Installing select HP Software

If you have a restore disk from HP, you can use that and avoid the software install using these simple steps

1) get restore disk from HP
2) boot from restore disk
3) choose to do destructive recovery (meaning everything will be wiped clean and installed fresh)
4) let it install windows and all that
5) let machine reboot. first time you will see HP setup screen it will be for drivers. Let it install, and then reboot.
6) the next time you will see an HP setup screen it will be in actual windows. do CTRL-ALT-DEL, and get to the task manager. (the faster the better)
7) kill the process FBISM.exe
8) do start, run, msconfig.
9) click the startup tab, and uncheck HP File Based Insaller, c:\system.sav\fbi\FBISM.exe.
10) click OK and click the button to exit without rebooting.

Now you have brand new windows install without the HP crap software ever installing itself. You will have the SWSETUP folder on C:, but it will not have installed the HP software.



I have done this a few times with my restore disk, the only issues you will run into are:
1) you will have one unknown device in the Device Manager. This is the quick launch buttons. You have to run the Quick launch buttons setup to get this driver installed: C:\SwSetup\QLB\Disk1\setup.exe
2) you will probably find your disk drive is not fully partitioned. I found my 250GB drive setup with a 24GB partition and the rest left unpartitioned. I think this is because some HP software in the SWSETUP folder prepares the drive with that crap recovery partition. Thankfully the steps above avoid this crap partition. The only thing you have to do, though, is go into Disk Management and extend the current C:\ partition to the rest of the drive.
3) Vista will not be activated. Similar to #2, I think there is some software in the SWSETUP folder which automatically activates Vista. I tried manually activating with the cdkey on the bottom of my laptop but it didnt work. I even tried phone activation with the automated phone system and that didnt work. I had to speak to a Microsoft rep to get the activation code to activate it.

Excellent post!

Does it work with Windows XP or MCE 2005?

- Mike

Yes, it is possible to copy the SWSETUP folder to a DVD, or anywhere for that matter. I have it on a portable hard drive.

The SWSETUP folder contains the installers for all drivers and crap-software that comes with HP computers (Wildtangent games, Norton Internet Security, Vongo VoIP, etc.).

It is possible to install Vista from a Standard Vista disk and then use the SWSETUP folder to install drivers and whatever. The only thing you lose when you do this is the 1GB partition for quickplay (heck even I dont have it since i used those steps in the post i made above). But quickplay is so worthless that it doesnt even matter. Quickplay I think is a way to play DVD's outside of Windows using minimal power. Not 100% sure, but I certainly never use or used it.



Yes, it is possible to install anything you want from the SWSETUP. The HP installer just installs everything silently, but every folder in SWSETUP come with, or should come with a proper setup.exe file to install the program independently. You just have to find the right folder. Give me a few minutes and I'll get a readout of what folders i have and how i have identified them.




MDRhoades: I am not sure. I had a dv9000 with XPMCE2005 on it for a bit, but it was replaced with a dv9500 with Vista, so I never got a chance to try it (nor did I ever have an HP issued recovery DVD). I did create the XPMCE2005 recovery DVD's but I think they are vastly different from the HP issued recovery DVD. Notice how I say "DVD's". The recovery partition on your HP laptop will let you create recovery DVD's, and these DVD's are nothing more than an image of the 10-11GB recovery partition. So when you use these DVD's (three total) it will first wipe your hard drive clean, then repartition your drive to make room for the recovery partition, then copy all the contents of the three DVD's to the recovery partition, then use the recovery partition to restore the system (C partition.
Unfortunately the process of recovering the system (C partition using the recovery partition (D renders my directions in my previous post useless as you dont get the option to stop the crap-software install as it just copies a pre-made image of the system partition containing all the crap software.

Red highlight means its a driver. This is a folder readout from my dv9500t with a fingerprinter reader. The .CVA file in each folder gives the description of the files contained.

