That simple cleanup service is threatening the precarious economics of the personal computer industry.

Software companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars to PC makers like Hewlett-Packard to install their photo tools, financial programs and other products, usually with some tie-in to a paid service or upgrade.

With margins growing thinner than most laptops, this critical revenue can make the difference between profit and loss for the computer makers, industry analysts say.

If the programs are removed, the software makers gain no value out of the to they typically pay HP and others to install them on each PC -- and PC makers miss out on their cut from revenue-sharing deals.

But Best Buy, the nation’s largest electronics retailer, tells computer buyers that the preinstalled software, also known as bloatware, can clutter their machines and slow them down.

"You’d be surprised how often consumers tell us to get rid of it," said Robert Stephens, the head of Geek Squad, the technical support division of Best Buy that removes the software. He declined to say how many people were paying for the service, but said that "it’s going to increase in popularity."

The demand for the service, along with similar offers from Circuit City and other chains, reflects an outpouring of consumer frustration with the way that a brand-new computer can feel as if it is full of digital infomercials -- even if those come-ons knock a few dollars off the PCs price tag.

The Web has dozens of do-it-yourself guides to removing such software, which, as one tutorial puts it, "turns your computer into a messy battleground." Stephens said the PC makers should be worried about the demand for less cluttered computers.

As it turns out, HP, the world’s largest technology company, is already working on a fundamental change in the way it packages software on its new computers, and thus how its business model works.

Stephen DeWitt, who oversees HP’s personal computer business in the Americas, said that starting next year the company’s new computers would point users to a Web site where they can buy and download games, productivity software and other programs. Revenue from the site will be split in some fashion among HP, a retailer like Best Buy and the makers of the software.

DeWitt said the change would cut how much software comes preloaded.

DeWitt said this was happening because consumers were demanding something different, but also because the technology was now in place to allow downloading of software on demand.

For now, he said, the benefits to consumers of the free software far outweigh whatever small slowdown it might cause. And he said Best Buy’s cleanup service was not pressuring HP to move to a new model. "There’s no tension coming from Best Buy on this -- none," he said.

But in Best Buy stores in Northern California, there is clear evidence of the different agendas of Best Buy and the computer makers.

The stores display two HP computers, identical except that one desktop is cluttered with software icons from eBay, Quicken, AOL, Yahoo and others, while the other is entirely cleaned up. Best Buy workers use the display to promote the company’s "optimization" service.

Industry analysts said that the planned change in HP’s approach could well reflect Best Buy’s growing influence -- and its ability to exact new concessions from computer makers. They said Best Buy has benefited from two key changes: the declining fortunes of competing retailers like CompUSA and some large regional chains, and the addition to its shelves in the last year of computers made by Dell and Apple. (NYT)