' servers (or in this case their distribution network through digital river). These have worked for my OEM licenses, XP though I remember you needed to use the disk with the correct service pack to install with your software key. (A sp1 key wouldn't work with a sp2 disk and vica versa.)
- kmfrk 16y ago
  CS and engineering students should be able to obtain this for free through MSDNAA.
- nikcub 16y ago
  If you request an original copy from your retailer they have to (are supposed to) give it to you and can only charge you a fee for the media, which is usually $10-25. This applies for the first few months, thereafter you can call Microsoft and within a few prompts they will send it out to you, often for free. Should work in most countries, and is a bit of a backdoor way of getting original install disks. There is also a way in the EU to get a free linux distro disk if you request it, which was part of the EU antitrust settlement but I can't remember what that was (all of these consumer rights features were part of one settlement or another)
donohoe 16y ago
Yes. The majority of regular people would never do that, or even know where to start.
- jamaicahest 16y ago
  Unfortunately not just regular people. Last time a new employee was hired to my team, the teamlead said just give him this laptop previously used by an external consultant, don't bother formatting it or removing old profiles, just make sure it works. And we're the software development division in the company.
  - moomba 16y ago
    Yea, some colleagues of mine thought that installing a fresh OS on their laptop would "break" it. The software engineering workforce has its range of very good and very bad employees.
    - mixmastamyk 16y ago
      That _can_ happen if the newer OS doesn't have the correct drivers available. I'm a "wiper" but I have spent many an hour trying to get simple functionality working again on a fresh install.
    - phlux 16y ago
      I know that we (IT Folks) are all used to the concept of system images which can be used to deploy fresh builds/images to machines that are based on standards. Further we are used to the idea of VMs that run in clusters/clouds etc. and we are used to virtual desktop environments that run as a terminal interface to a VDI backend, finally we are also familiar checking out files for source control etc. I believe that we are close to being able to 'check-out' a system image that would be downloaded as a VM to a machine (physical machine) where it runs locally as a fully installed OS - but then can be 'checked in' and released once done. A new physical machine comes along and we check out our image. We can further abstract the user profile data and have it follow the user (there is a company that was recently bought that does this piece... I cant recall the name). The idea is high-layer virtualization. Where we had virtualized machine, OS, APP and recently infrastructure such as storage - we have virtualized profiles as well. Soon we will have virtual installs. There is a hybrid model I wrote about some years ago, posted recently to HN as well - which is similar to the Atrix concept. You have all your user profile data on the mobile device and you effectively check-in to a KVM for better screen and input. I am not sure about the dock of the Atrix, if it has a CPU and GPU for bigger/faster/better -- but this is what I am referring to. The data profile is tied to the person. Everything else floats - when the use-case calls for better CPU/GPU you check-out the physical device...
d2 16y ago
You may be. I'm an experienced software dev and I've never done that with any of our family's windows machines. That'll be changing.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

iuytghyjuyh 16y ago

But then you have to go the laptop makers site for any extra drivers - how do you know that they don't have the keylogger in them? Although Intel's own drivers now work better for most embedded Intel chipsets than the crap the laptop maker puts out

wewyor 16y ago

The only problem is that now you have to find a way to download the iso's from microsofts' servers to do it now because most laptop manufacturers only give recovery media that gives you all the crapware when you reinstall. It wasn't that long ago that you got actual windows install media when you bought a computer.

