Recently, I refreshed an older PC—that is, I reset Windows using the existing installation files on the laptop. When everything came up new again, I spotted several apps on the PC I didn’t want. Games whose origin I didn’t even know. Helper apps that I didn’t need. Bloatware.

I also set up a new phone for a friend, and it really went hard with these extraneous apps.

After spending more than an hour nuking unwanted programs, I realized companies have trained people out of recognizing bad software. How is a normal person supposed to immediately spot the difference between a legitimate game and malware in disguise, if your phone or PC already randomly installs new programs from the start?

These days, laptops have become a bit less cluttered with this nonsense. Still, it’s an important sk

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