Laptop bloatware is still a big problem – and Windows 11 needs to step up and sort it out

You can spend hours choosing the best laptop , comparing processor options with the display and wondering how long the battery will last.

<![CDATA[ <article> <p>You can spend hours choosing the <a href="https://www.techradar.com/news/best-windows-laptop">best laptop</a>, comparing processor options with the display and wondering how long the battery will last. </p><p>Then you switch it on and discover another part of the experience that rarely enters the buying decision: the manufacturer’s preinstalled software, often billed as tools to help optimize your device.</p><p>Sometimes, they earn their right to come pre-installed. The pre-installed software might be where you change performance mode or cap the battery charge, alongside model-specific settings Windows 11 simply doesn’t offer.</p><p>The strange part? How much bigger the role of pre-installed software (sometimes called 'bloatware') has become. A simple utility can now feel like another software layer sitting on top of <a href="https://www.techradar.com/reviews/windows-11">Windows 11</a>, with launchers and user accounts jostling with the settings you actually want.</p><p>And because some of those controls are legitimately important, uninstalling the whole thing isn’t always an option.</p><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:1920px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"><img id="6zB2vcssaDLmnZsESVY4XN" name="Windows 11 maintain.png" alt="Windows 11" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6zB2vcssaDLmnZsESVY4XN.png" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="1920" height="1080" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: TechRadar)</span></figcaption></figure><h2 id="windows-11-can-t-actually-control-everything-on-your-windows-laptop">Windows 11 can’t actually control everything on your Windows laptop</h2><p>For all the settings tucked inside Windows 11, there are still plenty of things it can’t manage on its own. </p><p>And this isn’t just a gaming laptop quirk. On supported Asus models, MyASUS handles things such as Battery Care Mode and model-specific fan profiles that Windows 11 doesn’t offer.</p><p>Gaming laptops simply take the idea much further.</p><p>Take the <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/gaming-laptops/alienware-16x-aurora">Alienware 16X Aurora</a>. Alienware Command Center offers several performance settings, and in our testing, its 'Overdrive' mode pushed the fans harder while making use of the laptop’s Cryo-Chamber cooling system.</p><p>None of that feels especially unreasonable. </p><p>Laptop makers know how their own hardware is designed to behave, and a dedicated utility gives them somewhere to offer controls that would otherwise be buried in the BIOS or unavailable altogether.</p><p>The problem starts when that useful little control panel begins acquiring ambitions of its own.</p><div data-widget-type="multimodelreview" data-model-name="Alienware 16X Aurora" class="hawk-root"></div><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:1920px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"><img id="GupA5kSziWU3vxB65vcUiR" name="ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14.jpg" alt="Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 in action" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/GupA5kSziWU3vxB65vcUiR.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="1920" height="1080" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Asus)</span></figcaption></figure><h2 id="a-settings-menu-somehow-became-an-entire-platform">A settings menu somehow became an entire platform</h2><p>Many of these apps now go well beyond looking after the laptop itself.</p><p>Armoury Crate still gives <a href="https://www.techradar.com/news/best-asus-laptops">Asus ROG</a> owners useful controls over performance and cooling, but it also has a user account system and optional content services alongside its device settings.</p><p>Lenovo’s Legion Space pushes the idea further, putting thermal controls alongside a game store and its AI-powered Gaming Zone. On supported machines, HP’s Omen Gaming Hub mixes fan and graphics controls with a game library and GeForce Now.</p><p>Taken one by one, most of this is easy to defend. Put it all in the same app, though, and the hardware settings start to feel like one part of a much larger product. </p><p>If I open software to quieten the fans, for example, I’m probably not also looking for a new game or a giveaway.</p><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:3802px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.60%;"><img id="aoqQtXT7DYias9ue7LHtpW" name="MSI Raider GE76 listing.jpg" alt="MSI Raider GE76" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/aoqQtXT7DYias9ue7LHtpW.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="3802" height="2152" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: MSI)</span></figcaption></figure><h2 id="the-worst-part-is-that-you-actually-need-it">The worst part is that you actually need it</h2><p>With ordinary pre-installed software, there’s an obvious solution if you don’t want it: uninstall it. Laptop software made by the manufacturers themselves is harder to shake because some settings can make a real difference in how the machine behaves. </p><p>Our <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/gaming-laptops/msi-raider-16-max-hx-review">MSI Raider 16 Max HX review</a> shows why this gets awkward. The laptop comes with a fair amount of bundled software, yet MSI Center itself gives you useful access to performance presets and RGB controls. </p><p>Wiping out every manufacturer utility for a cleaner<a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/secret-trick-installs-windows-11-without-the-bloatware-but-microsoft-is-looking-to-fix-it"> Windows 11 install </a>can take useful features with it. However, some laptops do have alternatives. </p><p><a href="https://g-helper.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">G-Helper</a> is an open-source option for Asus machines, offering access to performance and GPU modes, battery charge limits, and other hardware controls in a lightweight app. Its built-in performance modes use the same firmware presets as Armoury Crate.</p><p>You don’t have to be comfortable swapping official software for a community-made utility to see the appeal. G-Helper’s existence shows that granular laptop controls can live in a focused tool rather than a whole, often bloated, ecosystem.</p><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:2100px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.24%;"><img id="Z5ZDX82rVYBAwXdvpDihxK" name="Surface Laptop Go.jpg" alt="Microsoft Surface Laptop Go" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Z5ZDX82rVYBAwXdvpDihxK.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="2100" height="1181" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Microsoft)</span></figcaption></figure><h2 id="microsoft-bears-some-responsibility-too">Microsoft bears some responsibility too</h2><p>Some of this starts with gaps in Windows 11 itself. Smart Charging exists on compatible devices, for example, but there’s no universal control for choosing a fixed charge limit – Microsoft says each manufacturer implements the feature differently.</p><p>Microsoft has already shown what a more standardised approach can look like.</p><p><a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/input-devices/control-dynamic-lighting-devices-in-windows" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Dynamic Lighting</a> is a good example: compatible RGB hardware can now be controlled directly through Windows 11, rather than relying entirely on separate manufacturer utilities.</p><p>Fan tuning and firmware are much more specific to each machine, so manufacturer software isn’t going away. </p><p>But every common control Windows 11 can standardize is one less reason a laptop needs its own parallel settings software - and that would mean less bloat preinstalled on our devices.</p><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:3556px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.24%;"><img id="V7hJWWemPCCXY9V5KWdhF8" name="Razer Blade 16 (2 of 9).jpg" alt="Razer Blade 16 (2023) on a desk" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/V7hJWWemPCCXY9V5KWdhF8.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="3556" height="2000" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Future / James Holland)</span></figcaption></figure><h2 id="laptop-software-needs-to-become-boring-again">Laptop software needs to become boring again</h2><p>Maybe the real problem is that these apps have become something you even need to think about. A good pre-installed app should make the laptop easier to live with, then stay out of the way until you need it again.</p><p>MSI Center at least gets some things right: it’s modular, so you can install only the features you want rather than loading everything by default.</p><p>Switch brands, though, and even familiar jobs can move somewhere completely different. A 'quiet' fan mode that takes seconds to find on one laptop might be buried under different terminology on the next.</p><p>Software like this probably deserves more consideration in laptop reviews, too. It won’t rescue poor battery life or a bad keyboard, but if you rely on it to change how the laptop behaves, it's part of the product you bought.</p><p>I don’t want laptop makers to stop building these tools. I just want them to remember what they’re for: helping me use the laptop I already bought.</p> </article> ]]>