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HP Recommended

Hey guys, I recently bought a HP computer for a family member. Unfortunately, to my dislike it came with preloaded software that I will not be using, most - if not all are not present on a clean install of Windows 7.

 

Which brings me to my question -

What is the easiest way to do a clean install on a HP computer? I can manually uninstall all of the programs I do not want which came installed, but that takes time...

I have a Windows 7 reinstallation disc which came with a Dell PC I bought a while back - I tried doing a clean reinstallation using this disc and reached the last step, but decided against proceeding incase this voilated any warranty. So, I came here to ask - is this a safe way to do a clean installation? 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

Hi:

 

You should be able to use the recovery disks if something goes wrong.

 

As far as activation...I'll say it again.

 

First, find your product key on your PC. It should be on the top or side of the PC.  If it is Windows 7 Home Premium, there should be a 25 digit product key on it, and the description Windows 7 Home Premium OA.  IF your Dell installation disk is also Windows 7 Home Premium then you should not encounter any issues when activating using your product key.

 

You will need the product key off your PC. Like Hanspuppa wrote the OEM disks are Dell SLIC 2.1. What this means is that if the disk is used on any other PC than a Dell, the pre-activation doesn't work and you will be presented with a message to activate Windows.

 

If you just click on activate over the internet now without changing the product key, activation will fail.  So just change the product key by clicking the link that says "Change Product Key" under Windows Activation and enter the 25 digit key off the sticker from your PC, and windows should activate and you should now see the Blue Genuine Windows logo.

 

wssmith:  I couldn't agree with you more. Nothing like a clean installation with just the original OS and drivers. Most of the stuff that comes pre-installed is trial software anyway.

 

Now there is some good stuff too, and before you wipe out your OS, get a portable hard drive, and copy off your whole SWSetup folder because that has the installation files to the programs and drivers that came with your PC. You may decide you want to install some of the software that came with your PC.

 

You may want your DVD burning software, you may want Microsoft Works, etc. Those installation files should be found in

that main SWSetup folder in many subfolders.

 

One thing you will lose and there will be no installation files for is that Office 2010 Starter. That will be gone and irretrievable except through the recovery partition or recovery disks you made.  You will not be able to install that on your clean installation of W7.

 

Marcus: whether to proceed or not is entirely up to you.  Your recovery disks should work in the event the experiment fails, and I think that you won't have any issues with the Dell disk anyway as long as your HP product key matches the Dell version of the OS you are installing.

 

Paul

 

 

View solution in original post

11 REPLIES 11
HP Recommended

Hi:

 

The way I see it you have 2 choices.

 

1. Uninstall all the programs you don't want.

 

2. Use the Dell disk.  In order for the Dell disk to work, it has to be the same version as what you have installed on your PC, so that your product key code can be used to activate Windows. For example (Dell W7 home premium installation disk= your product key is for W7 Home Premium).

 

You will need to activate Windows since that disk is only good for Dell PC's as far as pre-activation is concerned.

 

You probably won't void the hardware warranty if you do this, but of course if you have software issues, HP isn't going to help you--probably in either event.

 

They will just tell you to do a system recovery. I would recommend you name your C:\ drive the same as it is now, if you choose to use your Dell reinstallation disk. Something tells me the recovery partition will look for the current name of the C:\ drive in order to work.

 

Paul

HP Recommended

Well, I made the recovery discs HP allowed me to make once, so if anything goes wrong, I assume I can use this disc to restore it to its original state, regardless?

 

I really like the second suggestion, but I do not want to interfere with my activation on any PC. (I am not too knowledgable on this issue unfortunately). They are the same version.

 

If I use the Dell disc, will my activation on my Dell laptop be removed? Or will they use the product key found on my HP computer? I do not want to run into the risk of having an ungenuine copy of Windows on any PC.


Thanks for the help!

HP Recommended

Marcus100 wrote: Well, I made the recovery discs HP allowed me to make once, so if anything goes wrong, I assume I can use this disc to restore it to its original state, regardless? I really like the second suggestion, but I do not want to interfere with my activation on any PC. (I am not too knowledgable on this issue unfortunately). They are the same version. If I use the Dell disc, will my activation on my Dell laptop be removed? Or will they use the product key found on my HP computer? I do not want to run into the risk of having an ungenuine copy of Windows on any PC. Thanks for the help!

 

Hello Marcus100, I don't believe you will be able to use a Dell Windows 7 DVD to install on any computer other than a computer with a Dell BIOS, that has the Dell SLIC 2.1 (System-Locked Pre-Installation) BIOS.

 

As I understand this, the way it works is the OEM DVD checks the BIOS for the SLIC table in the BIOS to insure the system motherboard is indeed one of theirs. if it is not, the operating system may not install, and if it does, it may not activate later.

 

In days gone past, this may have been possible.  There is a lot of information about this, that can be found.

