Quick post, before I loose the link:
Most of the prebuilt computer manufacturers (Dell, HP/Compaq, etc) package their machines with a lot of junk. Games, Demos, things you won't use and are taking up valuable disk space/boot time. Techbargains has linked a post yourspace.com that has a tool to automatically remove the worst of this junk, while leaving the drivers and useful stuff intact. If you have a new Dell computer, this might be very useful for you (I spent several hours recently setting up a new Compaq for my grandparents, much of it removing demos and automatically starting junk).
Of course, you could always just reinstall windows from scratch. Apparently, if you ask Dell at least will send you a normal windows cd.
The above mentioned tool uses a scripting tool called AutoIT which I am not familiar with, but looks promising for a variety of applications, so If you are into that sort of thing, you might want to give it a look. (I'm going to play with it if I ever get time, so maybe I'll post more info later)
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You should not forget that by commercial you are referring only to commercially manufactured "consumer" grade machiens. One of the big differentiators between these units and their "commercial" counterparts is that commercial units do not ship with all of that extra software. This is one of the reason why I always strongly recommend against ever purchasing a consumer targetted machine. In the industry, a consumer machine simply means a machine designed for people who don't know any better. Commercial machines (from Dell this would be Optiplex, from HP the dx series) are designed for educated IT buyers to purchase and use and are built to higher standards with higher quality components and are not loaded with demo and junk software (everything comes with a 90 day trial of AV, can't get away from that.)
It should also be noted that HP, and maybe Dell - I am not sure, SHIP their commercial machines with the Windows install CD separate from any add-on packages.
Occassionally you will find a computer manufacturer, such as Sony, who does not make a commercial line. But you can get commercial from Gateway, HP/Compaq, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Fujitsu, etc.
Quite often you will find that the commercial units actually cost LESS than the consumer grade counterparts because they are sold only to discerning clients and only through dealers and are NOT available from Walmart, CompUSA, Frys, etc. This means that the big computer consumer stores can all charge high prices and no one has anything to compare against.
Try calling you local HP dealer instead of going to CompUSA. Many are willing to sell direct to consumers. If you don't know any, I recommend The Computing Center in Ithaca, NY. I work for an HP dealer who, unfortunately, does not sell direct to consumers but only to business.
Even bigger than the benefits from quality and professionalism that come in the commercial machines... do not overlook the significance of the commercial warranties. I know that HP offers a THREE YEAR warranty standard on the DX 5000 and 7000 series machines which start around $450 if you shop around for a screaming real 64 bit machine (genuine AMD NOT the Intel fake 64 extension stuff.)
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