WARNING - Do NOT clean install WINDOWS 7 on your touchsmart

[siteexperts]

A warning to others... 

I decided to do a clean install of Windows 7.  After installing, I wanted to reinstall the touchsmart experience (why else would I buy a touchsmart PC)

Guess what - HP claims my machine is now no longer under warranty and there is no way to install the touchsmart software. 

If you instead just do an upgrade, it MAY work and they MAY help you.  I was told to read my warranty closely... (everyone - go pull our your warranty sheets - support couldn't believe I didn't read it!)  I wasn't asking for warranty help or even "support"; just wanted to install the touchsmart application. I am curious as to why they even provide any drivers for direct downloading if they don't want end-users improving their machine.

Their solution was to start over, do a recovery from the recovery partition, then try an upgrade and if I am lucky it all may work (although some things may not).  Hmm... that sounds like a good solution...  It wasn't clear if the "upgrade" had to be purchased from HP or you could use an upgrade purchased at retail (to get support).   Before purchasing an upgrade, it may be worth reading the legalese from HP.

So... all those cool reviews of the touchsmart with Windows 7 are never going to be for me....  I have a very upset family with a useless touchsmart.

I bought my first 3 HPs in the past 6 months (been buying PCs for 15 years). Thanks to the shortsightedness of HP, these will most likely be the last 3 I ever purchase. 

Good job HP...    Way to alienate your customers.... 

[Vishnuchittan]

Hi,

If you have done a clean installation but have retained the Recovery partition intact ( D Drive), then there might be a possibility to extract Touchsmart Setup from the D Drive recovery paritition. Steps provided below:

Well a recovery partition would generally be a D:\.
1. So click start and hit run ( or open the run command box by holding windows logo key + R simultaneously ).
2. Clear contents of run box and type D:\hp\Apps and hit enter. This would open a window showing folders named APP14534 (example). Open the folder and you should be able to locate setup.exe or an executable file for Touchsmart.. Might be a bit difficult to identify the setup but am sure you will. If you don't find in the folder, try to explore subfolders and you should find the executables.

You can also type D:\hp\Apps in the start search (index box in start search).

If above procedure doesn't work for you, then you can open My computer and type D:\hp\Apps in the address bar. Hit enter to open the folder.

All right. Its quite difficult to pinpoint the application by looking at those folders as they differ with different models & series. Touchsmart application is broken down in to various sub applications like Music/Video/Pictures, Calendars, Notes etc. So open those folders one by one and you would have a folder or two with couple of files.

The file would read as any of the following approximately, HP Touch, HP Touchsmart, SmartCenter, Touchsmart MVP, SmartCal, Touchsmart Cal, Smart Notes, Touchsmart Notes, HP Touchsmart (itself), Setup HP Touch, Config Tools HP Touchsmart.... ( you would either find Touch or Smart phrases ). Once you identify the files starting with any of above, you need to double click "src" folder where you would find the setup/installation file. You just have to scroll up and down and identify HP Touchsmart.exe or setup.exe etc (Basically an executable file) and doubleclick to install them. Ideally you would need to install HP Touchsmart application, Touchsmart notes, Touchsmart MVP (Music/Video/Pictures), Touchsmart Touch Config and Touchsmart Calendar. 

Additionally, I have managed downloading those applications from another IQ800 series desktop for you and have uploaded them in zipped format. Here are the download links (you have to unzip and then install them):

NOTE: I will be removing these uploads in a day's time as I uploaded just as a favor.... 

HP Touchsmart.zip:

http://www.adrive.com/public/63501530f4b0a90b8af947e0296e05747fc024296b3b985ee59c06b78894e5c7.html
HP Touchsmart WebCam.zip:
http://www.adrive.com/public/5948cdaf881cfac3227d5e08762af81c398c7295357ffa726e96b2e42961a171.html
HP Touch Setup.zip:
http://www.adrive.com/public/89219bacf0d9d2e1bd121558228e4baec1efe576bf6102d94448c16404ae0220.html
HP Multi-Touch.zip:
http://www.adrive.com/public/ccfffba7c03956263b73ee80a49463204e75c625ca84e525565067ca4d2452cd.html
HP SmartCenter Notes.zip:
http://www.adrive.com/public/6f1bc410227f67de2380d050b7917af176ba2d8f8397cf92807ddd8dea30a014.html
HP Touch Optimizer.zip:

http://www.adrive.com/public/266310790851bdde9b239cb3d508345aeb258032fde7cbfc4b83da2b6a1a2b99.html
HP TouchSmart Calendar.zip:
http://www.adrive.com/public/83db9e933df2a02e6b94492ecfed935ea13ed35d5a4ff70970db121be5ab6344.html
HP Touchsmart MVP.zip:
http://www.adrive.com/public/e90ed91c4f3dc42c3a12ece05f714b3058b4d1d7fdec41f69484e79c424083c3.html

Once you unzip, Open the folder (say HP Touchsmart - 1st one) and double click src sub folder. Identify setup.exe or an executable file and install the applications. Finally, restart the computer and you would have the Touchsmart program. However, I would suggest you to locate the files from your PC itself as that is more secure and you would be installing what was shipped with the computer.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck,
Vishnu.

[JimT]

hi vishnu,

i basically did a clean install and then installed the vista drivers (no win7 drivers were available when i clean installed win7 rtm) my iq508a runs so much better now with no vista!!! and did manage to install touchsmart software using the recovery partition as you mentioned.  however, some applets did not load because they are not 100% compatible (yet), i tried to enable the compatibility for all the exe's under the touchsmart but still i think the music and picture gallery still did not load because i had the later version on partition.

i now noticed though there are even more win7 drivers available and they also include updates to touchsmart software which i will try later.  so i think your right up desirves kudos!!!!

[JimT]

Ahhh YES!!!  Very nice!   I just finished up applying the latest updates to touchsmart Software (V3.+) for windows 7 x64 and eeezzzz very nice indeed!

My music can now be loaded from network drives and also media center streaming devices - this is what I'm talking about!!!  sounds to me somebody is listening after all - woohoo

Notes is still missing the webcam option though - hope they fix this soon...

Message Edited by JimT on 10-21-2009 02:51 PM

[Vishnuchittan]

Hey. Good to know that you were able to accomplish the task. and yes, Windows 7 is far far better than Vista.... My own opinion.....

As far as notes go, you may try to check in settings in Touchsmart itself and see if notes is enabled. You can notice this if notes is kind of greyed out. You can simply click it to enable. Then it would show in touchsmart. 

If you feel there is something missing, then you can send me a private message with your phone number etc and we can work out on a time where I can call you and help you to complete what you started. I can also try working on your PC directly and see if its okay with you...... Nothing is impossible with HP....

Click Kudos to say thanks. 

[JimT]

thanks vishnu for the offer!!  I might take that up on you

In anycase with notes, it seems i can add notes voice or written but not via webcam as I use to do before when on vista...

Here is a screenshot...  You'll see there is no webcam option available when i use to have one before in vista...

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/3457/notesoj.jpg

OH BTW, I couldn't get hulu loaded - I suppose this is for US residance only right?

Message Edited by JimT on 10-21-2009 04:07 PM

[JimT]

i just downloaded the notes msi from your list of downloads and ran that on my system and guess what!!!  Take a look at the screenshot - KUDOS

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5788/notes2.jpg

[JimT]

hi vishnu,

my bad - i didn't test it.  when i click on the webcam to make a video note i get this error...

Object reference not set to an instance of an object 

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5687/noteserror.jpg

[SeattleSylvia]

Hi!  I am trying to upgrade my TouchSmart IQ504t from Vista 64bit SP2 to Win7 Ultimate.

I have done the Win 7 upgrade on my other HP laptop with no problem.

My challenge is that

1. HPUpdate and Windows Update just hangs!

2. When I do an upgrade with Win7 it hangs as well.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sylvia

[JimT]

with regards to HP Update, you probably want to go to the download drivers for your PC and install the updates manually.  Also it might help if you shutdown touchsmart from loading up in the background.

with regards to Win 7 upgrade hangs, you might want to first stop Touchsmart Software from running in the background.

there is a link somewhere here which steps you through shutting down the touchsmart ui.

if all else fails, try a clean install.  clean install takes about 15 minutes whereas upgrade took me like 3 hours.  then install touchsmart from the posts above...