Removing Bloatware? Reinstall Win7?

Nope, not yet. Ill do that tonight and report back

Andi did make a backup of the swsetup folder along with recovery dvds

 

Hey, one more question. Why not just delete the bloatware instead reformatting. Seems like the former would be easier.

 

windows update didnt fix anything, my fn+f1-f12 still doesnt work

 

It probably takes as long or longer to remove the bloatware. Plus it will leave fingerprints behind. Uninstalling is never as clean as not installing at all.

 

I think this should be stickied and be put right up there with the out of the box thread. I will be getting my dv6tqe on Thursday and I have this thread bookmarked and saved in my email because it's the first(well, second- after creating restore disks) that I'm going to do.

Well done, Walden. Well done indeed.

 

If we have LoJack installed, will a Minimum System Recovery (Or full blown reformat) remove it?

 

Yeah, is there a list of what remains after a MSR? I would do it but don't want to go through that then have a ton of stuff either not work or cause me problems in any other ways.

 

Page 2 of this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-pavilion-notebooks/578817-removing-bloatware-reinstall-win7-2.html#post7504020

 

Haven't read through the whole thread yet, but have you tried installing the "HP on screen display utility"? I am assuming you have played with the FN keys setting in the BIOS.
Also try installing "HP Quick Launch Software".

 

Just wanted to bring up the fact that MSI uninstalls Norton Internet Security, so if you were going to take advantage of the 15-month subscription and you still have the Norton sheet that came in the box, you can download a trial and enter your product code to activate your subscription after you have done MSI.

 

Is there a way to get a full size version of that image? I can't make anything out on it.

EDIT:

Ok, weird, at work it was just showing the tiny image, but here at home I see the entire thing. Thanks.

 

Well,as someone already asked..apart from Norton,Adobe crap and the Microsoft Office 2010,what are the other bloatware? I mean do you count the HP Movie Player and stuff as bloatware coz i think thats really kewl and i woudnt like removing it ! Anywayz,iam still sticking for the manual way..can someone please tell me the bloatware preinstalled?
P.S-See my sign for my notebook !
Thanks in advance !

 

Hey is HP Simple pass still there after the MSI? The fingerprint reader is pretty handy.

 

I never thought to get a list of the preinstalled software before performing the MSI recovery. All I know is that several reviews mentioned that the DM1z had an incredible amount of bloatware. It probably varies a bit model-by-model.

The DM1z doesn't have the fingerprint reader so I can't answer that. Someone with a computer that has will have to give it a try. I'm willing to bet that it will still be installed. All of the necessary HP software is still installed on the DM1z in order for it to remain 100% functional with all features enabled.

 

Just did the MSI, it was a great decision. It's definitely a lot more preferable than just manually uninstalling stuff.

 

Yes, it's still there, and you won't need to reinstall it. In fact the only noteworthy thing worth mentioning that was absent after the MSI was the Norton Security Suite. I hadn't activated yet anyway, and also qualify for free Norton from Comcast, so it wasn't an issue for me. I didn't see Norton AV in the SWSetup folder either, so if you intend to use it, you'd likely need to download it online. Otherwise, all of the bloat was gone!

 

Doesn't the DV6 come with a bluray playing program, like powerdvd or something? That likely wont' reinstall with the MSI. Is it in the SWsetup folder?

 

I bought the external Blu-ray player with my DM1z and it played movies just fine after the MSI. I didn't install anything to get it to play.

EDIT: Just to be clear, the MSI doesn't remove any of the computer's functionality, just the bloat.

 

I wonder how much speed difference you would notice in the laptop if you fully formatted the c:\ partition and then ran the HP recovery versus just running the HP recovery and letting it do its quick format of the partition.

I have to imagine that after using the laptop for a year or so, the full format on the main OS partition would help. I have never been a quick format fan.

 

I'll be receiving my laptop sometime this week and I want to make sure I know what I'm doing when I get it.

What's in the swsetup folder? Will it be removed with a MSI? Should I just back it up online or on a USB, or should I burn it onto one of the system recovery disks?