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HP Recommended

Hello Marcus 100,

 

The Hanspuppa reply that referenced a SLIC BIOS explaining why I was never able to install an OEM Windows XP Media Center Edition on my a1587c. I have gone through the process of reformatting and reinstalling the pre-installed software at least 25 times in an attempt to remove all the junk games and other unwanted software. I solved this by investing in a full version of Win 7 and regret absolutely nothing about the money spent. I know that that is the easy way out of an annoying situation, but it has saved me many hours and days of labor that I previously spent manually deleting the unwanted software that was installed during a full recovery.

 

Sometimes it is easier to bite the bullet and take the easy way out.

HP Recommended

Hi:

 

Your comments are all very interesting.

 

I never had a problem with a Dell reinstallation disk not working on a HP PC (except a Dell Windows 2000 disk). They will not install on anything but a Dell PC.

 

I tested a Dell Windows 7 Pro 32 bit installation disk on an HP nc6400 notebook, and it installed just fine.

 

I would have needed an OEM Windows 7 Pro key (from any mfr) to activate it which I did not have, so I put XP back on. But I wanted to test it just to see what happened.

 

So, I think a Dell reinstallation disk will work as long as the installation disk and HP product key on your PC are the same version like I posted above.

 

I can't guarantee it but I think the chances of success are better than average.

 

Paul

HP Recommended

Hello Paul,

 

My HP shipped with XP Media Edition. I tried ALL of my XP installation disks (I have a laptop and had two other towers that ran XP Pro) and could never get anything to install and this included a later OEM version of XP Media that I ordered just for this HP. I could not get any OS to install so I decided to try an upgrade to Win 7. That went in just fine - the 32 and 64 bit versions. If you have seen the junk software that is pre-installed on an HP computer then I am sure you can appreciate what it is like to have a clean OS installation - without the add-ons. His computer probably shipped with a home version of Win 7. Buying a later fuller version like Win 7 Professional and installing that after he has zeroed out his HD with one of those HD shredder programs, and then installing the newer OS, he will eliminate all the clutter that comes with the HP recovery software and will probably have a much cleaner and faster machine (my opinion based on what happened with my HP after I installed Win 7 - of course Win 7 was probably the reason why it seemed to run faster). 

HP Recommended

Wow, now I am not sure what to do...

 

My laptop (and therefore the discs) came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit installed, as did my HP desktop. Should I try using my Dell DVD to install a clean version? If it does not work, that's fine, I'll just wait until Windows 8, but if it does work - but later requires activation can I find the product key on my desktop, or at least use HP's recovery disc to return it to its original state?

 

Like I said, I tried using the DVD, and I reached the step where you are allowed to format your HD, but decided against proceeding before consulting here.

HP Recommended

Hi:

 

You should be able to use the recovery disks if something goes wrong.

 

As far as activation...I'll say it again.

 

First, find your product key on your PC. It should be on the top or side of the PC.  If it is Windows 7 Home Premium, there should be a 25 digit product key on it, and the description Windows 7 Home Premium OA.  IF your Dell installation disk is also Windows 7 Home Premium then you should not encounter any issues when activating using your product key.

 

You will need the product key off your PC. Like Hanspuppa wrote the OEM disks are Dell SLIC 2.1. What this means is that if the disk is used on any other PC than a Dell, the pre-activation doesn't work and you will be presented with a message to activate Windows.

 

If you just click on activate over the internet now without changing the product key, activation will fail.  So just change the product key by clicking the link that says "Change Product Key" under Windows Activation and enter the 25 digit key off the sticker from your PC, and windows should activate and you should now see the Blue Genuine Windows logo.

 

wssmith:  I couldn't agree with you more. Nothing like a clean installation with just the original OS and drivers. Most of the stuff that comes pre-installed is trial software anyway.

 

Now there is some good stuff too, and before you wipe out your OS, get a portable hard drive, and copy off your whole SWSetup folder because that has the installation files to the programs and drivers that came with your PC. You may decide you want to install some of the software that came with your PC.

 

You may want your DVD burning software, you may want Microsoft Works, etc. Those installation files should be found in

that main SWSetup folder in many subfolders.

 

One thing you will lose and there will be no installation files for is that Office 2010 Starter. That will be gone and irretrievable except through the recovery partition or recovery disks you made.  You will not be able to install that on your clean installation of W7.

 

Marcus: whether to proceed or not is entirely up to you.  Your recovery disks should work in the event the experiment fails, and I think that you won't have any issues with the Dell disk anyway as long as your HP product key matches the Dell version of the OS you are installing.

 

Paul

 

 

HP Recommended

Thanks everyone! Just did a clean install, and everything worked fine. I used the product key on the side of my PC, and it worked (as it should!)

 

There is only one, small problem I have (which is sort of funny and understandable) - In system properties, there is a huge Dell logo! Ah well, lol.

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.