Author Topic: Poll: Did you install Windows or was it pre-installed? (Read 17639 times)

zridling · « **on:** June 25, 2008, 02:24 PM »

Curious how many Windows users do not originally install the OS themselves.

POLL CLARIFICATION: Even if your computer came with an OEM copy and you performed a clean install from a partition or disk, I'd count that more on the side of 'installing it" rather than "came with."

Veign · « **Reply #1 on:** June 25, 2008, 02:36 PM »

Came pre-installed on my current laptop but have installed Windows way too many times to count.

mediaguycouk · « **Reply #2 on:** June 25, 2008, 02:46 PM »

Does an upgrade count?

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #3 on:** June 25, 2008, 02:52 PM »

My latest PC came with Vista pre-installed. I reformatted and put XP on.

So my answer is: both.

Darwin · « **Reply #4 on:** June 25, 2008, 03:00 PM »

My system came preinstalled with WinXP Sp-1a. Fortunately, I was given a real XP installation CD (albeit an OEM one) so I immediately wiped the harddrive and did a reinstall to get rid of all of the crud that had been preinstalled. So... my answer is *kind of* both as well... though I voted for "preinstalled".

Deozaan · « **Reply #5 on:** June 25, 2008, 03:27 PM »

Even if it came pre-installed I would have voted for "installed myself" if I had formatted and installed it.

After all, I think the intention of the question is: When you get a new computer do you use the "preinstalled" Windows or do you install it yourself (including formatting preinstalled Windows first)?

Grorgy · « **Reply #6 on:** June 25, 2008, 03:37 PM »

My systems when purchased had windows installed, it has since been reinstalled but on purchase day all i had to do to start was turn it on.

wreckedcarzz · « **Reply #7 on:** June 25, 2008, 04:06 PM »

All my computers (so far) are/have been OEM with Windows preinstalled, but all of them have been formatted and reinstalled several times in their lifetime.

So I guess I'll opt for the "installed myself" option, as I have run through the XP install a good 60 times and Vista about 20 or so

jgpaiva · « **Reply #8 on:** June 25, 2008, 04:24 PM »

I also support deozaan's opinion. the question is whether you've already installed windows over the OEM install, or if you usually just use the OEM install.

Darwin · « **Reply #9 on:** June 25, 2008, 04:35 PM »

Hmph! Well then, off to change my vote

jgpaiva · « **Reply #10 on:** June 25, 2008, 04:41 PM »

Only now did i notice i didn't actually reply to the question

On my personal computers, i always install a new windows not only to change partitions, remove crapware and etc, but also because most of the time i replace the original OS with the pro/bussiness version supplied by my university

cranioscopical · « **Reply #11 on:** June 25, 2008, 04:46 PM »

Apart from one IBM ThinkPad I've installed Windows myself on every Windows-capable machine that I've owned.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #12 on:** June 25, 2008, 04:53 PM »

Well, the results are pretty conclusive (this assuming that the trend will continue).
But i wouldn't expect anything else from this community

In terms of the general public, i'd say that the people that actually install their own OS are a very small minory, probably arround 10% or less (that's just a random number based on the people i know, which is just as good as any other statistic

).

fenixproductions · « **Reply #13 on:** June 25, 2008, 05:27 PM »

2jgpaiva
You counter is not good enough. You forgot about the rest of the world.

I could assume opposite way. Back in Poland I've seen hundreds of PCes with OS installed by owners / administrators. Many of them bought pretty new machines and "forgot" (or hoped for friends) about buying Windows itself. The most of them owns theirs computers from second hand. Only very small amount of people I've met bought PC with pre-installed operating system.

After all there is some kind of strange feeling which comes to me when I tell someone that I've spent more than one salary to own my Win XP Prof BOX

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #14 on:** June 25, 2008, 05:40 PM »

I have only ever bought one system with Windows pre-installed (98SE). Bad experience but at least at that time I got a proper copy on CD with the computer so I could wipe it and install it without all the rubbish.

Since then I have built my own systems.

I tell a lie - my laptop (bought in March) had Vista pre-installed but somehow XP magically appeared after I phoned the company and complained (they sent me an OEM XP Pro disc instead so I was happy to reinstall). I have to say the system was MUCH faster with XP (it only had 1Gb and Vista as preinstalled took up 70% of that). I have since added an extra Gb of memory and XP flies now.

f0dder · « **Reply #15 on:** June 25, 2008, 06:20 PM »

My first PC came with DOS6.22 and optional Win3.11 floppies, and my second PC came with Win95 (I think the vanilla version? I'm afraid I threw out the disc + license when I moved out on my own) preinstalled.

On every machine since that, I've installed Windows myself, and I've used nLite ever since I found it to enjoy the tweaks it can do (before that I did manual unattended setup, but nLites hotfix integration is just too nice not to use it).

I'm probably buying a laptop by September, which will no doubt come with windows preinstalled. Dunno if I'll keep it or install myself, depends on things like driver support etc.

4wd · « **Reply #16 on:** June 25, 2008, 07:04 PM »

I've always installed Windows myself on my machines - the only exception being a laptop that came with a bog-standard XP Home OEM install. That lasted about half a day before it became an nlite'ned XP installation.

On every machine since that, I've installed Windows myself, and I've used nLite ever since I found it to enjoy the tweaks it can do (before that I did manual unattended setup, but nLites hotfix integration is just too nice not to use it).
-f0dder (June 25, 2008, 06:20 PM)

Me too

Plus the fact I can get rid of all those necessities that Microsoft thinks are absolutely essential to your well being.

app103 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 25, 2008, 07:16 PM »

Every PC I have owned has come with Windows pre-installed...but only 1 of them was a factory install.