Will the software that I need to play bluray disks be removed in an MSI, and is there anyway to reclaim them?

Thanks!

 

Everything works after doing the MSI. Swsetup is still there.

 

1) Hey, can one do the recovery "discs" to an external harddrive as opposed to a DVD?
2) Can one then create discover discs from the external harddrive if the need arises later?
3) does the recovery partition still exist after the MSI?

 

i have a question:

when my SSD and cable come in the mail, can i just turn it off, install the ssd in the second drive spot, boot it up and go to the system recovery and choose minimized system recovery option and go from there? choose the ssd as the primary, etc?

 

The recovery partition always stays there unless the drive fails or you choose to delete it. As such, the recovery disks are just insurance. You should be able to recover as much as you'd like from the partition.

As for restoring to a HDD. I think you can so long as it recognizes it as a USB drive. Maybe still you can, but the computer only has an option for disks or a USB drive.

 

On my DV7T with Blu Ray Burner, PowerDVD 11 is still present, even after the MSI! No worries. I have yet to find anything of use, other than Antivirus software missing after the MSI. It's the single best setup thing I did for my laptop!

 

I'm pretty sure the media needs to be recognizable as bootable in order to be able to run the system restore, so an external hdd may not work in that capacity, unless you set up a separate partition on it just for the recovery. Personally, I just used the 4 DVDs. It took a fair amount of time to validate and burn, but was pretty much painless.

 

what AV do you use?

 

I have a free subscription to the Norton Security Suite through Comcast, so I just downloaded it from there website and reinstalled. It's not nearly as much of a resource hog as it used to be. I'm guessing you could just download the software from Norton's website, and use the free-trial and 15 month promotion as well, but I haven't tried.

 

Can one create the recovery disks after the MSI? I'm just going to be REAL eager to get my thing up and running and I have total confidence in the MSI, and if that screws up, I can reboot from the partition. After that though, I will want to make the DVD's. Can I do that after the MSI?

 

I know the option is there to create recovery disks at any time. Being that the swsetup folder remains intact, and the recovery partition also remains, I don't see any real harm in it... I did it more because I was paranoid about the outcome, and didn't want to lose anything.

 

If your going to make the recovery DVDs regardless, why not just do it from the start? Sounds like your being too much of an eager beaver.

 

Although, to play devil's advocate, it would be nice to do all of the Windows Updates first, and install your core software and make sure it's updated prior to making the recovery disks. That way if you do ever need to recover, it would save you a lot of time in updating!

 

Can u check on you comp to see if it actually gives you the option? Thanks!

 

I don't think it works like that. Recovery disks are created from the recovery partition. The updates don't get in there

 

^ Then why even bother to make the recovery disks, if it's just restoring only what was on the partition? You can boot using the recovery partition and do an MSI at any time, so as long as the partition doesn't get corrupted, you're fine... Even then, I saw HP offers the recovery media for $15 on their website. I'll verify whether it allows you to make the disks at any time though, to avoid a corrupted HDD partition fiasco.

 

You answered you own question: jsut incase the partition gets screwed up. Also, Many computers did not used to come with a recovery partition, and some still don't I think, so the recovery disks are something of a relic. Of course, the recovery partition could somehow become corrupted (eventhough that is really really unlikely), so I guess the disks are worth something, atleast.

Get back to me on whether you can create the recovery dvd's post MSI.

 

Yes. You can only make one set, however. So you need to pick your media choice (USB 32GB flash drive or larger; 4 DVDs - SL; 2 DVDs - DL). But honestly, who cares. Just make the stupid disks before you reload to MSI. Its not like the full factory image is going to eat away at the laptop every minute you don't have MSI on it...

 

I have a HP dm4x with core i5 2410m, 6gb ram, 640gb 7200 rpm hdd, raedon 6470m. I have installed HP's full system image, Minimal system image, as well as retail Win7. I just wanted to provide some basic differences between the three that I have found.

Full HP Win7 has about 44 programs installed in Control Panel, 553GB of free space, and about 1400 overall score on Passmark.

