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    Should We Remove Bloatware on Office PCs

    IT Discussion
    bloatware best practices
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    • JaredBuschJ
      JaredBusch @angrydok
      last edited by

      @angrydok said:

      I find annoying anything that was not installed by me (probably except free MS Office on windows machines).

      The free MS Office is a pain in the ass if you have your own version of office to install.

      If you leave that installed and your user clicks on an access document, it will f'n install it.

      Then when you uninstall, it breaks your installed version and you have to then perform a repair.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • J
        Jason Banned @Carnival Boy
        last edited by

        @Carnival-Boy said:

        @Jason said:

        Not really, It takes maybe 30min (complete, until it's ready for the user) for our guys to image a computer from WDS.

        It takes me about 20 minutes to prepare a computer from unboxing it to giving it to the user. So that proves my point - imaging IS slower 🙂

        20 Min without an image? Do you not get windows updates caught of before giving to a user? Do you not install any additional software and test it?

        RojoLocoR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
        • StrongBadS
          StrongBad
          last edited by

          Twenty minutes is very fast, I could not possibly get updates run, drivers install and apps installed that quickly. Even with a script.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • RojoLocoR
            RojoLoco @Jason
            last edited by

            @Jason said:

            @Carnival-Boy said:

            @Jason said:

            Not really, It takes maybe 30min (complete, until it's ready for the user) for our guys to image a computer from WDS.

            It takes me about 20 minutes to prepare a computer from unboxing it to giving it to the user. So that proves my point - imaging IS slower 🙂

            20 Min without an image? Do you not get windows updates caught of before giving to a user? Do you not install any additional software and test it?

            20 mins is plenty of time to hand out an unpatched, vulnerable system... if that is how you like to do things.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • C
              Carnival Boy
              last edited by

              I'll time it next time I do one and post the exact timings. Windows updates get installed when the PC is shut down, and possibly that adds a few minutes, I don't generally monitor that.

              But even with an image, you still need to install all the updates since you took the image, so it's no quicker right?

              thanksajdotcomT J 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • thanksajdotcomT
                thanksajdotcom @Carnival Boy
                last edited by

                @Carnival-Boy said:

                I'll time it next time I do one and post the exact timings. Windows updates get installed when the PC is shut down, and possibly that adds a few minutes, I don't generally monitor that.

                But even with an image, you still need to install all the updates since you took the image, so it's no quicker right?

                You can also work to maintain an image.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • J
                  Jason Banned @Carnival Boy
                  last edited by

                  @Carnival-Boy said:

                  I'll time it next time I do one and post the exact timings. Windows updates get installed when the PC is shut down, and possibly that adds a few minutes, I don't generally monitor that.

                  But even with an image, you still need to install all the updates since you took the image, so it's no quicker right?

                  Images are updated regularly so there are very few new ones. We don't won't technicians deploying in patched systems so we handle that.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • scottalanmillerS
                    scottalanmiller
                    last edited by

                    @Carnival-Boy said:

                    But even with an image, you still need to install all the updates since you took the image, so it's no quicker right?

                    Correct, that should be a break even in general. Unless you are doing a "build your own image" then you can build in some or all of the patches (at least up to the image build time.) So if we leave the "low effort" realm you can do things to speed that up a lot. But when comparing vanilla OEM disc to vanilla MS VL OS disc the patching and updates should be a break even.

                    J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • J
                      Jason Banned @scottalanmiller
                      last edited by

                      @scottalanmiller said:

                      @Carnival-Boy said:

                      But even with an image, you still need to install all the updates since you took the image, so it's no quicker right?

                      Correct, that should be a break even in general. Unless you are doing a "build your own image" then you can build in some or all of the patches (at least up to the image build time.) So if we leave the "low effort" realm you can do things to speed that up a lot. But when comparing vanilla OEM disc to vanilla MS VL OS disc the patching and updates should be a break even.

                      Wouldn't call it a break even. If you do it on the image you spend the time on a VM doing it once for them. If you do it yourself without an image you have to do it on all of them after you get the computers.

                      scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • C
                        Carnival Boy
                        last edited by

                        If you do it on the image you spend the time on a VM doing it once for them.

                        On a VM? Not sure exactly what you mean.

                        What would be great on this thread would be for someone to list the steps that I should follow to setup 10 PCs - ie creating the image, installing the image onto the other PCs, sysprep, which software I should use for the imaging, updating drivers etc etc - the whole process from start to finish. With rough time frames on how long each step should take. Because I'll confess, I've never actually done it! I paid a guy to do it once and he made a complete mess of it and it took him ages (too bad I was paying by the hour), which has undoubtedly clouded my judgement.

                        scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • scottalanmillerS
                          scottalanmiller @Jason
                          last edited by

                          @Jason said:

                          @scottalanmiller said:

                          @Carnival-Boy said:

                          But even with an image, you still need to install all the updates since you took the image, so it's no quicker right?

                          Correct, that should be a break even in general. Unless you are doing a "build your own image" then you can build in some or all of the patches (at least up to the image build time.) So if we leave the "low effort" realm you can do things to speed that up a lot. But when comparing vanilla OEM disc to vanilla MS VL OS disc the patching and updates should be a break even.

                          Wouldn't call it a break even. If you do it on the image you spend the time on a VM doing it once for them. If you do it yourself without an image you have to do it on all of them after you get the computers.

                          What I meant is that if you don't add the patches into the VL image, you would still be break even. Of course with any scale you are obviously correct, the value of building patches into the image is huge.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • scottalanmillerS
                            scottalanmiller @Carnival Boy
                            last edited by

                            @Carnival-Boy said:

                            What would be great on this thread would be for someone to list the steps that I should follow to setup 10 PCs - ie creating the image, installing the image onto the other PCs, sysprep, which software I should use for the imaging, updating drivers etc etc - the whole process from start to finish.

                            A couple sample "how to" threads of different techniques or approaches for this would be great.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • bbigfordB
                              bbigford
                              last edited by

                              This is assuming we're supporting offices that buy from a big box store, full of bloatware then...

                              I always uninstall. But, if given the option for offices, I keep a clone of the (hopefully) like-PCs on hand and that clone is of a fresh base install. 45 minutes and done.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • scottalanmillerS
                                scottalanmiller
                                last edited by

                                As to the "should we" portion... here is an example of where it really, really matters and where just "uninstalling" things won't catch all of the bad stuff....

                                http://mangolassi.it/topic/7002/dell-does-a-superfish-ships-pcs-with-easily-cloneable-root-certificates

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • MattSpellerM
                                  MattSpeller
                                  last edited by

                                  Excellent topic

                                  To add fuel to the fire (though it might have been mentioned already below)

                                  It simplifies the transition between models and makes of laptop. I like to "generic windows-ify" all my installs so that you use all the MS stuff to manage wifi etc. Then the only transitions you need to coach users on is to new windows versions.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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