A good alternative to scan without HP software is to use printer as a network printer. Most HP printers today have either WiFi, Ethernet or both connections.
For example I have no HP printer and scanner software installed. To scan I simply connect to my printer using a web browser and select Webscan:
Kari
Last edited by Kari; 13 May 2013 at 13:43. Reason: Typos
I use Windows Fax and Scan on my laptop. I don't want any stupid "uber convenience" suite bogging down my computer. And it took forever to stop ALL of the components and apps from running all the time
HP is the King of Bloatware. HP's only runs perfectly if you dodge all of it. The fact that it's not as buggy as it used to be isn't enough.
I have an HP 510 business laptop my uncle wouldn't use because it was so bogged down with bloatware. So I wiped it, upped the RAM to 1gb max and installed Win7. It's now nearly ten years old and runs great. Five other friends and relatives have HP's which run fine without any bloatware. I only got help calls from them until we rooted it all out.
And nowadays if you get a HP they don't even list the drivers for all their computers online anymore! instead they direct you to their SystemCare installer which installs the drivers along with other "complementary" software.
I like the "HP ProtectTools Security Manager". Use it with One-Step-LogOn and Pre-boot for fingerprint validation instead of typing password.
"HP Software Framework" is also required for One-Step-LogOn to work. Just swipe my finger at boot and it will automatically log in to Windows.
Also the "HP SoftPaq Download Manager" is great for finding updates for your HP programs incl. drivers and BIOS updates. That program was not pre-installed. Downloaded from: Client Management Solutions - Drivers and BIOS | HP® Official Site
Thanks for the update, Tookeri. This info will help others decide.
Was this a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 with software you're recommending to add back?
Did you allow Win7 to provide the drivers it wants first via Windows Update? If so what other drivers or software did you find it necessary to reimport from HP and for what reasons?
Please mention your Elitebook model in reply so Google picks it up.
Pre-installed, no clean install. I've uninstalled many HP programs but I meant these are my favorites to keep. So I guess your other questions become irrelevant in this case, sorry.
Can't recall "HP SoftPaq Download Manager" have brought me drivers, only programs and BIOS updates. Last critical BIOS update was only a few months ago. Without the SoftPaq Manager(that was NOT pre-installed) I don't think I've been aware of any updates at all. Maybe I uninstalled some other pre-installed HP program that checked for updates. Don't remember.
HP Elitebook 8540p (but I'm sure Google's already picked that up from my specs in the page source)
Google doesn't really go into Specs just the thread text.
I do hope for you that someday you get to experience native perfect Win7 performance on your Elitebook which comes from doing a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7, like a million others who have followed it without a single complaint.
HP's often have a Minimal Recovery option on http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...c01867418#N452 that is nearly the same as clean. Just uninstall the HP Wireless manager bloatware which adds 30 seconds to start, default to Win7's superior wireless manager.
Thank your for the advice. I'll keep it for future PCs. I'm an advanced user so I've already uninstalled most "crap" and tweaked my system a lot and it runs perfectly. As good as other clean installed machines I think
Well, one thing I can mention here since it's HP related is that Sleep doesn't work with the latest version of the "HP Software Framework" which I need for the One-Step-LogOn, its service hangs and crashes and I couldn't find a fix from HP so I made a batch file that stops the service and uses psshutdown from Sysinternals to sleep the computer:
@echo off
sc query hpqWmiEx | find "STATE"
sc stop hpqWmiEx
timeout /T 3
sc query hpqWmiEx | find "STATE"
pause
psshutdown -d -t 00
The pause is just to verify that the service changed from running to stopped. Maybe this helps someone else too :)
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