Chills1994 Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Hi there everyone, This is the girlfriend's computer. I will be sitting here surfing the internet and then it starts bogging down. Then I realize that I can hear the hard drive grumbling along. So then I hit control, alt, delete to get task manager to pull up. Sure enough... it says "updates from HP agent" . So I will click to highlight it and then hit the end task button. Is there a way to keep it from updating all the dang time? I mean this will happen 2 or 3 times a day. Arrghh... Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sargenv Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 There should be some way to do it from the control panel likely. Sometimes you can set it so that it only checks for updates at like 3 in the am. Also check the folder called "startup" from the start menu. Sometimes they will run things from there that obviously run at startup. Sometimes you can stop processes from starting by removing files from there. Norton does it to me too but only every couple of days.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meotai Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 You can uninstall the update agent in add/remove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGaultsGun Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Or you can remove the agent from startup. Maybe there is an option to not start the agent on startup. If it is a windows service, you can disable the service by setting it to "manual". Otherwise, it will run again the next time your computer starts up. Most agents are visible in the lower right hand corner of the task bar called the system tray. There are a couple of methods to remove applications from the system tray. I'd google them to find out how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 I HATE AUTO-UPDATES!!! Sorry... I've seen too many computers screwed up by forced auto updates. Everything that has autoupdates should have a way to set if and when they are done. Note the word "should". I've run into a few that don't. You may have to do some searching in both the control panel and the programs list to find them all. You can also do an internet search and find them that way. If that doesn't work, you can check in the startup directory. Depending on which version of Windoze you have: Right click on Start and choose "Explore All Users". That should put you on the common Start Menu folder. Under Programs, you will find a Startup folder. You may find the program you are looking for there. You can delete it or change it's extension (e.g. change Update.exe to Update.xex) which will keep it from doing anything. You will then have to look in the actual user folder for the same Startup folder. There is also a freeware program called Startup Cop that you can download. This will allow you to change the registry settings to keep programs from running on startup. What really pisses me off is that you darn near have to be a software engineer to stop these programs from doing things they should, at the least, ask permission to do. Did I mention, I HATE AUTOMATIC UPDATES!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 HP has gone nuts.. easiest way is to go to Servies (Right click My Computer, Manage, Services and Applications, Services).. make them Disabled or Manual (then you can always flip them back). There is an option to not do them, or to set it to once every 'n' days as well. I do the same to Google, iTunes, QuickTime and Intuit, and Sun (Java). Basically anything that has 'Update' in the name, except for 'Windows Update' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Gundry Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I won't buy another HP product because of this - all of their software is polluted with the crap. To disable them, and alot of other useless BS, clean out the startup folder as described above. That will only get rid of some of them. Next, search for msconfig and create a shortcut to it someplace convenient. Fire it up and go to the 'startup' tab. There you will see a list of programs that execute when Windows starts. Google each one and see if it is something needed or not. Tedious task, but be patient and sort through all of the BS. Disable the questionable items one at a time and restart after each to make sure things are working properly. msconfig will fire back up after the restart automatically. If those two don't disable the programs you want stopped, you will have to edit the registry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I won't buy another HP product because of this - all of their software is polluted with the crap. With the exception of laptops, I won't buy another computer --- because all the manufacturers load 'em up with crap, in order to keep the price down..... I'd rather build my own --- for roughly the same cash.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted December 15, 2009 Author Share Posted December 15, 2009 ^^^ A'yup, what Nik said. My computer that I had built back in like 2003 or 2004, back when I was trying for grad school, still runs like a champ. If that 'puter ever gives up the ghost, I am going back to the same people to have them build me another desktop. Thanks for all the replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted December 18, 2009 Author Share Posted December 18, 2009 What has been interesting is that since I started this thread is that the hard drive will grumble grumble along still, but now when I hit control, alt + delete, Windows task manager doesn't list "HP Updates" any more. Hmmn... Interesting... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom S. Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 You didn't say what OS is on the computer, so I'm kind of guessing here. If it's Vista, you are experiencing one of the things Vista is notorious for. It runs programs in the background that become memory hogs and slow even fast machines to a snail's pace. Windows 7 has cured this. When you hit Alt Ctrl Del, click on the Processes tab to see what's running in the background. Some virus software is also known for doing this, notably the two biggies McAfee and Norton. One thing that may help is you can right click on the running processes and assign them priorities, moving them down the food chain for memory space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted December 18, 2009 Author Share Posted December 18, 2009 It is an XP machine. It is the GF's and she paid for a whole year's worth of subscription to Norton. She has about 6 months left on it. I might just look for a really long ethernet cable so I can hook up my computer from the other room to her modem/router, so I can access the internet with my computer. And now that you mention it, I remember my computer once had Norton and it would bog down too. Once my subscription to Norton was up, that's it.... I didn't renew it. Then I think I went with AVG, and Zone Alarm, and then ran Adaware on a regular basis. Which reminds me... I will try to run adadware on her computer. It spends a fair amount of time scanning stuff, and I came back like a half hour later and it will say something like "WARNING!: Your computer suffered from a serious error (and needed to reboot)" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 What has been interesting is that since I started this thread is that the hard drive will grumble grumble along still, but now when I hit control, alt + delete, Windows task manager doesn't list "HP Updates" any more.Hmmn... Interesting... It knows you're talking bad about it behind it's back. It's worried about the future, and it's hiding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Classic_jon Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 A friend of mine showed me a nifty program that may help get rid of some of the crud that most manufacturers load a system with these days. It is called the "Decrapifier" http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ It works pretty well and from what I have seen saves you from having to manually remove a lot of stuff one at a time through MSCONFIG, services, scheduled tasks, etc... Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted December 18, 2009 Author Share Posted December 18, 2009 @ Chris... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now