Preinstalled trial versions of useless software have been slowing down new PCs for years, and Microsoft is finally offering a solution: bring your PC into a Microsoft Store and pay them $99 to install a clean copy of Windows.

The new program is an outgrowth of Microsoft's "Signature" PC initiative, which sells bloatware-free versions of PCs from Microsoft's partners in Microsoft stores. AllThingsD reports that Microsoft is now offering to change any computer into a Signature PC if customers bring it into the store and pay the requisite fee. Signature PCs also include Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials programs; the ad-supported, Word and Excel-only Microsoft Office Starter edition; the Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus package; and the Zune media player software. Users can choose not to have these programs installed, and can also specify if they would like other third-party browsers or programs installed. Ninety days of free phone support is also included.

It's nice that this new arm of the Signature program will do for regular users what power users have been doing themselves for years, but it's hard not to see this as a solution to a problem that Microsoft had a hand in creating. Installing bloatware and trialware is one way for PC makers to keep costs down—a goal many consumers appreciate—but by not enforcing stronger restrictions on what OEMs can and can't preinstall on their PCs, Microsoft and its partners have created a situation where the default Windows experience on new computers can be pretty terrible. It's nice that the Signature program offers a way around that, but it would be even nicer if the Signature program didn't need to exist in the first place.