XPS

[Onth]

I know nobody will care and I don't really need an answer to this thread but I feel like I need to voice my dissatisfaction.

Why do Dell Laptops ship with heaps and heaps of unneccessary software? I'm buying flagship hardware but Waves MaxxAudio "Pro" makes it so music sounds like I'm listening through a brick wall. There is no way to disable it, even uninstalling it does nothing.

I have a fancy matte monitor but the Intel whatever graphics control panel changes brightness and contrast randomly so all the colors look off, all the time. There is no way to disable it, uninstalling it does nothing.

Worse yet, even resetting windows keeps all this software (and more!) on the laptop. smh.

The only way to get a normal looking and sounding laptop is to get a fresh copy of windows and wipe the  <profane> over it. Why?

I mean I love the hardware, that's why I keep buying Dell, but man it would really be great if y'all wouldn't bog it down by software. It's not even useful software so what's the point in even shipping it. Or programming it for that matter.

[Onth]

This is unbelievable.

All the bloatware installed itself via Windows Update? Is there no way to not use Waves MaxxAudio pro? Am I forced to have <profane> sound now?

[Onth]

I think I found a way around it. You have to do a fresh install of windows and then disable windows update driver downloads with a group policy setting.

[Onth]

How to use a Dell XPS without bloatware:

1. Clean install Windows 10 without Wifi. (Resetting Windows does not work.)

2. Uninstall the Windows store: Windows+X -> Windows Powershell (Admin) ->
Get-AppxPackage -allusers *WindowsStore* | Remove-AppxPackage 

3. Disable automatic driver updates: Windows+X -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Hardware -> Device Installation Settings -> No

4. Enable Wifi and proceed as planned.

I will mark this answer as accepted or update it as necessary.

[Onth]

I gave up. I found two ways of disabling driver updates through windows update but neither of them work. If I disable updates through windows update, the drivers come via windows store, if I uninstall windows store then windows update downloads new drivers regardless.

I did another reset of windows and let windows update do it's thing. Maybe trying to not fight it is the right choice, I was thinking, exhaustedly.

But alas! Not only do the Killer Wifi drivers not work (constant disconnects), Waves MaxxAudio Pro audio is back at it with trippy "3D" sound whatever the <profane> that is supposed to mean, and the GUI won't even open so I'm stuck with horrible sound yet again.

It's funny, after a clean windows install everything works beautifully until windows update decides to download 35 or so driver updates, then everything goes to <profane>.

How did the driver situation get *worse* over the last 10 years? It's 2020, come on. I'll be returning my XPS.

[Tesla1856]

Not sure what is going on with that machine you got. Sorry it didn't work out.

Just wanted to mention ...

My XPS-13 9300 is running Windows-10 Pro 64-bit v1909 and has all Windows Updates installed. 

My Audio and WiFi are working fine .