HP installing HP Touchpoint Analytics Client Telemetry service

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 27, 2017
Windows
|
119

HP customers from around the world report that HP started to install the HP Touchpoint Manager software on their devices, and with it a new Windows Telemetry service called HP Touchpoint Analytics Client.

According to these reports, this is done without user interaction, and in the background. The first report of the installation of HP Touchpoint Analytics dates back to November 15, 2017.

A user on the Bleeping Computer forum reported that the program was installed on his Windows machine on that date. Posts on Reddit, and HP's own customer forum confirmed the installation of the new application and service on Windows machines.

hp touchpoint analytics
via Günter Born

The description of the service confirms that it is used to gather Telemetry:

Harvests telemetry information that is used by HP Touchpoint's analytical services.

When you visit HP's Touchpoint Manager website, you get the following bits of information:

The HP Touchpoint Manager technology is now being delivered as a part of HP Device as a Service (DaaS) Analytics and Proactive Management capabilities. Therefore, HP is discontinuing the self-managed HP Touchpoint Manager solution.

It appears that HP transformed the technology to a cloud based service. The service seems to send data to HP once per day. Users find the data under ProgramData\HP\HP Touchpoint Analytics Client\Transfer Interface on the Windows drive.

Some users reported that the installation slowed down their system significantly, and that removing the application from the system restored the performance.

What you can do about it

First thing you may want to check is whether HP installed the HP Touchpoint Manager on the Windows PC.

Option 1: Services

  1. Use Windows-R to bring up the run box.
  2. Type services.msc and hit the Enter-key on the keyboard.
  3. Look for HP Touchpoint Analytics Client in the Services listing.
    1. If it is there, HP Touchpoint Manager is installed.
    2. If it is not there, skip to option 2.
  4. Double-click on the service to open its details.
  5. Set its startup type to disabled.
  6. Select Stop to stop it in the current session.

Option 2: Windows Programs

  1. Use Windows-R to load the run box.
  2. Type appwiz.cpl to load the Programs and Features control panel applet.
  3. Locate HP Touchpoint Manager.
  4. Right-click the program name, and select Uninstall to remove it.

Uninstallation of the program should remove the Service as well.

Closing Words

Installation of invasive services without user consent should be a big no-no, but it appears to happen quite frequently.

Now You: Any HP users here who have this new Telemetry service installed?

 

 

Summary
HP installing HP Touchpoint Analytics Client Telemetry service
Article Name
HP installing HP Touchpoint Analytics Client Telemetry service
Description
HP customers report that HP started to install the HP Touchpoint Manager software on their devices, and with it a new Windows Telemetry service called HP Touchpoint Analytics Client.
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Comments

  1. yo yo said on August 30, 2022 at 10:15 pm
    Reply

    In 2022 , i find the service running in the Resources Monitor ONLY.

  2. Greg said on July 13, 2021 at 2:50 am
    Reply

    HP Touchpoint Analytics was causing my laptop fan to stay on constantly with high/very high CPU usage. After searching for hours I found bits and pieces of things that helped and eventually–after perhaps 4 hours–managed to delete the files.

    I’m not an software or operating system expert, so proceed at your own risk. I’m not warranting that every step is necessary, but this is what I did. Perhaps an expert can comment on any steps I took that were not necessary! My computer is now operating silently and has had no problems since deleting the offending files.

    The last thing I tried before finding what did work, was running Command Prompt as the administrator. I was blocked from deleting. I was about ready to give up when I found directions to running Windows Explorer (or simply “explorer”) as admin. Step One: In Task Manager select “end task” for explorer.exe then in the same window select “file,” “run new task.” In the box type “explorer.exe /nouaccheck” and check the box to run with adminstrator privileges.

    Step Two: I’m assuming you know where the files are or you wouldn’t be trying to delete them, so I won’t get into that. In Windows Explorer find the folder with the HP Touchpoint files and right click and select “properties” and then the security tab. Near the top select “change owner” which should when you see it read “SYSTEM.” This is blocking your efforts to delete it. I changed the owner to my Windows user name. Step Three: “Add” permissions entries; again, I used my user name and then ticked the box to give myself “full control” over the folder and its contents.

    Step Four: Delete the files. You may wish to copy them to another folder just to make sure you haven’t deleted something you’ll regret, but other than that you’re done!

  3. Jo said on May 21, 2021 at 5:47 pm
    Reply

    Yeah, I can’t delete it either. It says I need permission from SYSTEM. Doesn’t show up in Uninstall Programs.

  4. eobet said on February 15, 2021 at 12:29 pm
    Reply

    HP have changed the name of it and hidden it from the uninstallation listings.

    You can still find an “HP Analytics” service running, and if you look at it’s path, the offender is revealed:

    C:\windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\hpanalyticscomp.inf_amd64_f37ada3b81da51b7\x64\TouchpointAnalyticsClientService.exe

    But I don’t know how to uninstall it, only how to disable it.

    Really evil of HP!

  5. PCFreak said on October 27, 2020 at 11:26 am
    Reply

    In an administrative cmd.exe execute the following 2 commands to get rid of the service immediately:

    sc stop HpTouchpointAnalyticsService
    sc delete HpTouchpointAnalyticsService

  6. Pete said on July 21, 2020 at 2:37 pm
    Reply

    Thanks Martin, my wife was complaining that my computer’s fan was constantly buzzing so I checked Task Manager and then tracked down your info from a computerworld article with a link to this site. Followed you instructions (easy to follow for a nontechie) and its now quiet.

