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Comment by eropple | Hacker News Reader

Trialware is installed because it improves ROI on the product. Whether people want them or not is functionally irrelevant--whether they're willing to pay to not have them is relevant. If you're willing to pay more, feel free to demonstrate it. (I'm not, because I nuke-and-pave hardware when I get it.)

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How long does it take to do a full reinstall nowadays? Still hours?

Not really. Windows 7/10 should be up and running in under half an hour in most circumstances.

I installed Windows 10 on an SSD, plus Office 365 from the Internet, in around 30 minutes last week, so yes.

Clean Windows 10 install from usb key is under 30 mins nowadays.

Don't even have to clean install from a USB Key as of the Windows 10 Anniversary update from a few months ago. Microsoft now has a tool that downloads the image and installs it for you automatically.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10s...

Iirc they introduced that with Win8

Not quite. This tool takes it a step further.

The Win8 Refresh/Reset was based on an image preloaded by the OEM, or installed as part of a Win8 install. If you reset your computer, you'd get all the bloatware back unless you clean installed (which replaces the image).

Win10 Refresh/Reset doesn't have such an image, and just reconstructs a fresh state as part of the process, but then runs a package that the OEM preloads on the computer after resetting.

This tool basically deletes that package so that when you reset, you get a fresh copy without any of that bloatware reinstalled.

Ahh I see. I didn't have Win8 preinstalled on my PC back then, so when I used that feature it only ever gave me the clean install.

Thanks!

They might have been able to "capture" a good amount of drivers with their new update strategy. This might help to be able to do that... and this is a good news!

I haven't really needed extra drivers in either my Surfaces (duh) and also my Lenovo laptops. My custom-built gaming tower did need some but mainly just to enable some gaming features.

For the OS only (not including any app installs you might need) I can install Windows 10 in about 10 minutes on an SSD using the standard consumer windows setup GUI method (no fancy imaging techniques or whatnot).

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