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Comment by _lce0 | Hacker News Reader

What about installing an intermediate linux system?

  1. start with window pre-installed
  2. install any linux distro, fully overwriting the OEM
  3. re-install windows, from microsoft

I'd say just stop at step 2 ;) but I can understand that not everybody can do this (eg: work computer) but want a clean OS.

will this method work to remove such bloatware?

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This won't work because the firmware will write a file to your hard drive with the bloatware. It's scary that firmware will modify my filesystem - lots of damage could happen here.

Also, instead of step 2, it would make more sense to boot linux on a usb stick and use dd to erase the hard drive -- this is more complete than installing another OS... but still useless if the firmware is working against you.

In this case Windows will write to your filesystem, not the firmware. Of course there is nothing stopping a firmware from writing to the disk before it loads any OS, but that is true with any OS not just Windows.

It won't work unless you manage to flash the UEFI firmware.

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