The Recovery Disc Ripoff
August 3rd, 2010 by ComputerBob
Many years ago, every new Windows computer came with a Certificate of Authenticity and either a CD of Windows itself — to allow you to reinstall Windows from scratch if you had to (everyone had to at one point or another); or a recovery CD that could automatically reconfigure your computer back to exactly the way it was when it was brand new — with Windows and all of the software that had originally come with the computer.
Then manufacturers discovered that they could save themselves a little bit of money if they stopped including any CDs with new computers.
So instead, they started including either Windows itself, or the entire recovery utility, on the computer’s hard drive — on a hidden hard drive partition that most users would never see.
Those of us who are geeky enough immediately saw the potentially expensive problem that those two solutions could cause for Windows users.
If you haven’t figured out what I’m talking about, here’s a good explanation of The Recovery Disc Ripoff, and a whole lot of comments about it from Slashdot’s readers.
Keep in mind that the problem doesn’t affect people who use no-cost, free and open source Linux distros. They can download and make as many copies of their operating system and software as they want — free of charge.
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Tags:
Consumer Info, Dubious, Ethics, History, Software, Tech Support, Windows