Windows 7: Recovering Windows 7 on a HP Pavilion dv4-2145dx Entertain. Notebook

I would like to explain the Recovery went well, but I thought I would do a telling of how I reached that point. I do have a few questions afterwards.


My Niece came to me the other day and asked me if I could take a look at her machine. It was acting very slow with a lot of features unavailable, so I said sure.

Product Page for niece's machine:
HP Pavilion dv4-2145dx Entertainment Notebook

I figured out why she was having problems after I ran 5 different anti-virus/malware programs on it. Lets see if I remember correctly.



There were:

• 350 adware/spyware cookies on it.
• 18 viruses.
• 9 Trojans.
• 3 rootkits.
• 2 worms.
• 2 keyloggers.
• Even Windows Defender found 1 backdoor loader. Good 'ol Defender, eh?

It got to a point that every time I removed whatever those five programs found, the machine would exhibit even worse behaviour.

When I noticed there were several duplications of computer locations listed in the left pane of Explorer; Favorites, Desktop, Library, Computer, Network, Homegroup, I had enough and decided to cut my losses and do what HP calls a Recovery.

Because the Start menu Folder for Recovery was (empty) along with Administrative Tools, and the other HP Bloatware (BW) Folders, I tried using HP's method of getting into Recovery, but that didn't work either.
I had to see if Recovery was still in Explorer and it was. I clicked on the Recovery.exe file, and success!
It started, ran, and now I am at a point where I am just about finished with Windows Updates.

I have already installed/adjusted her favorite browsers (FF19.0 - IE9), MSE, removed the ASK folder, Norton 360, and Java, these last three seem to be included with HP's Recovery.
I have to wait until I have a nice long talk with her to see what see wants to do with the rest of HP's BW.


Now for my questions:

• She likes gaming and had Steam on her machine. I know this isn't good for 7. Is there a viable alternative?
• I need an alternative for Bonjour.
• Even though Java has been removed from the machine, I used Programs and Features (PF), and JavaRa. They won't un-populate themselves from the PF list. Is there a tutorial here for this?
• I am going to make up a bill for services rendered, just to show her what this would of cost if she took it to the local Tech. Any Suggestions? I have my time already figured in, what's a reasonable charge per hour?

As far as Steam goes, I, and no one I know that uses it, has had a problem with it, but as far as I know, we all have it set to not run at start up and only use it when actually playing something. The only program similar to Steam that I can think of is Origin and that is only for EA games. Both will eat up some resources if left running all the time, so show her how to exit out of steam from the notification area and set steam to not run at startup (can be done within Steam's settings). If you have any particular issues/concerns with using Steam, don't be afraid to ask.

I don't know what to tell you about Bonjour, other than get a different phone/mp3 player.

The list of programs was not changed in the registry for some reason. You can use CCleaner to check for references to Java in the registry and remove Java from the list of installed programs.

I'd go with $20 or more an hour.

Thank you Petey7,

Okay on the Steam setup, I'd also check the OS startups tab in msconfig or would just the setting in in Steam itself be sufficient?
Do you know if Steam creates a Service setting in Services?

She had MP3Rocket installed, but she will need something else since I deleted Java and Rocket needs it.

$20? That's at least $120 just for today.

I know one member here who is in the PC fixing biz, who charges $100 minimum to clean malware up. I think the Geek Squad has a minimum of $129.

I'm not sure what could replace Bonjour :-(

CCleaner can remove the entries from the Programs and Features list. Just try to uninstall those items using CCleaner and once it errors out, it should offer to remove the item from the list.

As far as billing for services rendered: Businesses in my area charge $197/hr with a 2 hour minimum for the stuff that you did.

There is a HP Minimal Recovery option on their latest models which excludes all the bloatwre except for HP Connection Manager which you can then uninstall to default to Windows 7'superior wireless manager. Did you see that?

A standard HP Factory Recovery reinstalls the bloatware which is worst in the industry, yielding a corrupt install that throttles Windows 7 native state. Even to Clean Up Factory Bloatware will never run as good as getting a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

Bonjour is not needed and problematic.

I don't really know much about the price people typically charge for fixing computers, mainly since I've been fixing my own since I was, I think, 7. I know I was in 1st or 2nd grade the first time I got my printer to work when my parents couldn't.

In Steam, in the top left corner, click the word Steam, then settings, then go to the Interface tab. Uncheck the box that says "Run Steam when my computer starts." There is a service for Steam, but when you uncheck the box it will automatically set the service to Manual and the service will stop within a few seconds of exiting Steam (I tried this on my own computer to be sure). Remember you have to exit it from the notification icon, not just close the window. Also, unchecking that box removes the entry for the program itself in msconfig.

Thanks guys,

Greg I didn't know that, being unfamiliar with HP I did read up on Recovery, and I did have some options before recovering, but I didn't see anything like that.

Her machine is about two years old. If this comes again, "shudder", I'll be checking the recovery options closer, and even a clean reinstall.

Thanks for the headsup on bonjour.

EDIT:
She's had the machine for 4years.

Greg is correct, just dump Bonjour (I did!)
Geek Squad $100 just to look at a machine, close to $60 an hour after that initial look. I charge what the store guys charge, then I discount for friends and family.

cCleaner can remove itmes from P&F - it doesn't clean up Jave, just removes the itme from the F&P list, or
if you remove the folder and run the registry part of cCleaner, it will clean up any references to the folder.

And then there's Revo uninstaller.

I didn't get a chance to try Revo, and CC wouldn't budge those two Java's, here's what I tried, from a different thread I'm helping in: