Seeing that hourglass a little too often?

That new PC that's running slower than the old one it replaced might be weighed down with several applications destined to gather dust on the desktop. PCs are becoming increasingly cluttered with pre-installed software—in some cases the traditional trial offers for Internet service providers, but also newer applications like spyware-blocking tools which, somewhat ironically, inundate users with pop-up windows advertising their services.

Complaints about the "crapware" are prominent in discussion forums and blogs related to PCs. A deal between Dell and Google to install Google software on new Dell PCs shows that more and more of the real estate on the PC is for sale to application vendors, as PC vendors continue to look for new sources of revenue to boost their margins.

Of course, this isn't a new problem, and there's no indication so far that Dell customers won't receive their Google software with open arms. For years, in fact, PC makers have been trying to get every extra dime they can by selling little pieces of the desktop not already controlled by Microsoft. Today, the value of that real estate—which in Dell's case reaches around 37 million people a year—is soaring.

Big software and Internet companies, such as Google, are willing to pay for the privilege of appearing on those systems. Companies across the technology world are increasingly recognizing that the PC is an advertising vehicle that's sitting in front of their customers. For their part, PC makers say they carefully vet the programs chosen for inclusion on their systems.

Hewlett-Packard, for example, provides several different Internet access options because it doesn't want to lock its customers into any one service. Dell allows some of its high-end customers to decline certain pre-installed software. Customers who want cheap PCs will probably have to endure the barrage of trial offers and pop-ups, but it's likely PC vendors will start to offer more choice in the matter to buyers of high-end machines.

The most persistent offenders seem to be icons for trial versions of applications or services. Even if the full version of the program isn't installed, the trial versions can run in the background and tie up system resources that could be flowing to actively used applications.

Another source of frustration are system management consoles that some vendors ship with their PCs. Many of these "system update" programs essentially duplicate Microsoft's Windows Update service. And third-party software installations can also trigger the automatic download of applications that are supposed to help run a peripheral like a printer, but wind up sitting unused and hogging system resources.

Ninety percent of the complaints online PC technicians receive that are related to a slow-running PC can be fixed by deleting unneeded programs.

Corporate PC customers insist on determining exactly what software ships on their orders, and PC vendors increasingly allow small- and medium-size businesses to do the same. But consumers are left to fend for themselves, and some savvy PC users have become fed up with the situation. Many PC enthusiasts simply wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall a clean version of Windows as soon as they receive their PCs.

Of course, that's becoming harder to do as some Windows PC vendors no longer include a full copy of Windows. In many cases, customers are prompted after starting up their PC for the first time to burn their own recovery discs, which will include all the unwanted applications. Some vendors charge $10 or more for a DVD copy of Windows for new buyers.

Individual programs can be removed by going into the Add or Remove Programs function of Windows, or by ending processes in the Task Manager window, but fragments of these programs can remain in the Windows Registry and continue to adversely impact performance. A complete reinstall fixes the problem for good, but it can lead to a search for the drivers needed to make all the necessary software and devices work properly.

A well-known support service has had to develop individual un-install scripts for some persistent offenders. This is especially true for some anti-virus programs, which can still cause problems when the trial version is un-installed and a different anti-virus program is installed.

Simplicity is elegant. The less stuff you have on a system, the more likely it is to run cleanly. But as software dealing with everything from spyware to Internet access continues to proliferate, so do the problems such software can create.