Windows Vista forum: Removing Hewlett-Packard "preinstalled software"

Ask HP if they have some kind of removal tool or method for this software. Odds are they won't, it's HP we're talking about after all, but every now and then they manage to surprise you.

See if the software will uninstall in safe mode... that will get to it before any part has loaded and may work.

You might also try PC-Decrapifier... Google for it.

Glenn

with all the stuff (junk) HP puts on their systems.

Do not know if you want to do it but you could restore the system to the original condition then try the two things I mentioned. I know this would be lots of trouble and time consuming. Just mentioning it as an alternative.

To get rid of mine and improve performance, I formatted the hard drive and installed a new stand alone operating system... performance is much better.

Best of luck!

Glenn

Bob,

I checked the permissions. I have been using NTFS since NT.

The stubborn files are "owned" by a mysterious CREATOR user. I can modify neither the user nor the files attached. All the preferences for the use are grayed out. I can only see. It has a permissions type of "special"

The problem I'm experiencing seems rare as I spent days and could find no-one posting with a similar issue. But my computer doesn't lie... sitting there in C:\Programs is a folder called Hewlett-Packard with parts of programs I had already "removed".

Not only that, I received the following from HP Support

"You will not be able to delete the files completely as it is inbuilt with the operating system. However you can downlaod a file shredder software from the below mentioned link and try to delete the files again. It might help us to delete the fiels[sic]. We will hope for the best.
http://www.fileshredder.org/ ------- Link to downlaod file shredder software.
The above-mentioned URL will take you to a non-HP Web site. HP does not control and is not responsible for information outside of the HP Web site.

Sincerely,
(Supervisor)
HP Total Care"

Of course, this ISN'T built in to the operating system. At least not as distributed by Windows.

What surprises me is the file was inaccessible through Knoppix (while I was able to delete other files on the same drive). Perhaps I'll give that another go.

Or add your account to the list of accounts?

Then again we have other power tools.

-> Let me share I left that particular software installed. It's HP updater works fine and I just used it's little checkbox to not run at startup. It's never shown up again.
Bob

I did. It made no difference.

From the HP response, there's nothing I can do. I still refuse to accept it. but that's certainly been the case.

i can't remove the "CREATOR" user. I can't modify ownership of the files.

Bob, Check under your User Groups.

It was displaying under mine, at least when I was looking at the files it was attached to.

If you don't have a folder named "Hewlett-Packard" after removing HP Health Center via normal methods, you probably don't have the CREATOR user group either (I suspect this is the root of all my problems and why the uninstall did not work correctly).

Also, I've got Vista Premium. Also, mine was a refurb. Could be that whoever did whatever didn't use the correct image.

Who knows. I haven't been able to find anyone else specifically complaining about this problem.

While I assume if the group existed, it would show under user groups...

Here's how I found it.

I found that after using add/remove programs (or whatever it's called in Vista), that i still had a C:\Programs\Hewlett-Packard directory which had a few folders behind, among them HP Health Center.

I went to properties, and navigated to ownership, to see why i couldn't delete it... and top of the list was CREATOR with a type "special".

Went to edit those permissions and saw it had the same permissions as Admin except it was unmodifiable.

That's it. It wasn't hidden or anything. If you get me a way to send you a screen shot, I'll post that tonight.

However, I wonder if this isn't a mistake. It's a refurbished PC and I'm starting to wonder if whoever was giving it the once over used the wrong image when restoring the machine?

I've tried all the above suggestions to get rid of the directories and nothing works so I'm looking into purchase an unencumbered copy of vista.

i've already tried linux (see earlier) and the file is still locked, which i find surprising (knoppix and mandriva with ntfs support).

it's the principle that bothers me. i can't remove unwanted files from my own computer. it just doesn't seem right.

i can understand making it difficult so someone unwittingly can't remove it, but it just bugs me.

i'd bypass the windows altogether if it weren't for work. lamentably linux hasn't caught on in the work-a-day world as much as i'd hoped/

and it's not purely principle... but i think i've finally removed all the pieces that were causing phantom windows to appear (empty and unclose-able because most of the program guts were removed on uninstall).

I've never had problems like this with OEM before. Cest la vie.