Reinstalling is definitely the way to go if you can get all the drivers. That's not always possible. Take even HP for example. A few years ago someone I know wanted to install XP Pro into their HP notebook. They couldn't find a couple of the drivers for it anywhere. The ones they had available on the restore disk for XP Home would simply not work.

The other obstacle is getting your hands on XP. I know plenty of people with Dell machines that didn't receive any XP media with their systems.

The system I redid for a friend a few weeks ago is like night and day. They are absolutely blown away by how the machine performs. Prior to my touching it, they were thinking of getting rid of it and getting another computer. They simply thought that machine was too slow.

How many people are out there with the same impression? How much waste has been created in landfills because of the crapware companies like Dell put on their systems? I could see a sinister scam of putting time-release crap on a system to bring it down over the course of a couple of years. However, why on earth would a consumer stick with the same brand? Anyway, the fact Dell are in business to this day is a testament in part to an unsuspecting public.

I only recommend Macs now. If someone tells me they don't have the budget for one I just tell them not to buy a computer. It's not worth the hassle to help support someone when they come running back to you after getting some POS Acer or Asus or Toshiba or whatever was on sale that week.

This doesn't apply to people who want a system to run Linux or who generally know what they're doing and can do reinstalls and setup themselves of course.