If you have purchased a Laptop or Desktop with Windows installed in the last ten years you have probably received this machine with not only Microsoft Windows preinstalled but with a host of other software as well. Usually McAfee, Symantec or other Antivirus trials and any number of obscure or well known type software you probably never use.

New PC users either spent the first two hours with their new machine uninstalling this unwanted software or they simply leave it there in many cases using resources that are better utilized by software they are using.

The reason for this preinstalled software of course is financial. The margins of PCs has been moving steadily down and PC makers (Dell, HP, Acer etc) install this software not as a favor to these software providers but as a source of alternative revenue.

Microsoft has now released the software so that users of retail PCs can download “clean” installation media to allow you to wipe away the original installation and install your retail version of Microsoft Windows. There are some caveats of course. You must have the retail Key and it is not supported for Enterprise licenses. The links to the pages for supported operating systems are below:

Windows 7

Windows 8.1