>>The most recent example: I am looking for a new laptop, my old HP is dying a slow death, presently in a coma, the video chip needs a "reflow" (i.e. heating up until the soldering points melt and hopefully catch again). I was looking at a Toshiba, and then discovered they are advertising it with two new important features: simplified login and extended MRU list. The first one is explained as the camera doing a face recognition, CSI style, and the other as tracking every file I opened in the last three months. Huh? The camera is turned on without my permission? There's a logger that tracks whatever I'm doing? I don't want a machine which will spy on me, I want a simple damn laptop. Toshiba is blacklisted now, for getting the idea in the first place and then even doing it.
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>All consumer laptops come with crapware, no matter what you buy you'll have to uninstall it, then check all your MSConfig startup items, services etc.
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>If that isn't worth your time then get a retail copy of Win7, wipe your new laptop and reinstall from scratch. Or, if you don't trust what it comes with.

Amazingly, there are a lot of good laptops sold here without OS or with Linux installed, which is my laptop OS anyway.

>Electrical tape, with or without a folding flap works great on laptop cameras. Some makers are starting to install lens covers e.g. http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5988&review=asus+n53jf

>Blacklisting a manufacturer based on crapware installed on a particular model is dumb.

It's called voting with your wallet.

And the two pieces I mention are not crapware, they are spyware.