This is my shining moment! I just happened to setup a new Dell. It was far more cumbersome than dealing with a new Mac.
Here's some of the stuff I had to do on my new Dell, from memory:
- Uninstall all the bloatware apps that come installed with Windows 11. They nag and beg you not to uninstall them, but after several prompts, they mostly seem uninstalled?
- Remove the trial offers from the Start menu.
- Remove the third-party stub apps from the Start menu (eg. TikTok).
- Remove the O365 stub apps.
- Remove the McAfee antivirus payware.
- Remove Dell SupportAssist from the laptop.
- Then, just reinstall Windows 11 from scratch, because of all the remaining detritus left after performing the above steps. And uninstalling SupportAssist caused some instability and weird errors upon login.
- Uninstall all the bloatware apps the come installed with Windows 11 again.
- Remove the trial offers from the Start menu.
- Remove the third-party stub apps from the Start menu (eg. TikTok).
- Remove the O365 stub apps.
Compared to on my Mac:
- Remove apps from the Dock
- Go into /Applications and uninstall about 6 Apple apps I don't use.
I haven't used Windows in years, but surely a clean install addresses some of that? I don't think I've ever used whatever default OS was preinstalled on a laptop or PC that I bought.
Or is the default Windows 11 just that full of shite?
Home edition comes with a few offers.
> Remove the third-party stub apps from the Start menu (eg. TikTok).
It comes with... TikTok?!?
> Here's some of the stuff I had to do on my new Dell, from memory:
Or, you know, just format the disk and install Linux.
If it were my choice…
How is it you could reinstall Windows, but not Linux? Or is it just mandatory to run Windows, but nobody cares if you reinstall it? My wife’s Windows laptop won’t allow me to even run Logitech Connect Utility, to reconnect some devices (pair a keyboard to the mouse). It surely won’t allow the full reinstall, it’s locked entirely. Hence, I’m curious what’s up with your work (I assume) laptop.
Mandatory to run Windows for this device as it was going to a C-level person.