Bought new HP desktop - Question re: Windows and Bloatware

dn89lx

Member
SO I bought a new HP desktop on black Friday - was going to build my first PC but for my needs the pre-built deals were too good to pass up.

My question is should I try to remove the bloatware manually or should I just do a clean install of Windows 10. I did make a backup USB so if I mess it up I can revert back.

What is the best practice? Computer will be used for Media Server using Plex, Microsoft Office, and web browsing primarily.

Thanks.
 
I would download all the drivers needed to a usb drive before doing the clean reinstall.
 
Yep, or at least the chipset and network drivers so you can reconnect to the interenet and update everything else.
 
Yep, or at least the chipset and network drivers so you can reconnect to the interenet and update everything else.
This, just get your network drivers. Windows 10 should automatically find all the rest of your drivers for you by running Windows update. Especially if it's a newer device you won't have to worry about it not finding drivers for you.
 
Yep agree with Darren although you should find that the wired networking should work. Don't bother with anything else other than a clean install. There is enough junk in Windows without having to put up with all the HP rubbish as well. Download the Windows 10 installation tool from here:-

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Make a bootable USB pen drive using this tool. Don't forget that you will have EUFI bios so you will have to turn off secure boot in the bios and also set the first boot device to USB. If you are really into this you could delete the recovery partition and make the hdd one partition. If you want storage space use a separate drive either internally or an external USB drive. You will need to be a bit computer savvy to do all that but IMO it pays dividends. Make sure you know exactly what you are doing before you embark on doing this stuff because you could end up with a non-working computer and then have to pay someone to get it working again. Reading your OP I do realise that you seem to know what you are doing but I am going to cover my ass LOL.

One thing I forgot, forget Win 10 anniversary update which is on the same page as the Win 10 tool. In my experience it wil slow your computer down. I have four computers here all which were running the anniveresary update and I have gone back to the older version of Win 10 on 3 of them with a huge improvement.
 
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Yep agree with Darren although you should find that the wired networking should work. Don't bother with anything else other than a clean install. There is enough junk in Windows without having to put up with all the HP rubbish as well. Download the Windows 10 installation tool from here:-

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Make a bootable USB pen drive using this tool. Don't forget that you will have EUFI bios so you will have to turn off secure boot in the bios and also set the first boot device to USB. If you are really into this you could delete the recovery partition and make the hdd one partition. If you want storage space use a separate drive either internally or an external USB drive. You will need to be a bit computer savvy to do all that but IMO it pays dividends. Make sure you know exactly what you are doing before you embark on doing this stuff because you could end up with a non-working computer and then have to pay someone to get it working again. Reading your OP I do realise that you seem to know what you are doing but I am going to cover my ass LOL.

Every now and then there's an odd instance of Ethernet drivers not being found on Windows 10 automatically, but that's few and far between. I usually use 3DPNet to find one if it's missing. Newer hardware especially should automatically install a driver on a fresh 10 install, even with wireless a lot of the time.
 
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