Windows Signature Experience: it's just windows sans the crapware

Did I understand this correctly? When you buy any PC with crapware on it at $discounter, you can go to that Microsoft store, <i>buy another, possibly non-upgrade, license of Windows</i> and they install that?<p>So in turn, MS gets to sell two licenses (the oem and the end-user one), the crapware vendor gets paid for installing the crapware and the consumer gets a clean windows installation for more than twice the price. Awesome deal. Yes.<p>I know why I stopped using Windows machines<p>Edit: also, it's debatable whether Acrobat Reader doesn't also qualify as crapware, when you consider it's recent security history and the fact that there are alternatives around (which, unfortunately, isn't true for flash player)

I must admit, this is pretty shitty. However, as a former Microsoftie, it makes a sense to me.<p>Allow me to explain: YOU ARE NOT MICROSOFT'S CUSTOMER. OEMs are. Enterprises are. This is a serious financial advantage for Microsoft.<p>That said... YOU ARE APPLE'S CUSTOMER. And this is a serious competitive disadvantage for Microsoft.<p>That said... MICROSOFT WANTS TO BE IN THE CONSUMER MARKET. They have to be to compete with Apple long term.<p>So the way I see this is that Microsoft is opening their own retail stores and they are going to essentially be yet another OEM. They are going to compete with the likes of Dell on merit of quality. This "signature team" is the team responsible for setting that quality bar.<p>In true Microsoft fashion, "Windows Signature" is an internal name that is leaking externally. In this case, it appears to be intentionally. It seems like an odd choice because no one talks about "Windows Dell", why should Microsoft have a name for this? It's just plain silly, but I digress.<p>Since Microsoft doesn't need to pay for Windows licenses, they will have higher margins and will be able to muscle around the OEMs who depend on crapware for profits. If Microsoft simply started forcing rules down the throats of OEMs, the OEMs would retaliate by distributing Linux more widely, so it is wise for Microsoft to push a caliber of desktop experience that Linux can't quite deliver yet for the average user.<p>tldr: This is Microsoft changing OEM behavior passive aggressively.

"If you live near a store, you can bring in any Windows 7 compatible PC and the Store techs will do a clean install of Windows 7 (you’ll need to buy a full retail copy, of course), migrate all of your data, and then apply the Signature configuration to it (i.e., set it up almost exactly like a Microsoft Store-bought PC).  It’s a great way to make your PC experience even better."<p>Of course! It makes perfect sense that I'd need to pay for Windows twice, once for each time it's been installed. How reasonable of you, Microsoft. Obviously, the crap that got pre-installed on my first copy of Windows was stuff I actually asked for, and not an inevitable result of <i>your</i> business model.

Apparently gratuitous editorial spin in the titles is okay as long as it has to do with Microsoft?<p>In any case, people are focusing on a minor detail rather than the interesting piece of this: The point is, when you buy from the Microsoft Store, you can get that's set up to have a "best-effort" configuration of Windows--one where the choices of what to install and what not install are made from the perspective of making the customer experience great, not based on who paid the most money.<p>If you want the same thing done to a PC purchased elsewhere, perhaps you have to buy a copy of Windows (I work for MS but I have no idea whether that is the case or not). On the other hand, all of this setup/optimization is free, so it's quite likely cheaper to pay for Windows a second time than to pay, say, Geek Squad for their questionable "PC optimization service."<p>If the store just said "come in and get your PC optimized for $99" I'm sure no one would have an issue with it.

Wow, Microsoft is telling people who <i>already have Windows</i> to buy a <i>full retail copy of Windows 7</i> just to get rid of crapware?<p>Maybe there's money to be made by rebranding CyanogenMod as "Android Signature" (now in vanilla froyo flavor)...

paying microsoft extra for the experience I'd have got from the beginning is shocking... microsoft should focus more on getting OEMs stop this crapware fair and instead provide a great experience for their end users.<p>anyway, this a response from someone at Microsoft from a twitter conversation that started from this same link:<p>@xpaulbettsx: @timheuer @shanselman @samiq we are working to do this via perf requirements - slow down the OS, get penalized<p><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/xpaulbettsx/status/26334503491" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/#!/xpaulbettsx/status/26334503491</a>

I don't need anybody to install me Internet Explorer 8 and Adobe Acrobat, especially when i'm gonna install Chrome and Sumatra instead. But other people posting here are right: You shouldn't be paying for that kind of stuff. It should be basic service.

Didn't quite understand Signature Experience (and I didn't want to install silverlight). Does anyone here use it?<p>Completely off topic and half-joking; but was it a joke to call it "window-steam-blog" or should I only see "windows-team-blog"?

Silverlight video, huh? I think this calls for a poll - <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1754755" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1754755</a>

If you live near a store, you can bring in any Windows 7 compatible PC and the Store techs will do a clean install of Windows 7 (NOTE: If your PC already has WIndows 7 on it, you're good to go - no new license is required!<p>Meaning, if you bought a Windows 7 computer somewhere else (with crapware, etc.) you don't have to buy a new license--they just clean off the crapware for you and install their stuff.