  7. Gary said on December 15, 2019 at 11:01 pm
    Reply

    Controlled folder access seems to block it from modifying memory.
    Not sure how much that helps though.

  8. Nope said on December 4, 2019 at 4:51 am
    Reply

    Bought an HP desktop for a relative for Christmas this year. I almost took it back immediately, the HP spyware had crippled the system from the very unboxing. Literally unusable right out of the box. I figured whatever, wiped the drive and reinstalled W10 from a thumbstick. The HP Touchpoint Analytical spyware installed itself in a Windows update despite not having agreed to any HP EULA, AUP, or Privacy Policy.

    Our family won’t purchase HP products anymore. We vote with our dollars.

    As @D. Andrew Hartzell reported, there is no easy way to remove the spyware anymore. It can be safely disabled but in the few days we’ve had the machine I have already seen the disabled services silently enable themselves and continue to run.

  9. D. Andrew Hartzell - Rapp said on October 31, 2019 at 4:05 am
    Reply

    I’ve found that HP has buried this much more deeply in Windows 10. I’m wondering how I go about uninstalling it since there’s no option to do this now. It’s in the following location in my laptop…

    C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\hpanalyticscomp.inf_amd64_714bb34a8e64bfef\x64\

    I guess that leaving it here won’t hurt anything since the service is disabled, but that’s not the point… it’s all still there!

  10. D. Andrew Hartzell - Rapp said on October 31, 2019 at 3:41 am
    Reply

    I’m running Windows 10 on a new HP laptop and discovered HP Touchpoint Analytics running on it. I’ve disabled the service but can uninstall from the remove programs menu due to it simply not showing up as an installed service there. Any suggestions? Thanks!

    1. D. Andrew Hartzell - Rapp said on October 31, 2019 at 3:42 am
      Reply

      can = can’t. Sorry1

  11. Missy said on February 22, 2019 at 8:40 pm
    Reply

    Thank you to the moon and back for your post! I disabled HP Touchpoint and then uninstalled it. All is at peace in this home now. This HP Touchpoint crap had my laptop working in severe overdrive that you could hear in the next room and my laptop was hot as fire (figurative of speech of course). I do shut mine down or sleep mode when not in use.I kept thinking it’s never been that loud or that hot. Is something about to die? Please don’t make me disassemble this one for a fan or processor etc. Too many screws on laptops. I dread disassembling this G7 because I have a broke hinge brace and that needs re-enforcing. After disabling this and uninstalling this crap, my laptop went from Olympic sprinter to a normal person walking in a park. I’m sure it was trying to say Thank you. It really sounded like something was about to die.

    I’ve noticed here and there my computer would lag, but thought it was because I had too much stuff on here and just needed to do some spring cleaning or clean out my browsers cache again. The past week it had bogged down so bad and so quickly that I couldn’t type or do really anything. I thought it was a virus, but nothing showed up on any scans.

    I rebuilt a broken laptop a very long time ago when I couldn’t afford a new or used one and learned so much during that project/challenge. Then later on built my desktop and my father’s desktop when prices of building one were better than buying new all done up. Plus, I really enjoyed buying what I wanted and putting it all together. So my mentality of technology is great, but has lacked in the recent years even though I still know my way around things.

    I took the easy way and Googled “Why is my computer typing so slow?” Computers are ever changing so my guess could have been wrong, but was actually right on step one to check the task manager. So when one page mentioned to check it, it made sense. I looked for anything odd. I sorted by most usage first and BAM there was HP Touchpoint Analytics Client was running between 86%-95%!!!!! There was the problem. Everything else was normal percentages.

    Now, here’s the weird part. today is Feb 22, 2019 and I’ve read most are talking about this being installed in Nov 2017 causing problems. Upon opening the Programs and Features window to uninstall this mess, mine said it was installed on Nov 26, 2017 (and you made this post the next day). That update on the 26th had a time consuming update that cascaded with a set of updates that enraged me along with a lot of users with an infinite rebooting cycle. Not joking, like 10-20 random restarts per day or more. You couldn’t work on anything without losing most or all of your work. I had 3 or 4 restarts back to back the moment Windows started back up again. I was ready to go buy a new laptop that was not HP. You had to save and resave every few minutes in case of a random uncontrolled restart. It had no pattern of time or habit so it was unknown when the next one would happen. I read that HP claimed they didn’t know how to fix the issue. They eventually came out with an update and the infinite reboot cycle finally ceased, but I haven’t had any major issues since that ordeal until about a week ago.

    I Googled HP Touchpoint and found an enormous amount of pages talking about HP and Microsoft installing this without our permission. Shame on them! This will probably be my last HP.

  12. Tim said on September 1, 2018 at 7:15 pm
    Reply

    I was able to disable this given what was above and then uninstalled it then ran CC cleaner to get rid of the associated registry keys. Now my computer seems much better. I don’t know why I didn’t notice it last year, maybe because my computer was still kind of new, but the last week I noticed a significant slowdown of my PC performance. Unistalling it after disabling it seems to have helped a lot (99% constant CPU usage down to about 10% in Task Manager).

  13. Gerry said on July 12, 2018 at 9:49 pm
    Reply

    The Analytics Client was taking up to 80+% CPU per task manager. Thanks for the fix!!

  14. Dave C. said on May 13, 2018 at 11:46 am
    Reply

    Thank you so much! This program was making my HP laptop max out on cpu. I can’t believe in this day and age a company would attempt this.