All of my computers have arrived at my home by making a detour to my dad's house for a bit, first.

In addition to installing Windows, and configuring it all to the way HE likes it, he has a habit of installing the OEM Bundle from Hell™ which means he hits some download site and grabs everything he can and keeps installing stuff till he falls asleep at the keyboard. The rest of the setup files of things he didn't get to, are included on their own partition.

Only after this, does the PC make its way from his house to mine.

The exception to this was the last PC he gave me, which didn't arrive in time for him to take out of the box, nevermind install the usual bundle. That had a nice factory pre-installed Windows, and a much smaller OEM bundle.

zridling · « **Reply #18 on:** June 25, 2008, 09:39 PM »

CLARIFICATION: Even if your computer came with an OEM copy and you reinstalled it yourself, I'd count that more on the side of 'installing it" rather than "came with."

oldfart · « **Reply #19 on:** June 25, 2008, 11:18 PM »

After the momentous battles I went through with Win95 and 98, installing XP is such a breeze that I wipe my drive regularly. I remember having to remove every peripheral on the machine, installing 95 or 98 and then adding modem, sound card, video card, 3D accelerator, printer and scanner one at a time so it wouldn't confuse poor Windows. Even then I often had to stop and go back to square one when Windows choked on one of the peripherals and bollixed up everything It took a couple of days of blood, sweat and lots of cursing to do a complete wipe and reinstall. Now I can get it done in a couple of hours. Of course I have a broadband connection for downloading updates now instead of the old 54k dial-up of yesteryear. The first time I did an install of XP I left all the peripherals except the printer and scanner attached and XP handled them with style. I wanted to kiss Bill Gates right on the lips.

zridling · « **Reply #20 on:** June 26, 2008, 10:37 PM »

Yea, but even XP's installation is far more task-intensive for the user than Vista's. I think Vista is mainly an unattended installation except for two prompts. Ah, progress.

40hz · « **Reply #21 on:** June 27, 2008, 09:48 AM »

Install!

I poke around the OEM install first to see if I can learn anything of value. That hasn't happened yet but you never know right?

But after that, I flatline (i.e. wipe + low level format & recertify) and do a squeaky clean install of XP or some flavor of Linux on every machine. The only exception has been on those machines that had a diagnostics or recovery partition. In those cases I just reformatted the NTFS partition and did a clean install.

After all the updates and tweaks and product activations I also do a "Genesis" image with Clonezilla or Acronis TrueImage and burn it to a DVD just in case I need a recovery disk done the way I think it should be done.

f0dder · « **Reply #22 on:** June 27, 2008, 10:11 AM »

But after that, I flatline (i.e. wipe + low level format & recertify) and do a squeaky clean install of XP or some flavor of Linux on every machine.
-40hz (June 27, 2008, 09:48 AM)

There's no such thing as low level format for consumer since MFM disks went out of production

40hz · « **Reply #23 on:** June 27, 2008, 01:41 PM »

But after that, I flatline (i.e. wipe + low level format & recertify) and do a squeaky clean install of XP or some flavor of Linux on every machine.
-40hz (June 27, 2008, 09:48 AM)
There's no such thing as low level format for consumer since MFM disks went out of production
-f0dder (June 27, 2008, 10:11 AM)

"Great Googly Moogly" --- You're absolutely correct!

My fault for actually letting myself use the modern misnomer when I probably should have said "zero-fill erase."

I used to argue that point with clients all the time, but I eventually gave up when Seagate et al started abusing the term on their websites. Always difficult to explain to a non-technical type why their "Computer Guy" is disagreeing with the people that made the drive. Especially when the person you're arguing with is also writing your check.

Yes. We've come a long way from those days when you had to go into DEBUG and do a GO on a hexaddr. Tingatingatingatinga...ditditdit...such sweet music those gigantic 20Mb drives made as they formatted! Then along came RLE drives and all the little antics they could could get up to. So little time for the simple pleasures...

Sure don't miss them.

BTW - after I read your response I suddenly got nostalgic. I took a look in my storage room and found my old Northgate Elegance 386-20 (s/n 54265-built in 1989) with 8Mb RAM and that exquisite OmnikeyUtra keyboard... My first "real" computer which was purchased for somewhere around $4K.

NORTHGATE-COMPUTER-SYSTEMS-INC-386-386-486-486SX-3-1.jpg

NORTHGATE-COMPUTER-SYSTEMS-INC-386-386-486-486SX-3-1.jpg

I hauled it out, booted it, and damn if that old boat anchor didn't come up with WFWG 3.11! It even had a copy of TurboPascal and Smalltalk-V on it! That puppy has been sitting in storage since '91 and it still works. Amazing! Oh yeah, there's a 20Mb MFM hard drive in it too! Do I dare do a "g C800:5" in DEBUG and see if it will low-level for me?

f0dder · « **Reply #24 on:** June 27, 2008, 05:50 PM »

40hz: *big grin*

Btw, I would say that "full format" would suffice instead of "zero-fill erase", but after doing a full format (which takes long enough that it should be zero-filling every darn sector!) and looking with a hex editor, it seems like there was still data on the drive - bigtime weirdness. And more data than just partition table, boot sector, and (mostly blank) NTFS metadata. I'll have to look a bit more into this.