A Signature Experience

by Krishna on May 17, 2012 at 11:02 am

Random

I’m taking a quick detour from the storyline to address a tech topic that’s been weighing on my mind: Microsoft Signature.

So, here’s what it is:

In a nutshell, you can buy a MS Windows PC directly from their store without any trialware or crapware pre-installed. Each Windows Signature PC comes pre-tuned and optimized for the hardware it’s on. In other words, the way it should be sold. But if you didn’t buy a PC directly from the MS store you get to PAY Microsoft for the privilege of having all that crapware removed for the grand price of $99. Amazing.

Too bad the Windows signature PCs are still littered with stickers across them. Nascar anyone?

The story continues next week. Stick around…

-Krishna

emjay

Nooooooooo!!!! I am hooked on the story and you put in a commercial break?! My heart!
emjay

Hmmm. Disclaimer did not go through – all kidding aside, I agree with you on this point, but your timing is a bit off!
DarwinSurvivor

What, no linux reference?
- http://www.pcweenies.com Krishna
  
  Believe me, Darwin – the temptation was there. ;)
EvilElf

And this is why I just build my own PC.
Bartimaeus

Funny, my Mac was like that right out of the box.
TonyJ

To be fair, since Microsoft sells a “generic” Windows that can be used on all sorts of hardware, I’d actually say this is more of something I’d expect the system sellers to do as part of the purchase price of their machine.
What I mean by that is that is, the new laptop I bought from Lenovo late last year should have come (and as far as I can tell, DID actually come like this) with MS Windows installed, then they start updating it with their relevant drivers, updates, tweaks for hardware, etc.
I can understand some crapware as manufacturers use that to help subsidise the cost of the machine (margins are APPARENTLY very thin nowadays) so I guess it’s kinda reasonable to pay a little extra to get it without the subsidy. I understand for you Americans this is a little more obvious with the Amazon Kindle – you can buy it at a certain price, or a little cheaper if you put up with adverts on the machine.
And Bartimaeus I guess that’s the advantage of having one manufacturer, with one OS for one machine (with variants, obviously, but nothing like the scope Windows has to deal with! …I don’t see you get much of a subsidy with an Apple machine, though! ;-)
- Jake Eskel
  
  Apple does the same thing, running on all kinds of hardware, for almost no crapware. You can install, at least Snow Leopard, on almost any machine out there (hackintosh, tonymacx86…). Windows can’t use that as an excuse
Mikko

I’ll would do it for $50 :)

The PC Weenies

A Signature Experience

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