Dell is one of the leading names in the global laptop industry as the company is known for making laptops that are actually pretty good in terms of their overall features and specs. But, no matter how good a laptop might be, it still can be full of useless software that we know of as bloatware. This is usually the case for any kind of laptop no matter what brand. So, do Dell laptops have bloatware?
Dell laptops still have bloatware just like most other laptops from different companies do. The bloatware usually comes in the form of pre-installed Dell software that may or may not be useful for the user. As such, if you want to get the best out of your laptop, you can remove the bloatware.
Bloatware is a common problem among different laptops especially because of how they can just simply make the laptop slower or take up storage space that you could have used for your other files and programs. That said, there is a need for you to know whether or not your Dell laptop comes with bloatware so that you can identify which ones to remove and which ones to keep in your laptop moving forward.
Do Dell laptops have bloatware?
The laptop market is increasingly becoming more competitive because different players have been entering it. That said, even though there are plenty of players in the laptop industry, Dell still holds a good hold over the market thanks to how it controls around 15% of the total market share and is behind only HP and Lenovo in that regard. This means that Dell, thanks in large part to its huge American followers, is one of the best laptop manufacturers in the world.
Still, no matter how popular a laptop manufacturer may be, the lingering problem of bloatware exists. This is a problem that is quite common among OEM laptop manufacturing companies because of how they love putting different pre-installed programs and software on their laptops. And because users don’t necessarily use those programs or software, they have labeled them as bloatware.
So, in that regard, does Dell have bloatware in the laptops that they sell?
When we are talking about bloatware, we are referring to the different programs and software that OEM manufacturers tend to include in the laptop even before they get them shipped over to their retailers. A lot of these programs and software come with the manufacturer’s name, which is Dell in this case. That’s why you will see plenty of different Dell programs on a Dell laptop the moment you start it up for the very first time. And there isn’t even an assurance that the owners will actually use these different programs and software.
At this point, it is needless to say that Dell laptops do indeed come with different bloatware that are in the form of programs and software that you may or may not use but are still going to take up valuable storage space in your laptop. And, if such programs are actually functioning as background processes whenever you are using your laptop and even if you are not using those programs, they will take up RAM space as well.
So, if that is the case, why would Dell and other laptop manufacturers even put bloatware in their laptops? After all, there is no assurance that the user will even find them useful or keep them installed in their laptops for a long time. What’s the point of even doing that?
The point of putting bloatware in Dell laptops is that Dell and other companies that put bloatware actually receive money or favors from other companies for adding or pre-installing software in their laptops. This allows them to increase their profit margin for every laptop sold as companies will keep on adding bloatware for as long as possible to make sure that they are making more than enough money when they sell their laptops.
But the problem here is that, because of how they are so focused on making money through bloatware, they often forget about the fact that they need to provide the user with a good experience when using their laptops. That isn’t something that users can have when their laptops are full of bloatware that may not even be useful to them throughout the entire lifetime of the laptop.
That said, if you are looking for bloatware in your Dell laptop, these are the more common ones:
- Dell Customer Connect
- Dell Digital Delivery
- Dell Help and Support
- Dell Product Registration
- Dell Support Assist & Remediation & Agent
- Dell Update
- Dell Update – SupportAssist Update Plugin
All of the abovementioned Dell software can be safely removed without causing issues to how your Dell laptop functions. So, in short, those Dell programs are the very definition of bloatware because they may be useful to some extent but are entirely unnecessary as they merely add useless bloat to your laptop, which probably has limited room in its storage and memory.
How do you remove bloatware from Dell laptops?
So, now that you know that you can actually remove bloatware from Dell laptops without causing any issues to your laptop whatsoever, here are some of the ways that will allow you to quickly remove any of the programs and software that you consider to be bloatware.
1. Reinstalling Windows OS
If you had just gotten your Dell laptop and you have not yet installed or stored anything in its storage drive, the best way for you to completely wipe out all traces of bloatware is to reinstall the entire OS, which basically wipes out the storage drive. This is the most efficient way for you to make sure that your laptop doesn’t have any bloatware as you are now starting off fresh with your Dell Windows laptop. Here is how you completely wipe out the drive and start your OS fresh:
- Go to Start and then Settings.
- Look for Update and Security.
- Choose Recovery.
- Go to Get Started in Reset this PC.
- Finally, choose Remove Everything to completely wipe out your drive and reinstall your Windows OS.
2. Usual method
When we are talking about the usual method, it involves looking for the bloatware yourself and then removing them one by one. This should be a good way for you to uninstall bloatware if you already have files stored and programs installed in your Dell laptop as you are not going to completely wipe out your drive. However, there is no assurance that you get rid of all of the bloatware if you happen to miss one. That said, here is how you do this method:
- Click on the Start menu and type ‘remove programs’.
- In the menu, select ‘install or remove programs’.
- You will be able to see everything that is installed on your Dell laptop.
- Select the programs you want to remove because you consider them to be bloatware.
- Click delete after selecting the programs you believe to be bloatware.
- Restart your Dell laptop after removing the bloatware or any of the unnecessary software.
3. Third-party program
You can also use a third-party program for removing bloatware. Such a program is designed to detect other programs and software it deems to be useless such as the usual bloatware. As such, using this program will allow you to remove not only the pre-installed bloatware the comes with your Dell laptop but also other programs that you may have installed in the past but are not useless. A good third-party program to use is The PC Decrapifier.