  15. Anthony M said on May 9, 2018 at 10:14 am
    Reply

    Thank you. Thank you. My computer has been running crazy at night. Its 3 AM and I could hear it again and thankfully found your website. The fan is always going. I was wondering if there was some sneaky virus cryptocurrency mining program running in the background without my knowledge. I went to Task Manager and noticed that ‘HP-Touchpoint-Analytics’ was running and consuming most of the CPU percentage. I stopped it using your directions above and about 10 seconds later the fan slowed down on my PC. How do we delete this program altogether though and all of the other HP crap on there? There are 101 background processes running on my PC and it is 3AM as I said and I have closed down all programs except Google Chrome as I type this and Task Manager to stop the HP Touchpoint Analytics thing.

  16. Christi said on April 27, 2018 at 3:47 pm
    Reply

    Thank you so much for this! I just disabled and went from 120% CPU usage to 40%. My HP laptop has been laboring and freezing and I have been losing my mind over it. Unbelievable, HP.

  17. James said on April 24, 2018 at 9:13 am
    Reply

    My computer went haywire this morning, blanking the screen and running very hot.

    I found this “application” running on my computer, and found your site to remove it.

    Interestingly, all other HP software on my computer is signed “Hewlett-Packard Company.” This software was signed “HP Inc.”

    Could this be from some other source besides Microsoft or Hewlett-Packard, and that’s why they can’t seem to answer questions about it?

  18. Carolyn said on March 7, 2018 at 4:57 am
    Reply

    When I purchased my new HP touch all in one computer it had touch screen capabilities, but I notice around November that it no longer worked. Do you think that the installation of the HP touch point analytic client had something to do with it?

  19. Nick said on January 28, 2018 at 7:47 pm
    Reply

    I saw in the task manager that this program was causing 100% CPU usage, so I looked up to see what it was and if I could uninstall it. I had no idea it was also spyware. Thanks!

  20. Daryl J said on January 19, 2018 at 12:27 am
    Reply

    For the past week my computer’s fan was constantly running and my MSFT files would lag. I’m so aggravated with HP!!! Basically, they slowed down my work efficiency for their damn program!!! It was installed back with everyone else in late November. It took until this week for that program to eat up 50% of my CPU. Now uninstalled and I can rarely tell if my computer is on, so quiet and so cool too the touch.

    If there is an attorney or friend of an attorney on this site, someone should bring up a class action lawsuit for the damage they have done to everyone!

  21. TelV said on January 14, 2018 at 9:19 pm
    Reply

    To add to the melee it now looks like HP batteries will have to be replaced on some laptop models: http://www.techradar.com/news/some-hp-laptops-need-battery-replacements-due-to-serious-safety-concerns

  22. Anonymous said on January 8, 2018 at 11:36 pm
    Reply

    Well that does it, I have bought my last piece of hardware from HP! This HP Touchpoint Analytics Manager” was installed on my HP computer on 11-21-2017 without my consent and it took me till today to find out why my mouse was was working so slow I couldn’t use the computer. I noticed my CPU monitor today with a warning flag I clicked on. This program out of all mine that were using the CPU was the highest. All I did was boot up. I have purchased several HP computers and printers in my lifetime, but no more! I spent several hours trying to figure this out, and then a few more reading these posts. NOW HP, I WILL SPEND SEVERAL MORE HOURS POSTING ON THE INTERNET HOW PISSED OFF I AM ABOUT THIS! IF YOU HAVE HP STOCK, I WOULD SELL IT NOW BEFORE IT DROPS & CRASHES. SOME COMPANIES JUST THINK THEY CAN DO ANYTHING WHEN THEY GET TO BIG FOR THEIR BRITCHES! GOODBYE HP!

  23. Steve said on January 8, 2018 at 2:27 pm
    Reply

    The other day I noticed the “HP Touchpoint Analytics Installer” (TAInstaller.exe) chewing up a lot of cpu after each start up, research led me here. I never saw the client running. I disabled the client easily enough in services but the installer was still running. I stopped it and rebooted. It didn’t restart so I assume was initiated by the client? In any event, its gone and I appreciated the advice.

  24. Wizkid said on January 5, 2018 at 8:36 pm
    Reply

    Thanks, I just uninstalled that crap.

  25. White_Eagle said on January 5, 2018 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Thank you for the instructions. I run the resource monitor on startup and saw it consuming a lot of cpu. Saw it was installed 11/27/2017 without my permission. I am concerned that although I have unsinstalled it, HP will reinstall it in the future. I will monitor.

  26. Robert E. Johnson said on January 4, 2018 at 10:39 pm
    Reply

    I am in the process of removing it now. My CPU usage was always in the high 90%. I had been trying to perform a Carbonite Mirror Image backup but it just would not run to completion. The Carbonite customer service group helped me locate the problem.

  27. Peter Gielkens said on January 4, 2018 at 1:44 pm
    Reply

    Thanks a lot for this. I noticed today that my Windows 10 computer was Steaming as it is sometimes, without any cause….! Now I think it is because it is running this programm in the backgroud.
    Thanks to your instructions I have uninstalled it.

    I agree this is unaccebtable conduct from HP !!!

