Is it in the eye of the beholder? I get the impression that Microsoft's view is "If it didn't spring from our loins, it's bloatware". As in Windows 10 refresh tool: would it delete my Zemana antilogger, Malwarebytes, qtorrent, Glary Utilities, Panda AV, EasyBCD, Power ISO, etc. ? Is there a scientific/legal/generally accepted definition?
App that use good amount of resource and barely used by average user OS need to be mostly focus on user needs if statically the of use is lower then 2 % should be consider as bloat
I dunno. My definition of bloatware is all the useless stuff that HP, Lenovo, etc. install on your hard drive from the factory. The trial version of Norton A/V, the trial version of MS Office, and all the utilities they think are useful but you never use. It explains why the factory recovery image on my HP laptop was just over 22GB in size and why the basic image for Windows 8 Core is just over 3GB. Bloat.
You're mixing up a lot of different things. Say easybcd is a must have and take no resources when not used AV may take a lot of resources but they are almost mandatory at least for less skilled users Whatever none of these, for different reasons, can be called bloatware. Bloatware is a different thing, it's not just SW you don't like. Bloatware is, preinstalled SW by OEMs, which has rare or no use, because dedicated to corner cases, because duplicates a system functionality, because promoting a cloud service the user doesn't want, and so on... especially if resident (then taking resources giving just annoyances in return). Say printing/scanning helpers, interntet connection managers, picture archiving tools Lately MS is the king of such kind of SW, starting from Onedrive and Defender, to most of the "square" apps, like the twitter client or alike.
My definition of bloatware would be stuff that is installed on OEMs which duplicate what Windows already does, try to get you to buy stuff like AV, and antimalware tools, and stuff that starts up in the background which uses system resources. These would be diagnostic tools, and other stuff like toolbars, and crap that point back to the computer manufacturer. Anything that you want, however is not bloatware to you, but may be bloatware to others.
I bought a new Lenovo Thinkpad years ago. Oh holy hell, was it ever loaded with "Think Utilities" or whatever they called it. IIRC, there used to be a shareware/freeware program called "De-Crapifier". I guess users these days do it all themselves.
Whatever... Thinkpads used to come with very useful utilities, some of them had obviously an impact on performances, over a clean windows installation, but calling them bloatware is absolutely unfair. Bloatware used to come with ACER, HP, Asus, even with some plain Lenovos, but not on Thinkpads.
I didn't call it bloatware - I just stated it was "loaded with a lot of Thinkpad Utilities". For the record, I kept and used everything that came on my T400. Also for the record, I spent nearly as much time updating their Thinkpad Utilities as I did Windows 7. And if you had one back then, you know they updated it a lot. (I can't speak for the current models). I spent a lot of money on my T400. And with a then very expensive SSD, it was superb!
software whose usefulness is reduced because of the excessive disk space and memory it requires by definition 10 is bloatware. Would be like 7 with a bunch of useless crap that slowdown your system with the only purpose to make you buy new hardware to run a 'new' OS the same that it was with your old hardware but bloated.
The official definition is twofold Software whose usefulness is reduced because of the excessive disk space and memory it requires. Unwanted software included on a new computer or mobile device by the manufacturer. Other definitions are due to confusion with related kinds of unwanted software.
[QUOTE='Crime[Scene](I can't speak for the current models).[/QUOTE] Just tried a X1 second gen, but was a clean install. Anyway since win8 they started to remove some utilities like Access Connections (which was useless for some people but incredibly useful for others), and start to replace other features with often laughable Metro apps (that requires a big win32 "prerequisites" package, given it's impossible for metro apps to access the feature they need to work properly). In short, still not bloatware, but way less useful SW
The point of that tool is specifically to aid non-experts who are facing trouble due to corrupt Windows installations or problematic non-OS/third-party software to easily download and install a pristine copy of the OS. As such it naturally removes all non-OS software during the process, including MS Office and other MS apps you might have downloaded and installed yourself. OEMs make a ton of money pre-installing bloatware on the systems they sell. Far worse than the ones just looking to make a quick buck are the incompetent or malicious ones who install malware or backdoors onto systems (sometimes repeatedly) in the guise of system utilities or updates. That's one of the reasons why MS sells Signature Edition PCs on its Store, although now with this tool any user can remove all traces of bloatware from their new systems and then install only the required drivers, utilities and software of their choice.
The store, edge and all of the pseudo universal "app" garbage that microsoft infected desktop windows with is bloatware.
Bloatware is software that includes a bunch of unnecessary things to artificially inflate the size and make it seem like you're getting more bang for your buck. The 2 main kinds of bloatware you see are: Systems that come with a bunch of trial programs or extremely limited versions included in the system OS. Programs like Nero Suite that has like a gig of files where it only requires about 20mb worth.
Windows 10 Microsoft should not include any apps with their OS. Rather they should stick to the core and allow the user to decide what to install. I could accept a compromise as being asked, "Would you also like X app that could offer Y features?". But beyond the OS, when you have no choice and it is installed automatically when doing a fresh install; without you asking if you want it or not... it is bloatware.