No it's not your imagination. Granted, it's a shame that you bought a prebuilt in the first place, but at least you have enough sense to know that the **** the OEM gives you is pure crap and its best to install from scratch.

Windows is a quite basic install (apart from XP) moreso a platform to run apps on and not an entire system of apps. It's good to build up and install only what you need and want, even if it takes longer to do so.

Dells are loaded down with so much OEM-branded bull**** that it is one of the many reasons why I don't recommend them.