What is Crapware?
I’m sure many of you have heard that term and I know that all you I.T. guys out there know what it means. But, for those of you that don’t, let me explain. Crapware is software installed at the factory by the PC manufacturer way before you even swipe that credit card to purchase the machine. This software can range from virus software such as Norten Antivirus or even extra internet toolbars such as the Yahoo Toolbar attached to Internet Explorer. Most of the time all this software is good at doing is slowing down your brand new system and taking up valuable space on your hard drive. Why Do They Do It? You may be asking yourself, why do the manufacturers do it? Well one big reason is advertising. Ever notice on the ads for the computers they sometimes list all this great software you get if you buy from them? Heck sometimes they list that instead of the specs of the machine. The other even bigger reason is money. You see most of the crapware that comes on new systems is trial software.
Crapware is a collective term that is used to identify any and all types of software that uses valuable resources on a computer hard drive. Generally, any software that is not essential to the function of the system and is not utilized by the computer owner can be referred to as crapware. Some examples of this type of software include components loaded onto the system prior to sale, whiles other relate to software that is downloaded from the Internet without the knowledge or consent of the user. Originally, the term “crapware” was used to define the extra software that manufacturers would load onto the hard drive of a system before shipping the device to a retail outlet. Along with such important software as the operating system and basic word processing programs, manufacturers often load other non-essentials, such as software to sign up for a particular Internet service provider or basic greeting card creation software. While promotional in nature and serving as a source of revenue fo
Crapware = a pre-install of Office, which is not really installed, if you get my drift. If they are gonna pre-load Office into systems, it ought to be the real thing, not some 1 and one-half day trial version. But my tangent about wild tangent and stuff is just a tangent. The point is, this guy is right: The more CrapWare on a system, the cheaper it is: Look at ANY E-Machines computer- If a 3 gig Emachines Celeron starts up in less than 10 minutes… Something is wrong, they must have missed a few crapware packages.
