Win 11 clean install, would I lose things that couldn't be recovered?

[Mike_DSM]

I'm wondering what could be irrecoverably lost if I did a clean install of Win 11 Home on my newish HP Envy laptop (~2 yrs old). 

HP Support Assistant seems to be not terribly essential (although I would accept reasoning as to how it is).

I don't appear to have HP Recovery Manager pre-installed.

I don't see any benefit to HP Smart because I gave up on HP printers and MFCs.

There is an app called simply HP that also seems to not be essential.

Most of what I've found tries hard to upsell me but doesn't seem to provide anything I can't get on the support website (by logging into my account and picking my device).

Expert advice?

[Venom21]

clean install of Windows 11 Home on your HP Envy will not irrecoverably lose device‑specific firmware or hardware, but it will wipe out anything stored on the Windows partition (C: drive), including HP‑branded apps, any data not backed up. Backup your important data and proceed if you want to. Only data will be erased and hp apps which you can also get from hp driver page of you laptop in future if needed 

[Mike_DSM]

Thanks for that. I use Macrium Reflect and would definitely create a fresh recovery USB before proceeding - not for may data, but just in case of an installation catastrophe.

I'll explain that even though my new HP Envy is ~2 yrs old, I am only just migrating to it from my old Win 10 HP Envy. I'm so busy that I booted the machine for the first time in Feb 2025, had to sideline the project until October, and paused it again until a few days ago. My old Win 10 machine is where my precious data resides (backed up nightly).

I'm strongly considering doing a clean install of Win 11 on this new machine because I'm going to try to do it with a local account only. When I first booted this machine and went through Setup, it required me to log in using an MS account. I created a local account after that, but things are cluttered as a result. And I've found a way to install Win 11 using only a local account now.

So thank you for reinforcing what I had come to suspect - that I wouldn't lose anything HP that was essential and irrecoverable. I knew I wouldn't lose anything in the firmware, but I haven't spent enough time on this machine to know what all HP has to offer in software and diagnostic tools.  What I've seen so far looks more like bloatware than useful (or critical) tools.

So when you mention the HP driver page, are you referring to the "home" page I get when I log into my HP support portal? Because my machine is registered there and it does have a driver/software listing tool, but it appears to not actually detect what's already installed. Every driver I've checked matches what's already on my machine. I guess it might be useful at some point if I had a corrupted driver!  It's great to have a complete (I hope) list.

Can I download and reinstall HP Support Assistant later? Because that one actually seems to know what needs updating. I already used it to update the BIOS.

Also, doesn't HP have some kind of software on my machine that checks for driver updates in the background?

[Venom21 · Accepted solution]

Yes, that's driver/software listing page. Drivers are already installed by windows sp they are already installed. HP or any other brand not have software that regularly check of missing drivers as windows update is enough and install all critical updates automatically. Use drivers from page of specific driver stop working and windows not able to fix.

As for HP Support Assistant, it should also be listed there in driver page of your laptop from where you can install or from this site: 

https://support.hp.com/in-en/help/hp-support-assistant

[Mike_DSM]

Thank you @Venom21   

That gives me everything I need.  Yes, I kind of figured that Windows Updates would take care of drivers, but it's good to see you confirm that. And thanks for the good advice about using the drivers page if Windows can't fix a driver issue.

Best of all, thank you for the link to download the Support Assistant! I've bookmarked it.

Actually, I found the option to automatically check for updates in Settings in HP Support Assistant. I've attached a screenshot. I couldn't say if it actually works well or not.

Thanks again!

[Venom21]

You're welcome