  28. Gracias said on January 3, 2018 at 7:09 pm
    Reply

    An HP customer service rep called me yesterday, to respond to my complaint about this. He literally asked me about it — did not know what it was, and hadn’t bothered to do any research on it before calling. He guessed that it must be “some kind of analytical” program. I told him to look it up before calling me again. (I should have told him to google it.) Here’s his follow-up email today — again nonresponsive, but includes a phone number if anyone feels like venting:

    It was a pleasure speaking to you today. I was able to find out some information about HP Touchpoint Analytics:
    HP Touchpoint Analytics is a service we have offered since 2014 as part of HP Support Assistant. It collects diagnostic information about hardware performance that is used anonymously. No data is shared with HP unless access is expressly granted. Customers can opt-out or uninstall the service at any time.
    HP Touchpoint Analytics was recently updated and there were no changes to privacy settings as part of this update. We take customer privacy very seriously and act in accordance with our Privacy Statement, available here.
    Here is another link I found as well https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04068118
    I hope this information is useful to you. Please know that if we don’t not hear from you within 2 to 3 weeks, we will archive the case. However, this does not mean you cannot reach out for help in the future. We are available Monday through Friday 9 am to 6 pm MST. Our number is 1-800-756-06080option #7. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

  29. Joseppe said on December 31, 2017 at 7:58 pm
    Reply

    My laptop was getting hot and the performance was over 50% without any apps working. After removing the HP analytics my PC came back to a normal 8% performance.

    Thank you guys.

  30. John in San Diego said on December 24, 2017 at 2:29 am
    Reply

    My add/remove program entry was “HP Touchpoint Analytics Client” system resources were MUCH better when I removed it…

    Thank you!

  31. Dallas said on December 18, 2017 at 9:27 pm
    Reply

    I found it after wondering why my Dell (Win10) has been running so slow and trying other methods to speed it up. This tool is a memory hog — as much as 4GB RAM. Did I mention I’m on a Dell, and not an HP? I did have an HP printer a while back, so now I am uninstalling all HP products. This %$&#%ing program was installed without my permission!

  32. Larry said on December 18, 2017 at 8:18 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for this. I noticed that my Windows 7 Pro computer was running something massive in the background and identified this application with Task Manager. Thanks to your instructions I have uninstalled it. It was installed 15 Nov 2017 and not by me, although I have an HP OfficeJet network printer with some associated software, so it appears to have come from the most recent monthly MS Update as others have suspected.

  33. Olivier said on December 18, 2017 at 9:12 am
    Reply

    Thx for the post! Bad HP. Bad!

  34. Steven Liddle said on December 13, 2017 at 11:50 pm
    Reply

    Yes it is installed and eating CPU for several hours a day.

  35. D.A.Veteran said on December 13, 2017 at 8:21 am
    Reply

    Had my HP laptop on sleep mode. Activated it and what happened next, startled me. Clicked on Task Mgr cause something was running system, fan also kicked in. Turned out CPU at 100%. Saw HP Touchpoint Analytics running at 97%! Wondered “WTF is this?” Found your page and followed both instructions. Was installed and easily removed. Thank you for posting this information! I’m shocked and not shocked HP attaching spyware without users knowledge. Truly sad we are actually living in a Marxist State in America of all places. I’m old enough to know about how Bolshevik Communism and Frankfurt School of Cultural Marxism were imported into U.S. to “enslave the masses” thru progressivism, to attack our Constitutional Rights, Freedoms and Liberties. Democrats embraced these two evils and are moving forward with corporations to take control of our lives now. It’s gonna get much worse, sad to say.

  36. Lori Q. said on December 12, 2017 at 2:44 am
    Reply

    I just ran across this service by accident while looking at my task manager. I didn’t know what it was so I searched for it online and found this. I stopped the service and removed it. HP ought to be ashamed of themselves for doing this.

  37. Frank said on December 11, 2017 at 11:22 pm
    Reply

    Oh yeah! Thanks so much for the fix! I paid these jokers $1500 for a Spectre so they can spy on me? WTF!

  38. Daavid said on December 9, 2017 at 7:46 pm
    Reply

    Well yes I noticed it is quite a memory hog. I considered for a moment upgrading memory or buying a new computer because it would lock up.

    Disabled it. What a crappy thing to do. Caused countless hours of frustration. How pays for my time?

  39. Gracias said on December 9, 2017 at 4:16 am
    Reply

    Thank you for this. THOSE LITTLE SHITS!! It was causing crashes and overworking, problems with streaming and multitasking. I finally caught it (and the anti-malware program) bullying about on the task manager and looked it up — finding you. After uninstalling from the control panel, a message said it may not have uninstalled correctly. It was still in the list of programs, but didn’t appear to be operating. It disappeared after I uninstalled it a second time. I did notice that the publisher is given as “HP Inc.” unlike the other name stylings (Hewlett Packard) — probably not relevant though. Cheers!

  40. Caffinator said on December 6, 2017 at 6:45 am
    Reply

    I noticed my computer was running slowly for the past couple of weeks or so, but I’d been too busy in the middle of a move to give it much thought. I looked into it today and noticed this nasty little bugger eating up a significant portion of my resources (both CPU and memory and probably wearing out the hard drive with as much as it had the hard drive working). If this had been on my computer for more than a couple weeks, I could probably sue HP for wear and tear on my system. Don’t you remember the backlash when Sony covertly installed exploitable rootkits on people’s systems for having the nerve of wanting to listen to a CD on their computers? For shame HP! You may bow down to the stockholders, but once your customers catch the stench of you shitting on them, you’ll see that the customers are the ones that provide your cash flow. I don’t see myself buying any more HP products for a long, long time. Oh and while you mull that over, ask Electronic Arts how they’re doing lately…

  41. Anonymous said on December 5, 2017 at 2:03 pm
    Reply

    Noticed my computer was very slow lately. Found this running in the background eating up my computers available memory. Disabled it using your instructions. Thank you!

