Our desktop PC is showing signs of senility - it's running Windows XP from which you can tell that it's well past it's use-by date. We still use it as a file and backup server and for occasional word processing and spreadsheet work, but don't need high performance.
There seem to be quite a number of machines costing up to £350 that look suitable, from brands like Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Packard-Bell, etc.
From experience in buying laptops in recent years, I think the main deciding factor may be how much bloatware is pre-installed but it's hard to assess that from vendors descriptions or reviews. Does anyone have experience of which brands are least infested, or on which it's easiest to remove all the junk?
Just accept that most new windows 10 PCs' come with junk installed.
AFAIK you can reinstall a clean copy of Windows 10 on any windows 10 PC that has already been authorised/"finger printed" by MS.
I have fixed a couple of PC's that were orginally windows 8 and then updated to windows 10 before failing. Re installing Windows 10 from the MS ISO proved to be painless. Both machines automatically "authorised".
The effort* in removing bloatware is better spent on a platform that you have much more control of, i.e. Linux or Mac. Performing day to day activities is very straightforward on these, no game playing rituals required.
Basically, on a machine with digital entitlement to run Windows 10, the process is to download the equivalent non-OEM tampered vanilla version direct from Microsoft, reinstall, and then battle with powershell (or "settings") to remove apps that MS occasionally spams your PC with, in every update.
If you want to go that way, you may as well buy a posh second user Lenovo laptop from a recycler, and enjoy(?) the whole maintenance experience.
You'll get a better deal with a no-name build on ebay. Do check seller ratings & do verify you've received the right specs before doing anything else with it.
Debloating vendor's OSes is not something to recommend. It tends to be impossible. Start with MS Win, or better, linux Mint LTS. Now you have no bloat or malware from the start.
Any. If running W10 then you can download a copy of W10 installer from MS and just install a fresh / base copy and only add what you want yourself. ;-)
formatting link
The chances are it will detect all the hardware automagically and will also authenticate itself the first time you go online. I've just done such on a friends - kids laptop.
I really am not being snippy, but if you don't want bloatware, Windows - of any stripe - is not for you.
What's the machine to be used for ? Unless you have a requirement for a very niche Windows-only application, I'd really look to Linux and run up a VM for anything genuinely Windows only.
You could always get pcs without an OS from novatech. Maybe still. Then you will need a windows license pref at a discount via a student or a connection to a charity.
And if they are asking such a question, do you think Linux is the solution and if so, who is going to install / maintain it for them?
Many people simply don't want Linux because it isn't what they know (for a given value of know) or because they use Windows a work or it's what 'everyone else' has. Plus the kid next door would generally be able to fix a Windows question, many will never have eve seen Linux.
Now don't get me wrong, if the OP is looking for a new hobby, is a bit of a nerd, or knows a Linux geek who is happy to actually give RW help as / when required ... and they don't (or might not when the grand kids come round) want to run ay of the Windows centric stuff that is out there, then Linux *could* be a viable solution.
I have provide Linux (foc) for many people now and the vast majority don't like it, can't use it and generally ask me to 'Put Windows back on' for something there isn't a good Linux solution for.
I do have 3 or 4 people now who use Linux as their daily desktop but they really only use their machines as web terminals. [1]
Cheers, T i m
[1] When I visited the other day I noticed both of them mentioned that Facebook (or something) was complaining that Firefox was out of date. I noticed that neither machine had been updated since the last time I as there so I did them both. One went ok (but slowly) and the other one ended up with a corrupted desktop and I had to run the recovery option and (luckily) the 'Fix broken packages' seemed to get it going again. Had it not I wasn't sure what would happen next and after 40+ years in IT I still don't know a friendly Linux geek I could call for help (possibly because 'Linux geek' and 'friendly' are likely to be an oxymoron). ;-)
+1 again. My current machine ia a Novatech 'bare bones' system with my coice of hdd & optical drive, I also bought a Win7pro OEM cd & installed it myself. 3(or is it 4)years on it is working perfectly
For computer illiterate users who want to browse, send emails, write letters and view photographs, Peppermint Linux is very good and probably much safer for them. I've put this on laptops for my two sisters in law and they're very happy with it - it works well and has a nice GUI.
I use Windows because of the software I need, but have Peppermint on my ancient don't-care holiday laptop because it works well on a low-spec machine.
+1. I bought a "clearance" high-spec laptop (Elite Ultimate - rebadged Clevo) 4 years ago. Amazing value. I got it because I wanted to install a Linux distro rather than Win8, so there was no question of bloatware. It has worked faultlessly since I bought it.
It now runs Linux Mint 19.1/Cinnamon 4.0.9.
Unfortunately, Novatech do not appear to have any clearance offers at the moment.
There's a thing called Windows Signature Edition, which is just plain windows preinstalled:
formatting link
However you should look at the bloatware as advertising that subsidises the cost of the PC, because they expect you'll take up all the free trials etc. If you're willing to do the work to reinstall Windows from a standard DVD, you get to keep the subsidy as well as get rid of the bloatware.
However, you need to be vigilant for firmware things like:
IME Lenovo have less blotware than others, to the degree that I don't bother doing a clean install on them, unlike others, but that isn't hard to do if you want to.
My last three or four desktop machines have been "refurbished" medium to high end Dells from banking / server farm type environments. They seem to come with completely clean installs. Amazon or ebay, taking note of volumes and feedback.
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