Spyware installed on HP systems slows down the PC: How to remove it

If, on the one hand, Lenovo cries the 3.5 million dollars spent on pre-installed adware on their laptops without the consent of the buyers, on the other HP does not laugh now that it has to face a particularly similar situation.

According to numerous reports collected by ComputerWorld, the company uses a client to collect data on its computers without asking users for permission. A typical behavior from spyware.

The software was detected for the first-time last November 15th and runs a service called HP Touchpoint Analytics Service that seems to be installed with HP Touchpoint Manager. According to the official description released by HP provides ” tools necessary to ensure greater security to managed devices “. What makes the users suspicious is the fact that the management tool is installed without asking for permission.

In addition, it seems that it is particularly heavy to manage to the point of slowing down the operations performed with the machine. One of the users writes to the HP support site: ” The software has weighed down my computer so much that I can hear it grinding the data and the light on the back lights up in a frenzied manner. On the Task Manager, I can see that it executes and closes several continuous applications “. The way in which the service is installed on the system is not yet clear.

This is probably an update via Windows Update, or through HP’s internal update processes. In any case, customers are not happy: ” I understand that it serves to collect all kinds of telemetric data, but I’m not willing to share them, and I’m certainly not willing to do it without my knowledge “, reads the official forum of the company. It is good that the service can be removed relatively easily (below you find the procedure).

HP has already responded to the international press claiming that ” HP Touchpoint Analytics is a service offered since 2014 as part of HP Support Assistant “, and emphasizing that ” the data is collected in a completely anonymous form and only concerns the hardware performance of the system in use. ”

The company specifies that no data is shared with HP without permission from the user, and that no updates have been released in recent weeks on the site GHacks.net we find and translate the procedure to be applied to remove the service. Two options:

Option 1#

1. Press Windows Key + R.
2. Type in the services.msc keyboard followed by Enter.
3. Look for the HP Touchpoint Analytics Client in the list if you do not switch to Option 2#.
4. Double-click on the service, accessing the details.
5. In the Startup Type entry, select Disabled.
6. Press Stop to turn it off for the current session.

Option 2#

1. Press Windows Key + R.
2. Type with the appwiz.cpl keyboard followed by Enter.
3. Search for HP Touchpoint Manager.
4. Right click on the program name and select Uninstall to remove it.