  42. Bill said on December 3, 2017 at 10:59 pm
    Reply

    Snoop, snoop, snoop!! Hey Corporate America here is a crazy idea, why not ask us our opinions or problems experienced about your products instead of sneaking this telemetry crap onto our PC’s like foreign spies. Yes the software is yours, but the PC it is installed on is private property! I don’t remember the Patriot Act or the FISA courts authorizing Corporate America to begin wholesale data collection without permission from the consumer/customer.

    Maybe shift your customer service and technical support away from volume and instead focus on helping the customer, talking to the customer, treating them as a person instead of a dollar sign, numbers, profits. Cut the grossly inflated salaries of your executives, board of directors down from the millions, put them on the phones and chat rooms with the customers, in the warehouses and assembly lines with the grunt workers and have them try to earn a living on the minimum wage (or less).

  43. Jens R. said on December 3, 2017 at 9:20 am
    Reply

    HP Pavilion 15 (2017) — found “HP Touchpoint Analytics Client” as installed.
    * deinstalled today (2017-dec-03)
    * Start of HP Support Assistant doesn’t found anything new to install — only for today?
    (I’ll follow this up at next start of HP Support Assistant; may be it will be choosen then again to install silently with other updates ?)

  44. LocalHero said on December 3, 2017 at 1:53 am
    Reply

    Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU! It was installed and running on mine and I disabled it even though I know nothing about computers.

  45. Geneva Sue Tungate said on December 2, 2017 at 5:12 pm
    Reply

    I should have never bought this screen cracking, unknown installing POS!!!!!!

  46. NormF said on November 30, 2017 at 11:51 pm
    Reply

    It was installed on my laptop on 11/17/2017 and I only noticed it because it was using over 50% (4gb) of my laptops available memory. I too have removed it.

  47. Anna B. said on November 30, 2017 at 6:17 pm
    Reply

    I checked my HP laptop as you advised and sure enough there it was. I removed it immediately. Thank you.

  48. Mike P said on November 30, 2017 at 6:00 pm
    Reply

    Thank you. The uninstall worked fine; both options.

  49. ULBoom said on November 30, 2017 at 2:55 pm
    Reply

    May explain why my neighbor’s HP printers started showing up in wifi available networks. Can’t wait for someone’s “Hi, I’m your happy front door lock experience :)” to appear unsecured. A door lock with an unlocked lock icon; it will happen!

  50. DVDrambo said on November 30, 2017 at 3:39 am
    Reply

    Thanks again Martin for being awesome. Your steps helped speed up an HP 17-g119dx. HP sucks for doing this to its customers.

  51. Barbara P said on November 30, 2017 at 2:34 am
    Reply

    I am sure I do. My new HP computer was working fine, until the middle of November. Then it started running so slow, that I cannot get into many sites. I am not good with working on computers, and may have to hire someone to disable it.

    Do you believe I should send the bill to HP? Is that possible?

  52. Mike S. said on November 30, 2017 at 2:06 am
    Reply
    1. Gracias said on December 9, 2017 at 4:43 am
      Reply

      Interesting that HP says it’s only on laptops — clearly it’s on everything, including printers. I have Windows 8.1 on an HP desktop, and a printer. Only 1.35 GHz processor, and it was maxing out and crashing. HP has quite a bit more ‘splainin’ to do.

  53. Wolf said on November 29, 2017 at 10:59 pm
    Reply

    Suddenly and without warning this am, I could hear my PC “thinking” much harder than ever before, in multiple spurts. I looked into my task manager and dang near all my resources were being used at double their normal numbers. Having done a preliminary check, I then came across this very program. Once again, I’m assuming you hear this from everyone, without consent nor knowledge, there it was. I too the steps to delete it and now my PC is purring like a kitten again. If only we could get a heads up about these installs, the exact description of what and why, and the CHOICE to install or not… Suppose that’s asking too much of companies that have publicly stated that they know more than we do about what a computer should do. Funny.. I thought PC stood for PERSONAL computer, not Corporate clone device. Thanks for the heads up.

  54. Jay said on November 29, 2017 at 10:47 pm
    Reply

    Yes, installed and running. Thank you for the disable and uninstall guidance.

  55. Mark said on November 29, 2017 at 9:59 pm
    Reply

    Found it on mine and I will no longer purchase HP products! I’m shocked that we are so easily manipulated and betrayed by companies we want to trust. Tracking to me is essentially a stalker problem and needs to be dealt with on a legal level, just like when someone stalks you in non-digital life. This all has to stop.

  56. Joost said on November 29, 2017 at 7:42 pm
    Reply

    Hello Martin,

    Thanks for your help!
    I had this annoying program since two weeks on my PC (Win 8.1, 64x).
    With your clear instructions above I could remove it.

    Many greetings,
    Joost

  57. Nick said on November 29, 2017 at 6:12 pm
    Reply

    Windows 8 and Windows 10 are both filled with spyware. As well as Windows 7 with latest updates. To remove the spyware you may use DWS program
    https://github.com/Nummer/Destroy-Windows-10-Spying/releases

  58. Shawn said on November 29, 2017 at 3:25 pm
    Reply

    Computer’s been slow a couple weeks. Found the program using #2 above. Had to select Uninstall 4 or 5 times before it actually uninstalled. Thank you for this!

    1. Anonymous said on November 30, 2017 at 4:42 pm
      Reply

      DITTO!

  59. Magni said on November 29, 2017 at 7:46 am
    Reply

    I have 2016 HP Spectre X360 and I do not have HP Touchpoint Analytics. However, when I got the laptop, the only preinstalled software related to HP that I left on the laptop was the pen support. HP Pen Control is published by ELAN microelectronics Corp.

