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I've got a Dell Precision T5400 here, and had to go into the BIOS and flip on VT before I was able to run VMs. While I was in there, I found that several other features were disabled (even really important ones like Execute Disable).

Why would a PC maker disable capabilities of the hardware they ship by default? (Particularly when they leave the (worthless) serial and parallel port controllers on by default)

(This isn't specific to Dell -- that just happens to be the box I'm currently working on)

Billy ONeal
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3 Answers3

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I think it's because 90% of their customers expect a new PC to behave like their old one only faster. Turning on "Execute Disable", for example, can break legacy software so they don't enable it because the average Joe won't understand what's happened.

Turning on the TPM by default will cause Windows to load the drivers and prompt the user to set it up. Most people won't have a clue what it's about.

It's all about reducing support calls.

Those of us who do know and care about this stuff know enough to go into the settings and tweak them the way we prefer.

warren
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Andrew Cooper
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Blue pill can be a proof for this action. It can be used by malware and create malware which completely invisible to OS.

Community
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Dzung Nguyen
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My opinion is not specific in your case, as your workstation is actually very nice—I use one at the office too.

The other answers already give my main opinion, which is that I believe they do it to avoid wasting their Customer Service Support's time and therefore their profit margin. But I also believe certain manufacturers disable features to try and get you to purchase the more expensive computer, maybe under the Professional line, or the Extreme line, which may have features unlocked that appeal to the crowd they're selling it to in the same way the actual CPU and Motherboard manufacturers do.

Paul
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