HP bloatware can slow down your computer

I've turned off some of the programs, but some may still be running in the background and slowing down the computer. I may end up deleting most of it. Here is some advice about it from a forum:

Re: HP Advisor

03-09-2010 05:08 PM

Here's what HP software and hardware I removed from my HDX 18 and my dv8 : The first list is the software

1) HP Media Smart Flash Demo. (it's a demonstration an advertisement if you will ; it takes up space on the hard drive)

2) HP Support Assistant ( this one is very annoying, it runs in the back ground and starts up from boot and slows the computer down on start up. I don't want HP telling me that there is an update from HP to download some of there poorly designed software: if the HP software is working then LEAVE IT ALONE !)

3) HP Update ( another HP program that keeps the laptop busy. Again it starts up on boot and makes for a slow start up. Don't let HP update any of its own software. If it's working then leave it alone. Up dates should only be done if you are having problems with the software and not simply because there is an update available.

4) HP user Guides ( this is a big program, when I uninstalled it, it took about 7 minutes before it was finished. Windows has it's own guides and help topics with in the operating system, I found I simply did not need two. To this day I have never missed this software and even if it was still on my machines I never needed to access it.

5) HP Wireless Assistant ( Windows already has the software to turn off and on the WiFi and Blue Tooth radios. You don't need another from HP to do the same thing. To access the Windows WiFi switch go to control panel > choose icon view > find Windows Mobility Center > top row, far right box, you can turn it off and on from there. The Blue Tooth radio can be controlled with in the software itself. Go to your tool bar > if the Blue-tooth icon is not there then click the "show hidden icons arrow" > right click on the Blue Tooth icon > a list will appear > find "turn adapter off", second from the bottom. You can toggle between off and on. The Blue hot key above the key board turns both radios off and on all at ounce. Just to note that the Blue Tooth radio is actually a HP product, but you don't need the HP Wireless Assistant to control it.

There are a number of other HP programs as well. HP media Smart TV. I am in Canada, this didn't work up here, nothing was available. HP Media Smart Live TV. Again this didn't work in Canada. HP Media Smart MPV. If I get a cam-corder I will more than likely use the software that will come with it to edit my videos. HP Media Smart Smart Menu. This you need, it contains the software for the volume control and the eject button on the hot keys for my dv8 and HDX 18. I could uninstall it and use the volume control in the tool bar and simply use the eject button on the side of the dvd tray. It's your choice. HP Media Smart Web Cam. This is needed for the small camera on the lid at the top of the screen. HP tone Control. This is the software that controls the bass and treble hot keys. HP Media Smart Sling Player ??? Still haven't figured out what this is for. I uninstalled it and so far I haven't missed it.

HP drivers :

1) HP Drive Guard : This is very necessary if you drop your laptop. The software detects a fall and locks the hard drive to keep itself from being damaged on impact.

2) Hp Integrated module with Bluetooth wireless technology : You need this obviously for your Blue Tooth radio ( although if you were to uninstall it the windows software would take over)

3) Hp Quick Launch Buttons : I have uninstalled this. It is thought that it somehow interacts with the hot keys on these models. If some one could tell me what the use is, for this driver, well be my guest. The only thing that I have discovered where this software is needed is on my mothers 3 year old dv7. This some-what bloated software provides the audible clicking sounds when the volume is adjusted. When I uninstalled it that was the only thing that was affected. All the hot keys worked normally other wise.

All of the above can simply be reinstalled from the recovery manager. Open the recovery manager from the all programs list. On the far right pane there are choices to install the drivers and the software. Just follow the prompts to reinstall any of the software or hardware if you find it necessary to reinstall things that you have removed.

This also applies to Vista. How ever the recovery manager is arranged differently than In Windows 7, but it still does the same thing.

These instructions are for my HDX 18 and for my dv8. I am sure they will also work on most HP models. All of what I learned is from when I did a full install of a retail copy of Windows 7 on my HDX. I found out exactly what the bare minimum it took to operate my laptop and I found that most of the problematic HP stuff was not needed. It was really nice starting from scratch. All there was, was the operating system and nothing installed in "programs and features"

Most of the stuff seems redundant. I'd like to keep the "HP Health Check" Software, but I don't want it to run automatically, and to automatically update itself. It's MY computer, and I should be the one who decides if and when those things should happen.

I found this advice about turning off the HP Health Check:

Re: Turning off HP Health Check

04-04-2010 02:11 PM - last edited on 04-04-2010 06:44 PM

Try this: Go to the task manager and then "services" on the bottom left find "services" again and maximise. Look for HP health check services in the list and right click on it. About in the middle of that box is a drop down box that gives you choices on what that service does...choose to disable it and restart your machine. I just discovered that in order to disable the service you have to stop it first. If you try to disable with out stopping first it may say "access denied"

Personally I have uninstalled all of the HP stuff from my dv8 as I have no use for the HP bloat ware in my machine. I can always reinstall it from the recovery manager. It will allow you to install specific drivers and software.

If you choose to uninstall it just make sure it's listed in the recovery manager or on the HP web site specific to your model.

In all honesty you will probably never miss it. See this thread about HP bloat ware. [...]

So I went to apply this on my Windows 7 laptop. I would describe it as thus:

Go to "Control Panel/System Security/Administrative Tools". Click on "Services (Local)". Select/highlight "HP Health Check" from the list. To the right some options will appear, to "stop" or "restart" the service. Stop the service.

Then right click on "HP Health Check", and from the drop down menu that appears, select properties. A window will open that provides you some options.

In the center is an option for "start up type". It has a drop down menu next to it. The default selection is "automatic". You can choose "disable" as one of the options, but I chose "manual". Then I clicked on the "apply" button in the lower right, then on the "OK" button.

I hope that does it, but if that doesn't work out, I'll go back in and try "disable". Eventually I may start deleting a lot of the other stuff too. I don't want programs I'm not using and don't need, sucking up my system resources.