  60. Gary said on November 29, 2017 at 5:36 am
    Reply

    I found it on my computer. I followed Option 1 and disabled it and stopped it from running. I then tried Option 2 and found out it was installed on 11/19/17. I uninstalled it with no problem. I advise anyone with an hp computer to follow these simple steps and remove it.

  61. Donny B said on November 29, 2017 at 5:23 am
    Reply

    I found it on my HP laptop. I didn’t see it in task mgr./servs. , but I found it, stopped it, & uninstalled it as per Option 2. May have been causing recurring “freeze” issue I’ve had. Thanks for the tips.

  62. Ian said on November 29, 2017 at 1:57 am
    Reply

    2015 HP Spectre x360 user. Installed for me on 18/11/17. Does NOT tie in with Windows update – I have updates on 14/11/17 and 19/11/17 but not on the day that the Touchpoint Analytics Client installed. Version 4.0.2.1439 listed, publisher listed as HP Inc. – every other piece of HP software installed shows publisher as Hewlett-Packard Company or Hewlett Packard.

    The HP Welcome desktop app (for registering warranty info) also updated on the same day – showing version 1.0 installed though.

  63. SS said on November 29, 2017 at 1:23 am
    Reply

    I came across this page earlier today and just sat down to look for the app – and found it and stopped it. Thanks!!

  64. Shannon said on November 29, 2017 at 12:16 am
    Reply

    OMG. I built my PC, no HP parts. But I do have an HP printer, so I checked. It was installed on Nov 19th!

    And uninstalled today.

    I need a new printer anyway.

  65. dennis oconnor said on November 28, 2017 at 10:26 pm
    Reply

    Yup, found it on my less than 2 weeks old HP laptop. Removed. Thanks.

  66. DrM said on November 28, 2017 at 8:59 pm
    Reply

    I am intrigued by the conversation, and wholly agree that no one has the right to install anything on my computer (or other computing/communications/smart technology) without my permission…or worse, without my knowledge. I find it abhorrent, unethical and potentially illegal (though, I am not a legal professional, this kind of behavior is decidedly reminiscent of surreptitiously downloading a virus or malware onto someone’s computer…definitely an illegal act, and punishable by fines and incarceration).

    While I have not been able to identify this particular invasion of my laptop, by HP, my computer did slow down significantly, some weeks ago, and the issue has not been resolved. I have employed all of the methods mentioned in this article (as well as some from another site), to locate the offending software, with no success. I wonder if this is somehow running silent, or if there is another “fly in the ointment,” on my machine?

    Anyone have other recommendations for identifying unwanted, unseen software from impeding my computer’s performance?

    Thank you, in advance, for your guidance!

  67. Mike S. said on November 28, 2017 at 8:12 pm
    Reply

    To followup on my 4:40am post: I ran Geek Uninstaller which deleted the two instances in:

    “C:\Program Files\HP\HP Touchpoint Analytics Client”

    “C:\ProgramData\HP\HP Touchpoint Analytics Client”

    And, as Geek does so well, it then ran it’s ‘deep scan’ for leftovers (ie registry, etc) and found none.

    As expected, it’s also gone from Task Manager>Processes.

    :)

  68. Steven Smith said on November 28, 2017 at 8:10 pm
    Reply

    I read your article, having done an update a couple of days ago, I was curious. I followed your directions for option 1 and disabled the program. Very disappointing behavior from HP, but I suppose not truly surprising. Thank you for your insights.

  69. Phylis Sophical said on November 28, 2017 at 7:21 pm
    Reply

    Yep, it was there. HP450a Desktop / Win 10. Created Nov. 16. Used Revo Uninstaller to get rid of it.
    Question? Will HP Reinstall it if it’s ‘missing’?
    If you only have an HP Printer, not DT or LT, is it still installed?

  70. Dimitris said on November 28, 2017 at 6:58 pm
    Reply

    I found it also on my brand new HP ProBook. It was installed on November 15.

  71. aaabbbccc said on November 28, 2017 at 6:45 pm
    Reply

    (Source: Alex Eiffel at AskWoody)

    “Humm. So now we have drivers and PC makers that will need to use telemetry to guess which Windows update causes issues to help fix them? Where are we heading, a Windows computer that has 10+ telemetry processes all verifying every hour the same things about your computer in case your printer, video card, SD card reader, mouse would need a fix to work properly on the new and ever changing Windows as a service? And they all need your browsing history, because you know, it correlates very well with your issues?

    Sorry, you can’t work for the next few minutes, we need to make sure your computer will be able to run later. Oh, you don’t have unlimited bandwidth to upload all this? Oh, too bad for you. You should choose a better partner for providing internet access.”
    _ _ _ _ _ _ _

    (Source: Anonymous at AskWoody)

    Eg … “Purchases a new HP Laptop with the new I5-8250 cpu on black Friday. It works fine with the installed W10 1703, but upon updating with Win10 1709, the HDMI port doesn’t work. I’ve tried connecting to two TVs. On one you get a message the resolution isn’t supported–despite trying all resolutions. On the other you get a garbage image. I’ve update the video driver to the latest Intel generic driver with no luck. Reverting to 1703 solves the problem so it is clearly related to 1709.”
    _ _ _ _ _ _ _

    Seems, because of M$-Win 10’s forced update/upgrade debacle, the OEMs have to also do Telemetry & Data collection.
    … Soon, every OEM Win 10 computer will have to suffer having their resources and Internet bandwidth being used by M$ and every OEMs for Telemetry & Data collection. Pity the computer dummies who will be running super-laggy OEM Win 10 computers.

