Below is a very common situation that many people who buy computers find themselves in.

You arrive home from the store with your new computer. Is it the computer you really wanted? Well, for the most part. There was that upgraded video card that you needed for the video editing that you wanted to do...but you had to spend an extra $500 to buy the 'Premium PC' to get that feature. Since you don't need the 9.1 digital sound card and the 5.1 speakers, you couldn't justify spending the extra cash. So you decide to pass on the more expensive machine and settle for the one without the video card you need, paying $800 for that machine instead of $1300 for the other.

"Oh well" you tell yourself, "I can always add that on later".

So you unpack your new computer and hook it up. After an hour or two of reading what appear to be incomplete instructions, you finally manage to get everything hooked up and get the computer booted for the first time. You notice that the computer takes a few minutes to boot up, but think nothing of it since it's the first time it has been turned on. After boot-up, you stare at the desktop in complete dismay: there are countless icons for different programs, most of which appear to be some type of demo program or advertisement. Then you take a look at the icons in your system tray to see what programs are running. WOW!! No wonder your computer took five minutes to boot up! What are all these programs, and what do they do? You know you should probably delete some of this stuff...but what can you safety remove? So, you decide to make your first call to technical support...

After half an hour on hold, you spend another half hour providing the service rep with various pieces of information about yourself and the computer you just bought. Finally, "What can I help you with today?" You explain that you want to remove some of the programs on your computer to speed things up a bit. At first, you're told that they can't provide software support and that you should contact each individual software vendor for instructions on how to remove their program. However, today is your lucky day, as you've managed to catch a good natured service rep right after lunch. They describe to you the process that will work for removing most programs and give you a basic list of programs that should be safe to remove. But beyond this, you're on your own. Three hours later, you've managed to successfully remove most of the 'stuff' that you didn't need. Fortune has smiled upon you! (we won't talk about all those registry settings that are still there using system resources, we'll save that for another day)

Well, that wasn't so bad, it only took you 5 or 6 hours to get everything up and running. WHAT?? Did it seriously take you a whole day to get this thing up and running? That's insane! You just spent almost an entire day doing something that you shouldn't have even needed to do in the first place. And at the end of the day, you're really only partially satisfied, becuase you still have a few programs you couldn't get rid of for some reason, and you still don't have the video editing capability that you really wanted.

Six Months Later...

Time to upgrade! You have two upgrades that you want to do. First, you need more space, so you want to add a second hard drive. Second, it's time for you to finally get that video card you've been wanting. So, you head back up to the store where you bought the computer and pick up the new hard drive and video card. When you get everything home and start pulling the computer apart to put the new upgrades in, you realize that you may be in a bit over your head and decide to take the whole thing to the store to let them install everything for you. Of course, they're going to charge you $60 each to install the video card and hard drive. With little choice, you agree to this and they tell you to come back tomorrow to pick the computer up.

You start to wonder if you should have just bought the "Premium PC" six months ago, becuase it looks like this is going to cost a considerable amount. "Oh well, nothing I can do about it now"

You go back the next day to pick up the computer. They tell you that they got the card installed fine, but that they have to order the hard drive directly from the manufacturer that built your PC, as that is 'proprietary' hardware. "Oh well" you think to yourself, "so I'll just have to get it from them instead, no big deal". Then they tell you that it's going to cost an extra $75 to order it from the manufacturer. Again, you have no choice, you need the extra space and this is the only way you can get it. This is beyond annoying and is now bordering on maddening.

Now you're thinking you really should have bought the premium machine six months ago. "But that's ridiculous, why should I have to pay extra for stuff I don't need, why can't I just buy a computer with things that I want, without all the extra add-ons"

Three Months Later...

Houston, we have a problem! You turn on your computer one day and ...nothing: no desktop, just a blue screen with a bunch of gibberish on it. Time to call support again...an hour later "How can I help you?". After an hour or so of troubleshooting, the service rep advises you that this is a Windows issue and that there's not really much they can do for you, but you have a few options. One, they can send a tech out to your house, but that'll cost you a minimum of $150. Two, you can call Microsoft, but you'll have to pay $39 just to talk to someone, with no guarantee that it's even a Windows issue or that they can fix it. Or Three, they can walk you through a reformat, which will basically erase everything and return everything to factory default...meaning it will be just like you're opening the box for the first time. Since you have all your information backed up, you decide to just do that, reset everything.

They get you started in the process and then tell you to just click OK on any box that pops up, then you're on your own again (you didn't think they were going to stay on the phone during the entire reformat procedure did you?). An hour later, it looks like the system is up and you're all ready to go again.

Wait......what's this.......is that.......no.......surely not.......ah geez..... Remember all those programs you spent three hours deleting a few months ago...they're all back again. ARRGGGHHH!!! How frustrating!! It's a good thing you remember how to delete all of them, but it's still going to be a long night. "The real trick", you think to yourself, "is going to be getting the software for that video card installed and configured. I could take it back to the store, but that's another $50".

We could go on, but you probably get the idea by now...