I say crapware; you say 'performance enhancer'

Do you consider Microsoft products like Windows Defender antispyware tool and Windows Live OneCare security/management service to be crapware that you don't want preloaded on your PC, or performance-enhancement tools?

In an e-mail exchange this week with a spokesperson for Microsoft's OEM unit over what kinds of tweaks Microsoft is encouraging its PC partners to make to provide a better end-to-end user experience, I learned that Microsoft is touting some of its products as de-crapifiers. Specifically, the Redmondians are telling partners and customers that Windows Defender and Windows Live OneCare can be used to clean up their PCs so they run better and faster.

Here is part of the message I received from the Microsoft spokesperson:

"Both Windows Vista and Windows Live OneCare ... offer some new innovations to help improve PC performance by making it easier to turn off and remove applications that people don’t use regularly.

"* Windows Vista customers can turn off programs that launch as part of the boot sequence using Windows Defender, which most people think of as spyware protection, but it also helps with PC performance management as outlined here.

"* Windows Live OneCare similarly enables customers to turn off programs with its Start Time Optimizer service. But it takes this one step further by monitoring startup applications and detecting which are infrequently used, presenting that list to the user along with the ability to choose which of those programs to disable. And it does so on an ongoing basis, so the suggestions can change over time based on the customer’s changing usage habits. Further details are here.

"From what we’ve seen with OneCare alone, 80% of customers opt to remove unwanted and unused files when presented with the option, and typically remove about 2 applications per Start Time Optimizer session, though that can vary over time and computer usage."

Microsoft -- trying to be careful not to overstep the boundaries of its influence with PC makers, as outlined in the U.S. by the Consent Decree which resulted from the Department of Justice antitrust case against the company -- is encouraging PC makers to make other changes to the way they tweak and ship Windows-preloaded PCs. The goal: Make Windows PCs more Apple-like, in terms of how they work right out of the box.

Do you see the value in products like Defender and OneCare for new PC owners? Or do you consider them to be the same kind of crapware against which users (and some vendors) are fighting back?