  72. Phil said on November 28, 2017 at 5:43 pm
    Reply

    I didn’t find it using step 1 on my computer running win7 Pro… but did find a “Discover HP Analytics” entry in Programs and removed it. Knew it sounded familiar. But though I routinely ignore those types of nag screens from manufacturers, I do allow updates to my HP printer software.

    How about a complete list of the junk you can remove safely? They install all kinds of crap…”Buy HP products” etc….

    I usually just wipe disks and install a clean copy but did’t on the computer I found it on. Didn’t find it by either method on an 8.1 purchased which uses the same printer, (and has the full software install HP Digital Imaging Monitor).

  73. Neville Hobson said on November 28, 2017 at 4:50 pm
    Reply

    I have an HP desktop, purchased new in August, and this program is installed and running. Looking at its properties, it appears that is was installed on my PC on November 23.

    I’ve noticed the machine being very sluggish over the past few days. I’ve not installed any new software since about ten days ago and there have been no Windows 10 updates in this time. Maybe this is the reason!

    Now to uninstall…

  74. Steve Skyrm said on November 28, 2017 at 4:36 pm
    Reply

    I work in IT, and just found this on a client’s PC. Once removed, PC performance came back to normal.

    Thanks for publishing this – I will be checking out any HP’s I get my hands on!

  75. buddy said on November 28, 2017 at 4:29 pm
    Reply

    yes, my fairly new HP laptop had it, so followed directions and removed program and service. I’ve had the periodic slows, so this may be part of the cause.

  76. Chuck said on November 28, 2017 at 4:23 pm
    Reply

    Found it in my HP envy running Win 10. The software was installed on 19 November. Used step 2 to remove it

  77. Mike McCants said on November 28, 2017 at 4:16 pm
    Reply

    Found as installed on 11/16/2017 on an 8 year-old-system. Removed.

  78. Chris said on November 28, 2017 at 8:50 am
    Reply

    Martin, which HP products is this included with?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on November 28, 2017 at 9:07 am
      Reply

      I don’t know to be honest, could not find any information on HP’s site on that.

  79. too bad for hp said on November 28, 2017 at 4:46 am
    Reply

    What is the people from HP thinking?? this is so bad, I would never buy anything from HP again. My PC is running extremely slow lately, so when trying to figure out what was happening I found that Touchpoint Analytics Service is using almost all the CPU and 1GB of RAM.
    1 HP should not install programs on the background without asking the user
    2 Even less when the program is consuming so much resources
    3 Even worst when the propose of this program is sending data from the user to HP

  80. Mike S. said on November 28, 2017 at 4:40 am
    Reply

    Martin, I have it, secretly installed on Nov. 19 (a week after I got this new HP desktop).

    I’m going to uninstall and note what Geek says about it.

  81. Clairvaux said on November 28, 2017 at 3:07 am
    Reply

    Nothing of the sort here, even though I have an HP monitor.

  82. Stefan said on November 28, 2017 at 1:44 am
    Reply

    Nvidia has telemetry to in their drivers today. I always de-activate the service and remove all “telemetry”-entries in the regedit.exe and with a bootdisk i remove NVTelemteryRecovery.bat (or somilar – not the NvContainerRecovery.bat) in Windows-folder + Telemetry folders in both Programfiles folders. Windows won’t take notice of these entries, folders and files are removed, just see to that You de-activate the service first and then reboot the computer.

    I never install Nvidias driver update check either. There are lightweight updaters to find that do this.

  83. jash said on November 28, 2017 at 12:56 am
    Reply

    My HP laptop was running unusally slow. When I opened Task Manager, I saw that this “service” (which I don’t recall ever seeing before) was using over 10% of my CPU!

    Not only is what HP did here disturbing from an ethical point of view, it also reveals gross incompetence on their part. Why sneak software into your customers’ machines that is so inefficient that many of your customers may incorrectly call into question the very quality of all your products?

    Nice going, HP. Long-term damage for short-term gain.

  84. JLove said on November 27, 2017 at 11:23 pm
    Reply

    I recently purchased an HP OfficeJet Pro (no other HP hardware) and the HP Touchpoint Analytics service was indeed running on my Win 10 PC. Thanks for the heads-up.

  85. Carla said on November 27, 2017 at 10:51 pm
    Reply

    Yes, My computer has been running slow for a few days, maybe even two weeks. I just now ran the task manager to see what was running and sucking up the computer capacity. It was running about 12% of my CPU and doing about 3600 MB of my RAM. I am going to uninstall it.
    Thank you for your tip on this program and I did not ask for the program to be installed.

  86. George said on November 27, 2017 at 3:52 pm
    Reply

    I have two services, HP Service and HP Software Framework Service, neither have a description. I have a HP Deskjet. I’m running 7 sp1 Ult 86x. Automatic update is disabled and I only run it manually for some specific problem. Ther are several HP apps but they all seem to make sense.

    George

  87. TianlanSha said on November 27, 2017 at 3:48 pm
    Reply

    When I buy a new computer, the first thing I do is wipe the disk and install my preferred OS.

    I won’t tolerate fools installing bloatware on MY machine.

    1. Jason said on November 27, 2017 at 5:52 pm
      Reply

      This isn’t “bloatware” but “spyware”. I agree with your point, though.

  88. kalmly said on November 27, 2017 at 3:26 pm
    Reply

    I don’t find HP Touchpoint Analytics Client on my computer. However, I’m using WIN 7, and I have automatic updates which shouldn’t affect anything but Microsoft’s updates. Does the OS matter, or is this confined to Win 10?

