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    What to do when my laptop arrives

    Discussion in 'HP' started by faekplastik3s, Feb 27, 2012.

  1. faekplastik3s

    faekplastik3s Notebook Enthusiast

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    What do I have to do when my laptop arrives, in terms of cleaning up whatever crap HP stuffed the default install with? This is a new concept for me, but I've been reading these laptops come with a dedicated recovery partition, so how do I make it so that I can safely backup all the product keys and licences it comes with so I can use them later? When I install Windows again over the default install how do I know what partition has the recovery files? Are they even important at all? What exactly does it do and contain? How big is it? What sort of proprietary HP drivers will I have to install after a clean Windows 7 install?

    Sorry for these sort of noobish questions, but this just seems like such a weird concept for me that I can't really wrap my head around it... Whatever happened to install DVD's?
     
  2. MSGaldenzi

    MSGaldenzi Notebook Deity

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    What model number? I am pretty sure that some models have different software...

    I know there is a free program to uninstall bloatware but from my experience, I uninstall all the junk that I know that I won't use and just prevent everything else from starting up when the system starts (that way its not hogging resources).

    *Type "msconfig" in the search programs after clicking on the window icon and uncheck things under the startup tab (be careful not to mess anything thats necessary though)...

    Not sure if this helps you but its my 2c worth.
     
  3. DjSweetBazz

    DjSweetBazz Notebook Consultant

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    what I did with my laptop was, I made a win 7 ultimate clean install, installed all drivers from HP:s support site (everything is working fine so far) now I dont have all the crap that originally came with the laptop, then I removed the recovery partition since I dont need it anymore + I would get about 18GB free space, which I added to C, then created another partition (D).

    I believe if u make a clean install using the recovery partition u will still get all those programs that hP puts in the laptop :(

    But u can download win 7 home premium, burn it on a cd, use the cd key that is under ur lalptop and do a clean install ;)
     
  4. Althernai

    Althernai Notebook Virtuoso

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    There are several guides on how to do this ( here's one). The short version:

    1) Make the recovery/backup disks using HP's utilities before you do anything else.
    2) The easiest way to get a bloat-ware free install is the Minimized Image Recovery option. It's much easier than reinstalling Windows yourself because it comes with all of the drivers which you would otherwise have to download and install one by one.