Hacky way to make Saved Configurations for Dell computers. (Might be useful to some.)

Through experimentation, I discovered a way to create saved configurations for Dell computers. HP allows users to save their custom configurations for later use by others through public links; Dell does not. This can change that.

Step 1: Using Google Chrome, Navigate towards the Customize & Buy configuration page for the computer of choice.


Step 2: Right-click on the circular radio-button next to the option you would like to add to the configuration, and click Inspect Element.


Step 3: In the highlighted section of the code that appears at the bottom of the window, take note of the name and value fields within the input tag.


Step 4: Append &{name}={value} to the end of the current Web URL, replacing {name} and {value} with the name and value discovered above, respectively, and non-inclusive of the curly braces.


Step 5: Repeat steps 2-4 for each additional configuration option you wish to add.


Step 6: Load the new URL. The upgrades of choice should be automatically added to the configuration. Use the new URL when recommending a specific configuration, and be sure to include any available coupon codes in your post.


This works because Dell happened to include the underlying code to support passing in configuration option selections as GET arguments, and because the recognized names and values happen to be the same as expressed inside the HTML code.