Crapware: If you have ever bought a Windows PC or Android smartphone or tablet from a major retailer then you know. You may even have tried to remove them.
Crapware (also known as “bloatware” or “junkware”) is the stuff that manufacturers hardware εγκαθιστούν στις συσκευές τους πάνω στο functional system. Some of them may be barely useful (I'm trying to think of an example of useful crapware, and I can't), most of them are just trial apps, and demos that ask you to buy some kind of full version.
These crapware do not cause damage, but dramatically slow down system performance. Sometimes we have seen that they can endanger the security of your system (we do not say names…. Lenovo).
Over the years I have seen too many computers bend over the weight of the crapware they had installed, and many of them were brand new as they came out of the sales package. The same systems ran fine when we removed the trash.
So there are a lot of disgruntled PC owners who blame “Microsoft” or “Windows” for performance issues, when in fact the problem is company who built the computer and then took money from third parties to fill it with junk.
Lately, however, Microsoft seems to be following the successful recipe, and has added a lot of crapware applications, in Windows 10. According to the popular saying, you do not look at the donkey that is given to your teeth…
OEMs do this because they are paid by software companies. For example, how many of you have seen a computer with McAfee or Norton in beta? Unless the company that made your computer is Apple.
The biggest problem with crapware is not that they exist, but that they are difficult to remove.
Deleting crapware from Windows computers is not easy, and when we are talking about Android smartphones and tablets can be from very difficult to impossible. Yes, there are tools out there like PC Decrapifier and CCleaner that do the job but nobody is perfect...
Another route you can take if you want a crapware-free system is to delete the existing installation and reinstall Windows from scratch. With Windows 10 you will not have the crapware of OEMs, but you will still encounter the junk that Microsoft has added.
On devices running Android the problem is even more aggressive, as some crapware has penetrated so deep into the system that it may be impossible to remove it unless you have root.
Another solution would be to build your own PC and use another operating system that does not contain crapware.
