Pre-installed software

Pre-installed software is the software already installed and licensed on a computer bought from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Benefits
Purchasing hardware and software together is cost-effective, and discounts are possible from OEMs on bulk orders.

Pre-installation provides the convenience of turnkey solution, when the user does not have to worry about installation of various commonly used software, such as operation system or word processors.

Drawbacks
Pre-installed software commonly suffers from one of more of the following problems:


 * Pre-installed software is commonly licensed for use only on the computer it was pre-installed, and is not transferrable to other computers.
 * Pre-installed software may be functionality or time limited, in a effort to get you to purchase the "full" version.
 * Pre-installed software may not come with any media, should you need to reinstall it.
 * Pre-installed software may modify or replace the default browser or system settings, in an effort to target specific advertisements to the user; or may otherwise contain functionality the user might consider to be malware.
 * Pre-installed software may consume system resources, even if not actively being run by the user.
 * Pre-installed software may be difficult for users to remove, such as via the standard uninstall utility provided by the system.