Vista Upgrade Utility Disc, what should I install?

This is the 3rd time I have clean installed Vista because the HP Utility Disc gets lost/crashes/installs bad drivers and I'd like to avoid a 4th time. I am clean installing Vista Ultimate (not using the Vista Home Premium upgrade DVD) and want some of the optional software and whatever is necessary to upgrade the drivers that Vista installs by default. Anyone have a definitive list?

Thanks!

 

Well, I don'y have the HP Utility disc, but I'm assuming the drivers are the same as the ones provided on the HP website. Of those:

NEEDED DRIVERS (for a fully-functioning system):
- Latest BIOS
- Quicklaunch buttons
- Ricoh card reader
- Webcam
- Conexant HD Audio drivers***

Other drivers I installed from HP:
- HP Bluetooth
- Synaptics Touchpad driver
- Intel Wireless drivers
- HP Wireless Assistant
- HP Update
- Quickplay 3.0

*** The only driver HP has made available for dv2000t systems with the "waikiki" audio codec is the old Windows XP driver. The only other option is the included Windows driver, but it has MAJOR issues.

I can't help you with the optional software without knowing what software you are specifically looking at. Some of the software HP includes may not be very compatible with Vista yet.

 

Here's the list from the Software Setup on the CD:

All of them are checked by default but I obviously don't need all this stuff. I am thinking what is in bold is what I want. Do you think I am skipping anything important or including anything I shouldn't bother with?

Hardware Enabling Drivers

• HP Analog TV Tuner
• Intel Pro/Wireless Drivers
• Ricoh Media cards Host Controller
• HP Quick Launch Buttons
• Synaptics Touchpad Driver
• HP DVB-T TV Tuner
• Broadcom 802.11 Network Adapter Driver
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200

Recommended Software Applications

• Intel TV format utility (TH) - Vista
• HP Active Support Library
• BTBSS start prepblock
• HP Help and Support Vista
• HP Quickplay / DVD Play
• HP Update
• HP Wireless Assistant
• HP Easy Setup - User registration, EIS, and Opt-in (Backweb, Symantec, HPSU and etc.)
• All IE home and Search for portable (Pavillion/Presario)
• Macromedia Flash Player 9ax
• System Default Settings for Vista
• MuVee AutoProducer DVD Edition
• ALL HP/Compaq connection for portable US (Pavillion/Presario)
• ALL HP Advisor for portable US (Pavillion/Presario)
• Wireless_Home_Network_Setup
• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 - 60 Day Trial
• HP Games Powered by WildTangent
• MS Works 8.5
• BTBSS end prepblock
• Bluetooth Power Management Enhancement

Optional Software Applications

• HP Integrated module with Bluetooth wireless technology for Vista
• Sun Java
• Roxio Creator Basic 9
• LightScribe Host Software
• Symantec Norton Internet Security (NIS)

 

HP acitve support, help & support Vista, HP update are unnecessary. It might be better to download and install the latest versions of Flash and Java from their respective websites rather than installing from the the DVD. Other than these you could also avoid Norton there are better, less bloated alternatives like Avast, Zone alarm which are free but thats upto your choice.

 

Thanks for the feedback, Miner!