Summary of experience with new laptop

[ChrisAllover]

Just wanted to post here about our experience with this device and give some feedback to HP. 

The Hardware: Once the device was received inspection revealed a well-built unit. We were a bit surprised that the keyboard was not back-lit by default, and soon discovered the keyboard lettering was not properly applied and the keys lettering was coming off from just normal use. Best advice is to get a silicone key cover to allow the keys to be seen (we use a white cover with black letters for clarity). All the other hardware has worked flawlessly!

The Software: Let us divide this area into three categories (1) TPM/Secure Boot (2) BioS (3) OS 

(1) This is an issue that belongs to the CPU vendor and Microsoft. Because of the complexity and low tolerance of the software and hardware  used to communicate with these features, and unless you have training in these items, you should leave this area to the engineers! My only other comment would be about Secure Boot. Microsoft uses this to make sure no one gets access to your hardware or their OS. It needs to be that way. If you are an avid user and want to add other OS support to a device, do it during the purchase request so that HP can set it up for you from the factory. Turning off Secure Boot or loading other OS support can be tricky and can lead to boot failure for the device. Remember HP will always support you to bring your device back to OEM specifications, just back up your personal files before you do anything to change any of these things!

(2) BioS is a very mutually-exclusive device now, and is complicated further by the backwards-compatible features that will affect both the OS and the boot process. The community is full of comments and questions about this item and the problems users will face trying to switch modes in the BioS. Need I say that the newer devices now have very limited to no access covers to allow the user to power-down the BioS battery, so best to let the device hardware control this unit as well. Putting the BioS into legacy mode with Windows 10 will usually result in a bootable OS, but with little to no functional OS or features.

(3) Microsoft and their security team have been working for a long time on the marriage of software and hardware solutions to protect their users from the bad elements that disturb all of the normal users. Some features of the hardware and software interface are always problems (audio and video) and in most cases can be traced to hardware vendors and a lack of communications with Microsoft/HP or the other way around. This has always been an issue, and math and engineering cannot solve this issue. It always takes people to work together to solve problems, and for all of us users to be as honest as possible with Microsoft and HP. Your experience may be different, and if so, then please tell the HP Team or this community where you stand. In closing, I can only say that computers are very complicated devices, and we all have different levels of experience. Keep that in mind at all times!