Dell software delivery?

[hansmax]

Can anyone tell me about how Dell provides software in its computers, such as the OS (Windows), MS Office, etc.? I'm assuming that it's something like I've read about Compaq, where the "Recovery Disc" is actually a utility for recovering the real operating system, which is located in an image file on a hidden partition on the hard drive. If so, is MS Office (purchased from them as an add-on, or included in one of their "deals") handled in the same way? That is, is it included in that image file, and no actual software installation disk for MS Office is then included with the computer? I'm on a committee purchasing computers for our church staff, and need to hear from someone who's been there, so that I have something to report back. It seems to me that if the apps are just in that image file, not actually accessible on a disk, that a lot of the functionality (Recovery console in WinXP, or the ability to add or remove parts of Office) would be missing. It would sure help to know what to expect. Personally I'm a little leery about this. I tend to favor purchasing locally, where these things can be ascertained a little more definitely. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[vnf4ultra]

I have a 2yr old dell pc. It came with xp home. It has an xp recovery disc(restore disc). It isn't a full win xp disc, (it lacks some repair functions), but it does have the option to do a complete clean reinstall like the reg. xp. I've just reinstalled xp on the dell, and it went smoothly. It runs much better on a fresh install. My apps that came with it are on cds. I have quicken, corel wordperfect,roxio cd burning prog., brittannica, etc each on it's own cd(I got the base software package). It has about 4 cds of drivers for the reinstall, for things like video drivers, motherboard drivers, modem drivers, etc. The only thing missing when I reinstalled was a usb 2.0 driver. It had usb 1.1 after the install, but not v2.0. Once I installed the windows xp sp2 update it fixed the problem and now it has usb. Hope this is helpful. Mine came with several cds, win. xp restore cd, 4+driver cds, 4+ program cds, etc. So if they haven't changed what they do, then you still get cds for programs, drivers, and xp.

 

[hansmax]

Thanks for the input, vnf4ultra. I would be interested to see if anything has changed in the last two years.

 

[StormBringer]

New Inspirons and Dimensions no longer come with CDs, all software is loaded onto a recovery partition on the HDD. You can request the CDs at time of purchase, or you can call tech support and have the CDs sent to you if you need them. This is part of some new thing called MRI(Media Reduction Initiative). This is actually something MS came up with, Dell is one of several companies that are trying to incorporate it.

New Latitude and Optiplex systems still come with an XP CD, a drivers and utilities CD and application CDs for whatever software you order on the system, and no recovery partition.