New laptop...........format or not?

chili · 10 Sep 2011 at 21:57

Ok so i am waiting for my alienware m17x to arrive, my concerns are bloatware pre installed on it. So my questions are :-

Will i get a windows cd or just a recovery partition?

If it is a recovery partition will the bloatware be on it too?

Oh last but not least if i had a copy of windows would the key from my laptop work on that?

TheVoice · 10 Sep 2011 at 23:15

On most Dell systems you can specify if you want an OS disc, but it doesn't look like the option is there for Alienware systems.

Shouldn't be much bloat on it, Dell seem to be pretty good for that these days.

sswats · 11 Sep 2011 at 00:55

chili said:
Ok so i am waiting for my alienware m17x to arrive, my concerns are bloatware pre installed on it. So my questions are :-

Will i get a windows cd or just a recovery partition?

If it is a recovery partition will the bloatware be on it too?

Oh last but not least if i had a copy of windows would the key from my laptop work on that?

Just recovery partition unless you purchase it (in most cases)
Bloatware will be on the recovery partition.
And yes the key should will work if its the exact same version of Windows.

bees · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:32

don't format it. just remove everything.

Andrei23 · 29 Sep 2011 at 13:56

The only bloatware I got with my m17x R3 was McAfee which I uninstalled on the first boot and the alienware fx software used to change the backlight colour scheme. This is a million times better than the bloated toshiba my gf got...

Buchanan0204 · 1 Oct 2011 at 17:47

I always format new systems. Dodgy OEM versions of Windows is never a good thing... 30 day trials of office, Macafee and Norton. Two anti-virus programs and loads of other mince is never good. Not to mention the dodgy branding of the system.

Format all the way. Delete the recovery partition and use it as extra storage. Such a waste of space.

Make your own backup/recovery partition once you have everything installed.

Flashheart · 1 Oct 2011 at 18:41

Buchanan0204 said:
I always format new systems. Dodgy OEM versions of Windows is never a good thing... 30 day trials of office, Macafee and Norton. Two anti-virus programs and loads of other mince is never good. Not to mention the dodgy branding of the system.

Format all the way. Delete the recovery partition and use it as extra storage. Such a waste of space.

Make your own backup/recovery partition once you have everything installed.

This. Manufacturers OEM's are loaded with bloat ware

Behemoth · 1 Oct 2011 at 20:57

My Asus Laptop was terrible, I've never seen so much bloat before ! Was supplied with a 500 gig HDD when I looked, the drive was split into 2 partitions but I only had 400 gig of space on the two combined, they'd made a hidden recory partition with the other 65 gig.

Thankfully I have a spare Windows 7 HP 64 Bit licence to hand so used my retal disc after making the recovery media supplied by Asus (it took 5 hours to do that !) and then got all the drivers from Asus after using my own licence.

Format all the way.

TheVoice · 1 Oct 2011 at 23:48

Flashheart said:
This. Manufacturers OEM's are loaded with bloat ware

Dell systems aren't these days, there's only a few things installed. They're not like other manufacturers where you get a desktop full of icons before you've even started using the system.

lennshow66 · 1 Oct 2011 at 23:50

with my m11x r2 i got no bloatware, and i got a windows 7 disc which was clean.

Fallen god · 2 Oct 2011 at 00:07

Found dell to be quiet good, brought 3 machines from them so far (2 for family) and all of the laptop only had a few things here and there mostly just drivers such as touchpad, webcam, and mine had a mini dell dock but i just deleted that. I would recommend a fresh install if you can be asked but its not that important with dell atleast.

Buchanan0204 · 2 Oct 2011 at 16:22

Behemoth said:
My Asus Laptop was terrible, I've never seen so much bloat before ! Was supplied with a 500 gig HDD when I looked, the drive was split into 2 partitions but I only had 400 gig of space on the two combined, they'd made a hidden recory partition with the other 65 gig.

Thankfully I have a spare Windows 7 HP 64 Bit licence to hand so used my retal disc after making the recovery media supplied by Asus (it took 5 hours to do that !) and then got all the drivers from Asus after using my own licence.

Format all the way.

Why on Earth would you waste a license key on the laptop when it had one already?

Buchanan0204 · 2 Oct 2011 at 16:23

Fallen god said:
Found dell to be quiet good, brought 3 machines from them

Made me laugh

TheHitMan-1973 · 2 Oct 2011 at 16:49

Just leave machine as you get it , delete what you dont use or want easy

Fallen god · 2 Oct 2011 at 22:03

Buchanan0204 said:
Made me laugh

Lols spelling words confuses me

Behemoth · 3 Oct 2011 at 20:46

Buchanan0204 said:
Why on Earth would you waste a license key on the laptop when it had one already?

I don't have any media for Windows 7 64 Bit OEM, and don't trust using a copy of the SVS from various file sharing sites, it's not like I've got an other PC's that require the spare retail licence so may aswell use it on m laptop.