Silhouette 16y ago
> It wasn't that long ago that you got actual windows install media when you bought a computer. Oh, I'm afraid that was actually quite a long time ago. However, the last time I checked, Microsoft did impose a condition that mostly affected laptop manufacturers, such that they were required to provide any genuine Windows customer with real Windows media on request, rather than just some not-quite-real-Windows recovery media. Is this no longer the case? If that is still a requirement for installing OEM Windows on laptops for sale, maybe a campaign where a significant fraction of Samsung laptop customers suddenly started demanding real media would attract the attention of whatever fool thought this was a good idea. This is not mutually exclusive with an expensive class action lawsuit, of course. }:-)
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- pavel_lishin 16y ago
  Ah, excellent - next time my parents by a laptop, I'll have them ask for the disk. My dad's laptop crashed awhile back, and he had nothing to reinstall on it. :/
- pasbesoin 16y ago
  Back in... 2006?, when purchasing a Dell I put down $10 to receive a plain Jane XP Pro installation disk, in addition to the crapware-infested restore disk that came with it by default. More recently, helping a friend with a Dell purchase, I could no longer find that option in the online order flow. Maybe if you call them and ask... (I'm not a regular Dell purchaser.)
  - lancefisher 16y ago
    I've reinstalled Windows on Dell computers for friends that didn't have the discs. I just called Dell, and they mailed me a plain Windows install disc for free. Awesome! I'm not sure if they still do that. With HP, I wasn't even able to pay for an install disc of any sort, and since the recovery portion of the HD was gone I had to buy a copy of Windows. I'll never buy an HP computer for this reason.
    - pasbesoin 16y ago
      I'll add that that disk was actually stolen in a burglary. When I subsequently needed to reinstall, a friend burned a copy of his XP Pro disk and mailed it. In combination with the code on the license sticker on the machine, this worked fine. (I'm hesitant to download an image from an unknown source.) I don't know about Windows 7 -- I seem to recall reading that installation disks for it work somewhat differently, but I don't recall the details.
      - wewyor 16y ago
        If you look you can get the windows 7 isos from microsofts' servers (or in this case their distribution network through digital river). These have worked for my OEM licenses, XP though I remember you needed to use the disk with the correct service pack to install with your software key. (A sp1 key wouldn't work with a sp2 disk and vica versa.)
kmfrk 16y ago
CS and engineering students should be able to obtain this for free through MSDNAA.
nikcub 16y ago
If you request an original copy from your retailer they have to (are supposed to) give it to you and can only charge you a fee for the media, which is usually $10-25. This applies for the first few months, thereafter you can call Microsoft and within a few prompts they will send it out to you, often for free. Should work in most countries, and is a bit of a backdoor way of getting original install disks. There is also a way in the EU to get a free linux distro disk if you request it, which was part of the EU antitrust settlement but I can't remember what that was (all of these consumer rights features were part of one settlement or another)

donohoe 16y ago

Yes. The majority of regular people would never do that, or even know where to start.

jamaicahest 16y ago
Unfortunately not just regular people. Last time a new employee was hired to my team, the teamlead said just give him this laptop previously used by an external consultant, don't bother formatting it or removing old profiles, just make sure it works. And we're the software development division in the company.
- moomba 16y ago
  Yea, some colleagues of mine thought that installing a fresh OS on their laptop would "break" it. The software engineering workforce has its range of very good and very bad employees.
  - mixmastamyk 16y ago
    That _can_ happen if the newer OS doesn't have the correct drivers available. I'm a "wiper" but I have spent many an hour trying to get simple functionality working again on a fresh install.
  - phlux 16y ago
    I know that we (IT Folks) are all used to the concept of system images which can be used to deploy fresh builds/images to machines that are based on standards. Further we are used to the idea of VMs that run in clusters/clouds etc. and we are used to virtual desktop environments that run as a terminal interface to a VDI backend, finally we are also familiar checking out files for source control etc. I believe that we are close to being able to 'check-out' a system image that would be downloaded as a VM to a machine (physical machine) where it runs locally as a fully installed OS - but then can be 'checked in' and released once done. A new physical machine comes along and we check out our image. We can further abstract the user profile data and have it follow the user (there is a company that was recently bought that does this piece... I cant recall the name). The idea is high-layer virtualization. Where we had virtualized machine, OS, APP and recently infrastructure such as storage - we have virtualized profiles as well. Soon we will have virtual installs. There is a hybrid model I wrote about some years ago, posted recently to HN as well - which is similar to the Atrix concept. You have all your user profile data on the mobile device and you effectively check-in to a KVM for better screen and input. I am not sure about the dock of the Atrix, if it has a CPU and GPU for bigger/faster/better -- but this is what I am referring to. The data profile is tied to the person. Everything else floats - when the use-case calls for better CPU/GPU you check-out the physical device...

d2 16y ago

You may be. I'm an experienced software dev and I've never done that with any of our family's windows machines. That'll be changing.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]