Minimal HP Win7 has about 23 programs installed in Control Panel, 559GB of free space, and about 1430 overall score on Passmark.

Retail Win7 has 0 programs installed in Control Panel, 563GB of free space, and about 1594 overall score in Passmark.

I'm not telling anyone which is the best choice or easiest to install. I personally would like to use Retail Win7, but the correct driver for my Alps touchpad hasn't been released yet. I spent 2-3 days looking for it, only to find that out. I'm not running retail anymore because of that. I know of at least one other program that is probably a pain to get working on retail (HP Coolsense) So yeah, I know it's a pain in the butt to get retail working easily, but I'm switching to it and trying again once the Alps driver is released because the performance increase is so much higher.

Ps. HP also told me that running retail win7 voids your warranty. Pretty silly, but It's not like you can't reinstall factory Win7 from your recovery partition or recovery dvd's.

 

HP would say anything to make you believe that you voided your own warranty. Just look for someone else.

Anyways, I thought you guys are using the synaptics touchpad, not that awful alps touchpad.

 

Last years dm4 has the synaptics. It received such terrible reviews that HP stuffed a Alps in it when they refreshed the line with the sandy bridges. When I install retail win7, it actually tries to install a synaptics driver, but I'm 100% sure I don't have a synaptics touchpad.

 

Odd, it's the same synaptic touchpad device still being used in the dv6/dv7 for the current and the past 3 generations. Just the only appearances was changed.

Oh well, I just have a bad history with Alps devices.

 

I tried running the MSI, but it seems to reconfigure the hard drive partitions back to normal (one C: partition and the recovery partitions).

Specifically, I like to install Windows on a 30gb C: drive and have everything else on the D: drive. Is is possible to get the MSI and manually configure the partitions?

 

Here's Endgaget's review of last year's dm4. They say the trackpad they used was the major problem with the laptop. HP Pavilion dm4 review -- Engadget

This video shows the Alps that replaced it. YouTube - ‪HP Pavilion dm4x review and slight performance test‬‏

Do you mean have Windows as a 30gb C: drive, then D: use the rest of the space for Recovery, Hp_Tools, System, as well as your program files and everything else you'd be saving? That seems kinda messy. Anyway, You can use gparted to reconfigure the partitions. It should be on any Ubuntu LiveCD. I don't suggest combining partitions. They are separate for a reason. I think the System partition is BIOS and is what boots your computer and decides what drive to boot.

If you know what you're doing more than I do, then yeah, use gparted. You can use it to resize and create new partitions too.

 

Uh thx I'm aware of those issues but my point stands, it's the same synaptic device (not the dm4x ) used in 4 generations of the dv series including the current one and the dm4 series. Just the functionality is fixed by changing the cosmetic of the buttons, which the workaround for those who have "no button" version was either create a deadzone or disable tap to click.

The other issue in that dm4 review was pretty much been resolved via driver updates for quite some time.

 

I have a lot of distractions here, I misunderstood. I think I was trying to say that my dm4x has an Alps touchpad. I wonder why they didn't keep the Synaptics if the issues were fixed.

 

Pretty much cost. Alps products are significantly cheaper than the Synaptics.
Their software features are simple, but their reliability is uh is ok but have room for improvement.

Not many people take advantage of the special features that synaptics have anyway. Like gestures and stuff.

 

The touchpad can be significantly improved with Reil's (envy) touchpad app ( Reil's Envy Touchpad App). It comes with inertial 2-finger scroll, 2- and 3- finger right/middle button. Might have to tweak the settings a bit.

 

hey guys. i tried the MSI. i am barely even done installing all my software and i realise i have like 95 processes running in the background (which i think is a tad too much). i feel like just performing a clean install

 

pretty sure I looked thoroughly through this thread but maybe I missed the answer to this question..

I saw a list of what IS installed AFTER the MSI but I wanted to know if someone could provide me with a complete list of what is NOT installed compared to what is on the laptop when you receive it

 

I think it was just Norton which was the only essential (considering its antivirus) software that comes uninstalled.



Also did the guy who has problems with his function keys, get his problem resolved? And will this happen to any of us if we do it?