Some of the boutique / enthusiast shops will send the disks along, but the major manufacturers don't like to and you have to wheedle it out of them, either by special request or extra fee. See the following image (I took two screencaps from dell's current website and pasted them together). Click me.
Now, they don't completely leave you hanging; they DO include a way for you to recover to factory settings (the hidden recovery partition), they just don't include a disk is all. Disks are an extra expense, Dell can charge extra for a disk if they don't include it by default, aaaaand I'm sure the companies paying to have their bloatware pre-installed don't like users having an easy way to get rid of it (recovery disks don't have bloatware; recovery partitions do).
Now, they don't completely leave you hanging; they DO include a way for you to recover to factory settings (the hidden recovery partition), they just don't include a disk is all. Disks are an extra expense, Dell can charge extra for a disk if they don't include it by default, aaaaand I'm sure the companies paying to have their bloatware pre-installed don't like users having an easy way to get rid of it (recovery disks don't have bloatware; recovery partitions do).
New PC: to build or not to build
- 02/05/2011 04:16:46 PM
1161 Views
The advantages of building your own computer seem to be smaller these days.
- 02/05/2011 05:19:09 PM
923 Views
I take satisfaction in tinkering with computers...
- 02/05/2011 06:40:12 PM
1268 Views
Also, one of the big savings for building your own computer...
- 02/05/2011 07:27:37 PM
940 Views
yah that's part of the problem. I don't have a desktop right now. Not even a case
- 02/05/2011 07:37:45 PM
928 Views
It's not hard at all anymore. Link for Lorraine, too
- 02/05/2011 09:32:48 PM
1048 Views
I always buy Intel. Papa works there
- 02/05/2011 09:39:00 PM
1007 Views
- 02/05/2011 09:39:00 PM
1007 Views
Huh, small world. What site?
- 02/05/2011 10:36:55 PM
1137 Views
I have no idea what the name of his site is. Probably not that one
- 03/05/2011 01:50:38 AM
886 Views
- 03/05/2011 01:50:38 AM
886 Views
I don't know about you...
- 02/05/2011 08:21:41 PM
983 Views
Just get a pre-made and add a few components (ie: graphics card) to make you feel like you built it. *NM*
- 02/05/2011 08:53:07 PM
480 Views
Build it.
- 03/05/2011 02:54:12 PM
1096 Views
Warranty/Troubleshooting
- 03/05/2011 04:14:47 PM
925 Views
How?
- 03/05/2011 05:04:27 PM
910 Views
Re: How?
- 03/05/2011 06:47:56 PM
887 Views
Wow, I never heard about that.
- 03/05/2011 07:10:07 PM
950 Views
Nah, it was years ago. The one you gave me advice for was the replacement of the replacement, hah
- 03/05/2011 07:41:24 PM
877 Views
Yeah, I meant the power supply of the problem machine.
- 03/05/2011 08:10:04 PM
930 Views
Ah. yeah, it was one of the pieces that got replaced. It was probably at least partially responsible *NM*
- 03/05/2011 08:12:50 PM
515 Views
I like how you seem to think I'd buy a Dell
- 03/05/2011 04:17:58 PM
932 Views
If you like tinkering, then build one. Quality control is all on you, but it's "yours" then.
- 03/05/2011 03:00:21 PM
906 Views
#1 reason to build your own: no pre-loaded bloatware. *NM*
- 03/05/2011 04:52:45 PM
494 Views
Or just format when you get it. *NM*
- 03/05/2011 06:48:47 PM
476 Views
With a pre-built you can't often do that.
- 03/05/2011 07:19:28 PM
932 Views
for the record, sometimes stores will remove the bloatware for you
- 03/05/2011 07:28:58 PM
866 Views
Do prebuilts come without OS discs these days? That's bullshit. *NM*
- 03/05/2011 07:43:39 PM
499 Views
Yah, they don't.
- 03/05/2011 07:47:36 PM
896 Views
Well, it's understandable, just annoying.
- 03/05/2011 08:05:00 PM
894 Views
You really should just stop using Dell as your example
- 03/05/2011 10:51:10 PM
873 Views
- 03/05/2011 10:51:10 PM
873 Views
Oh, hush.
- 04/05/2011 12:50:15 AM
1056 Views
- 04/05/2011 12:50:15 AM
1056 Views
YOU SHALL NOT MALIGN THE HP!!!
- 04/05/2011 10:16:50 AM
906 Views
Re: YOU SHALL NOT MALIGN THE HP!!!
- 04/05/2011 04:55:49 PM
957 Views
My anecdotal evidence has HP failures being rare but spectacular.
- 04/05/2011 08:19:52 PM
908 Views
I had a Compaq laptop (built after HP had bought Compaq).
- 04/05/2011 09:13:54 PM
881 Views
Huh. I have a Compaq too. It shipped with bad RAM, but once I fixed that it's worked like a charm.
- 05/05/2011 12:43:48 AM
875 Views
Yes, almost without exception.
- 03/05/2011 07:58:32 PM
1043 Views

*NM*