Adobe - Adobe PDF reader
Audio - Realtek High Definition Audio Driver
BTBCAUS - Canadian ISP software
BTBSSEND - <no idea>
BTBSSPRE - <no idea>
BTBUS - ISP software (AOL, Earthlink, etc.)
BTOOTH - Bluetooth driver
Chipset - Intel chipset driver
ESUVT - Essential System Updates for Microsoft Vista for HP notebooks
HPAdvisor - HP Advisor
HPASL - HP Active Support Library
HPDV - HP Document Viewer
HPEasySetup - HP Easy Setup
HPGame - WildTangent Games
hpImgEnh - Something for the webam (my webcam works fine without user the contents of this folder)
HPPhoto - <no idea>
HPUpdate - HP Update
HSC - Additions to Windows Help for HP computers
IEHSWW - Internet Explorer Home and Search for Notebooks
Inetsec - Norton Internet Security
IntelTV - Intel TV format utility
LS - LightScribe Host Software
LSHSI - <empty>
Misc2 - Ricoh 5-1 Card Reader Driver
Misc5 - AuthenTec Inc. AES2501A Fingerprint Driver
MMFlash - Macromedia Flash Player 9ax
Modem - Motorola SM56 Data Fax Modem Driver
MSCUVT - MS Critical Updates for Windows Vista
MSNLIVE - MSN Live Messenger 8.1
MSWorks - MS Works 8.5
MVEDV - MuVee AutoProducer DVD Edition
Network - Realtek RTL8101 Family PCI-E Fast Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0) Driver
ocamrk - <no idea>
Off12 - Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 - 60 Day Trial
powerset - I think this is for battery power controls
PTMover - PictureMover software for Walmart
QLB - HP Quick Launch Buttons
QPW - HP QuickPlay / DVD Play
RealRhap - Real Rhapsody
Robson - Intel(r) Diamond Lake NAND 'RHCI' Disk Cache Controller - 444E
RoxioCB9 - Roxio Creator Basic 9
ST_RP - HP Recovery Manager for Vista
SUNJAVA - Sun Java
sw_ver - OCA marker file for Vista
Touchpad - Synaptics Touchpad Driver
TVTnr - Yuan EC300 DVB-T TV Tuner
TvTnr2 - Driver for Analog or Digital TV tuner from HP store
UG0056 - HP User Guides
UG0057 - HP User Guides
VDFUpdate - Symantec Norton AntiVirus-Virus Definitions Update
VID1 - Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family Driver
Video - nVidia GeForce series video driver
VONGO - Vongo
VSAM - Verisoft Access Manager Finger Print Reader
Wallpaper - HP Wallpapers
wau_upd - Windows Automatic Updates?
WCHASI - Welcome center help and support icon
WHNS - Wireless Home Network Setup
WLAN - Broadcom Wireless LAN driver
WLAN2 - Intel PRO/Wireless Drivers
WLASST - HP Wireless Assistant

Good work and excellent post!

- Mike

Well, i think its easy with a genuine vista cd because that gives you a partition manager. I think you have to make the 1GB Quickplay partition first on the drive. I dont think this process I mentioned above does this. I am not sure. All I know is that when Vista is fully installed and you cancel the FBISM.exe process, your hard drive will be partitioned with a 24GB drive and the rest unpartitioned. I just used vista to extend the drive to the max.

worst case scenario, you just format again and let the HP software create the partition.

If I wanted to restore normally, or lets say I just received a new laptop...What programs should I get rid of and which ones are important to keep?

Yeah I have the same thing...a little bit of a stall before Windows gets to the desktop :P.

Remove:

• HP/WildTangent Games (and any of the individual games which show up in the Uninstall Programs list)
• Vongo (VOIP software)
• Norton Internet Security (because its crap)
• HP Wireless Assistant (because its dumb)
• Microsoft Office 2003 (or 2007 whichever) trial (because unless you are buying it, you dont need it). I always uninstall the trial since I have a version on cd which I install afterward.
• Roxio (because it has become a bloated cdburning app)

Suggested Removal:

• HP Advisor
• HP User Guides
• HP Update
• Anything else that is HP software that is NOT HP quick launch buttons

Everything else should be fine to keep. If you want, you can take a screenshot of your uninstall programs list, upload it to imageshack, and post a link to the image here. Then I can tell you what you do and dont need.

Hey, thanks for the info, I think as soon as I get my new notebook in I'll give the clean install trick a shot.