I’ve had this happen a lot lately: For one, I want to go to ebay, but it appears Dell keeps redirecting me to this link.
What’s the deal here? This is a new Dell PC, and during set-up, Dell had the PC rigged with ads and various Dell screens before the initial start-up. SO, does Dell have hidden demons in my PC? Have others experienced this?
Is it gremlins?
Have you tried scanning for spyware?
How are initiating the attempt to access Google? Are you typing it in the address bar, or clicking on a favorites link, or something else?
I vote “spyware/malware”.
I had a similar thing happening with my new dell. So I started removing programs like google desktop, otto, wildtangent, aol, links for earthlink and “get high speed internet”, corel photo album, corel, paint shop, basic realplay and others.
I’m still in this process as I’m looking things up on the internet first to be sure I want to get rid of them.
But my problem (with the hijack like thingy) went away.
They have deals with these companys to put this crap on the pc’s. Helps keep the price down I guess.
This is why, last time I bought a Dell, the first thing I did was wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS. Made my life so much simpler and got rid of all the junk.
Dell tends to preload their computers with all sorts of weird crap. I tend to buy them almost exclusively for my company, but setup can be kind of a pain, what with removing all the crapware and autoloading nag screens they bundle in. My final step involves running Hijack This just to get rid of it all.
It’s really annoying, but mostly worth it–you really can’t beat the price and their systems are really reliable.
My “favorite” spyware-ish thing they include is that nag screen for Quickbooks that doesn’t uninstall when you uninstall the trialware. Yeah, real classy, Dell.
I second this idea. The only non-self-built PC I ever received was laden with this kind of crap. Even back then, they wouldn’t give you a proper installation CD, only the crappy restore CD. So you have the problem whereby you need a proper installation CD to ensure a virgin install. You can obtain these through less than legal means, although if you use your own serial number your conscience can remain clean.
However… do OEM serial numbers work with proper installation CD’s, or are you doubly-screwed? Or do you have to use a pirated serial number just to avoid all of the stupid crap that PC vendors insist on installing?
For the record, no Mac I’ve ever bought has been loaded with such annoyances, and the only reason I didn’t build the PC in question is that it was provided free of charge by my employer before we were a broke company. And I’m using PC=IBM Compatible=Non-Mac.
Interesting. The Dell I bought for myself several years ago came with a proper installation CD. I used it, too, when I migrated over to a self-built PC.
Do they add all the crap to their business computers? I can see why they put it on the home computers, but it wouldn’t make sense for the business computers. I do notice that they will include an actual OS installation CD for $10 for the business models.
Mostly, yeah. Their servers seem to be refreshingly devoid of that garbage, at least.
I haven’t bought enough of their home variations to tell, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just slightly different crap they bundle between them.
Not sure about Windows 2000, but for XP, you need to use the right sort of CD to match the serial number.
From recent experience, I was unable to use a generic OEM XP Pro CD to install on a Toshiba laptop that had XP Pro - when I entered the Toshiba #, the installer refused it. Another PC that had an OEM XP Pro serial balked at an XP Home CD.
So, you are unlikely to be able to use anything but a Dell-supplied CD to re-image a Dell PC and not run afoul of the serial number / activation, unless you buy a new XP install CD that comes with its own serial number.
Hmmm… during our last upgrade (we’re a serious Dell whore at **RD) all of the new desktop Dells had XP Home serial numbers on the sides of them, even though the “official load” was Win2K. Some of the slightly newer Dells have XP Home serial numbers, but the corporate load is XP Pro. My engineering workstation (a Dell dual-Xenon – a whole diff’rent class of Dell) doesn’t have sticker at all, but runs XP. On the plant floors, we regularly see industrial machines with Windows XP Home or Pro stickers but run Win2K. I don’t know the status of these licenses, but I write down every one I come across, just in case.
Bummer – another reason to be a Mac fan. I can virgin-install without all of that junk. I do have my home-built Windows PC, but I’m thinking of replacing my Quicksilver Mac and it with a pair of Intel iMacs. There are still just a couple of bloody things that I admit that I need Windows compatability (not necessarily Windows!!!) for.
No. I do.
All your base are belong us.
It’s not perfect, but someone came up with a solution to this…
Dell De-Crapifier
It actually takes some work to get started (it’s a script that needs a third party program to run) and doesn’t allow you to choose what goes away, and a few people had problems with it… but for the people it does work for, it automatically uninstalls all of dell’s extra stuff.
However, if you know how, a format and reinstall is still much better.
Also, the comments on that site said you might be able to get a CD to reinstall windows through other methods then paying the $X for them to send you the CD… not sure though.
I knew Dell was to blame as it is far too coincidental that “dell” appears in the re-routing of my webpages! yeah, no wonder their prices are so low. :rolleyes:
Hmmm… I’m having this problem too.
It would be a huge pain to re-format at this point though, and I’m leery of running that third-party program if “people have had problems with it”.
Is there any sort of (easy for a non-techie) guide out there that could tell me what I should remove piece-by-piece as Rock N Roach and slortar have described doing?
Oh, I wouldn’t say it’s really hard to decrappify a Dell manually. You just need to spend some quality time going through the add/remove programs list and removing everything that’s not essential from it. If you want to list what you have there and post it here, we can tell you what’s crap and what isn’t.
The final step after you get all that crud off (which I referred to earlier) is to download and run Hijack This. Tell it to scan your system, copy and paste the log into this thread and we can, again, tell you what to remove. I wouldn’t recommend monkeying around with that too much without asking us for advice first. Hijack This is a wonderful tool that does a great job of peering into the nooks and crannies of your computer, but it does, like all good tools, give you the ability to well and truly hose your computer. 
Anyway, that last step will remove all the hidden startup crap that Dell seems to be enamored with.
After that, you’re all set. Well, except for resetting your browser’s home page from the crappy Dell one to something that doesn’t suck.