Yes, buy enterprise-class hardware (Latitude, etc.) instead of the consumer brands (Inspiron, etc.)

Dell also has a program for large enough IT departments where they'll use a buyer-provided disk image at the factory so machines can be deployed right out of the box.

That service helped me once. I broke my laptop and HP shipped me an imaged machine overnight with my employer's image on it so I only lost one day.

Not Dell, but the retail store where you got it. Most (Wal-Mart, OfficeMax/Depot, Best Buy) have their "Service plans" which is pretty much paying to get rid of misc software. Retailers gotta love that extra profit while the employees get a nice SPIF.

When it comes to McAffee and Symantec I don't trust a regular uninstall. Until I do a clean install of the OS the machine is forever unclean (any fans of "The League" out there?)

Why stop there? How about paying them not to install Windows, or any OS for that matter?

Bazinga!