Got an HP, don't want an HP...

[bigbrat41]

It's been awhile, life and all that, so I'm a bit out of pace, please bear with me.
Got an HP G60 Laptop for Christmas. Smiled some and frowned some. My outdated knowledge
and the Program list tells me that there is WAY TOO DARN MUCH HDD WASTED WITH THIS HP BS.
Is there a site or posting or someone or a particular prayer to help me get rid of some or most or all this HP BS ?
Laptop came with Windows 7 that's bad enough, XP is just fine, but all the HP stuff that I don't want or need..........................
HELP !!!
Thanks for your time

 

[raybay]

Describe your "HP BS" in a lot more detail.
Otherwise, all you have to do is reinstall Windows 7 from the HP recover disk, but watch closely to prevent the installation of many of the choices offered.

 

[bigbrat41]

Got an HP, don't want an HP

The list is long and endless, but before...... You said just reinstall Windows "from the disks".
My concern has always been just how deeply rooted the HP software goes. CMOS, the BIOS certainly.
Do I risk "upsetting the apple cart" by reinstalling ONLY an OS ????

There is nothing other than an OS ( XP of which I own a license or 7 which came on this laptop and I have found nothing spectacular about unless you like minor glitches ) that I want or need.
HP Advisor, HP Tour, Assistant, etc. I have NO need for.

I hope this helps you help me.
I will monitor this thread throughout the day.

Thank you

 

[raybay]

It doesn't make sense that your hard drive has used too much space by the HP install. Together HP Advisor, HP Tour, Assistant, and such use practically no hard drive space.
Perhaps you are misunderstanding the formatting that, because of language and definition differences, shows smaller drives.
When calculating space, always figger .93% of the drive manufacturers rated capacity is what you'll have after formatting the drive. For some advertised hard drives, here is what they are after formatting: 120 GB x .93% = 111 GB; 250 GB x .93% = 232 GB; 300 GB x .93%
300 GB x .93% = 279 GB and so on.
You can do a search on-line to find the size of the HP stuff. Or you can remove/delete the HP stuff after install, then run a defragmentation to recover the lost space.
Some HP software is useful, but certainly not HPAdvisor, HP Tour, and Assistant.
You can download the software from HP rather than use the install disk. The download, on average, is divided into 9 sections. Use the full driver or the reduced driver to save additional space, but the full driver works a whole lot better. Since you didn't name the HP printer, I cannot be more specific.
The HP software does NOT go deeply, and in fact, surface deletes when you click on a simple remove.
You can then use a simple registry editor, such as RegClean by Juoini Viorno at www.majorgeeks.com to remove the parts of HP from the registry you do not need in Windows XP. There are similar registry editors for Windows 7.

 

[DelJo63]

HP Print drivers and library support is massive (in process count and V.M. usage).
The hardware is great, but imo the software is bloatware.

I usuallu opt for Canon or Kodak printers due to this issue.

 

[Relic]

Since you seem to have a dislike for HP...have you thought about returning it if possible (having the receipt and store accepts it)? Did you get this from a significant other or parent as a gift? If they aren't exactly technology literate you could always say that the machine didn't perform what you needed it too or it's giving you problems.

I personally have dealt with HP's and while they do come with some irritating software, I just cleaned them out and went on my way.

 

[bigbrat41]

Thanks

Thanks to all for the info.
Have gone into Control Panel and cleaned up a lot. Now just need to decide how far to go.

If I decide to go clean install of 7 from disks, will I be able to install ONLY 7, no HP software at all ?

Thank you again.

 

[Puiu]

If you have the original CD-Key (which you should if it came with it preinstalled) then you can install windows7 from a disk. If you download the windows image try to find one that isn't cracked so you won't have any problems activating it with you original cd-key.

edit: after upgrading my laptop to windows 7 i never looked back.

 

[raybay]

It depends on the Windows 7 disks you have... but yes, it is possible, and normal, to do that with the OEM version and others.

 

[slh28]

I wouldn't use those recovery disks from HP if that's what you mean by clean install... they will usually resort you back to the "factory settings" which means it has all the crapware which came with it. Still, you won't be able to change the BIOS picture though.

On a related note I think Sony hold the record for the most amount of crapware you get with a laptop

 

[Archean]

Usually all new HP notebooks now come with 'recovery partition' with an option to create one 'recovery disk' (you can write it only ONCE).

1. However, you can choose what you do not want to be installed if you choose to use that recovery option.
2. Better option would be just to get rid of whatever you do not want through control panel/programs.