This article is more than 1 year old

Lenovo: We SWEAR we're done with bloatware, adware and scumware

By Windows 10 launch our systems will be PURE, honest

Barely a week after the breaking of the Superfish scandal, Lenovo has done a complete reverse ferret on bloatware - promising that by the time Windows 10 comes out its systems will be as pure as they can be.

“The events of last week reinforce the principle that customer experience, security and privacy must be our top priorities,” the firm said in a statement supplied to the Register today. “With this in mind, we will significantly reduce preloaded applications. Our goal is clear: To become the leader in providing cleaner, safer PCs."

The company has been in frantic firefighting mode since the discovery of the SSL-busting Superfish code in a wide range of its consumer PCs caused an uproar. It has since issued automated tools to get rid of Superfish and has worked with antivirus vendors to get the Komodia library and certificate in the adware removed.

Lenovo is now offering all customers who had Superfish (those who bought a consumer PC between September last year and January) a free six-month subscription to McAfee Livesafe security scanner (or six free months extra if you already have it).

By the time Windows 10 comes out, the company is promising that the new systems will contain just “the operating system and related software, software required to make hardware work well (for example, when we include unique hardware in our devices, like a 3D camera), security software and Lenovo applications".

In addition the firm is going to publish a full list of all the code that’s installed on each PC, so that consumers can be clear as to what’s coming preloaded onto that shiny new Yoga or Flex laptop.

The new corporate position is a bold move by Lenovo, and a sign the company realises quite how much trouble it is in. Whether or not it’ll win over consumers, and restore Lenovo’s tattered reputation among techies, remains to be seen. ®

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