  89. Tom Hawack said on November 27, 2017 at 2:07 pm
    Reply

    I have an old HP LaserJet 1018 hence free of telemetry. What I can say for sure is that my next printer will definitely not be an HP.
    Nowadays it’s not to know who tracks you but who doesn’t.

  90. TelV said on November 27, 2017 at 11:57 am
    Reply

    @ Martin,

    Microsoft’s tool failed me, but I ran a registry search and found these two entries for cpl files: https://imgbox.com/9aWBchx7

    I figure that deleting “C:\Program Files (x86)\Foolish IT\CryptoPrevent\CryptoPreventFilterMod.exe” “%1” %* should do the trick since the other value appears to the Windows executable. Or am I incorrect in that regard?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on November 27, 2017 at 11:59 am
      Reply

      You could check the startup items of your computer, and the services, to see if this is loaded anywhere still.

      1. cheaterslick said on November 30, 2017 at 3:45 am
        Reply

        @TelIV, have you tried using Revo to uninstall this program?

        I’ve found it much more effective than using the native Windoze Control Panel to do it. Revo will also give you a chance to also uninstall (or keep) any registry entries you wish.

        https://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_screenshots.html

        I’ve been using it for years.

      2. TelV said on November 27, 2017 at 12:33 pm
        Reply

        Nothing relevant in either of those two.

        I decided just now to delete the registry key, but the OS didn’t like that at all displaying the message that appwiz.cpl didn’t have a file or a program associated with it. I created a system restore point before taking that step though, so we’re now back where we were before.

        I think the next step will be to contact the developer. I purchased a licence for CryptoPrevent so I should be able to get some feedback on how to remove it completely.

        Thanks anyway for your suggestions Martin.

  91. s66 said on November 27, 2017 at 11:34 am
    Reply

    So disabled and stopped HP Touchpoint Analytics as per option 1
    Do I also do option 2? What does HP Touchpoint Manager do?

  92. TelV said on November 27, 2017 at 11:27 am
    Reply

    @ Martin,

    I think I’ve found the problem. I used to use an anti-ransomware application called CryptoPrevent by FoolishIT which included antivirus but stopped using it two or three years ago when Malwarebytes incorporated AV as well and subsequently uninstalled it. But now that this problem with appwiz.cpl has suddenly cropped up I opened c:\windows\system32 and then tried running a number of .cpl files to see if they would open but kept getting the option to choose which program to open them with. Taking a closer look at the options I noticed this: https://imgbox.com/IQde3dHY

    So it would appear the Cryptoprevent is still active on my machine in spite of being uninstalled.

    I’ll try removing it using Microsoft’s very useful tool and will let you know in a few mins how it went.

  93. FirehawkV21 said on November 27, 2017 at 10:51 am
    Reply

    The Touchpoint Analytics Service was added to the HP Support Assistant (at least in my case). Why? I only have this installed on my machine so I can see if there are driver updates that I may have missed. Who in the right mind would bundle a telemetry service with a program that doesn’t make any sense?

    1. Graham said on November 28, 2017 at 10:30 pm
      Reply

      I uninstalled HP Support Assistant on my dad’s laptop as soon as I read this comment, just to be on the safe side.
      If there’s any other HP software that has this program, please let us know. That would be swell.

      1. Lee Torneten said on December 11, 2017 at 2:40 am
        Reply

        This program was ramping my disk usage up to 100%, causing all of my operations to stutter. Uninstalling seems to have cleared that problem.

      2. Tuck Buckford said on November 28, 2017 at 11:20 pm
        Reply

        I use “HP SoftPaq Download Manager (HP SDM)” to manage HP drivers and software updates on HP ProBooks, and EliteBooks at work. I’m not sure if it works for all consumer models or not. It might be that Support Assistant actually starts the hidden SDM program anyway. You can download HP SDM here: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ads/clientmanagement/overview.html

    2. cheaterslick said on November 28, 2017 at 9:43 am
      Reply

      “Who in the right mind would bundle a telemetry service with a program that doesn’t make any sense?”

      HP would. Or M$.

      In fact, Windoze 10 itself is full of the same kind of bullshit as this driver is.

      My question is I bought a Dell Latitude last year with 8.1 on it and am wondering if something like it is on there too?

  94. TelV said on November 27, 2017 at 9:48 am
    Reply

    I only have an HP printer and haven’t updated drivers for quite a while so no telemetry crap to be seen anywhere.

    But appwiz.cpl doesn’t work on my machine running Windows 8.1 for some unknown reason. This is the message which appears: https://imgbox.com/t9Ilx4PW

    1. MATTHEW LEVERICH said on January 6, 2018 at 2:37 am
      Reply

      My computer started randomly restarting unexpectedly, about twice a week, starting in late November. Always the same error message: Fatal Hardware Error with my processor. If this telemetry service (which I’ve since stopped) was causing it I’m gonna be MAD at HP. My laptop is only 2 years old and otherwise works perfectly.

      1. TelV said on January 6, 2018 at 10:45 am
        Reply

        @ Martin Leverich,

        Does the fatal hardware error specifically mention the CPU? Do you see an error code appear as well? If so can you post it here please.

        If the warning doesn’t mention the CPU it’s more likely to be an problem with your hard drive, You can run chkdsk /r from an elevated command prompt to check the drive for bad sectors, but it can’t be run while the machine is in use. You’ll see the following message when you try to run the command: “Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)”. Hit the letter “Y” and then reboot.

    2. Anonymous said on January 1, 2018 at 7:42 pm
      Reply

      Yep. And slowed my processor waayyy down!

    3. Anonymous said on December 17, 2017 at 1:38 am
      Reply

      My laptop looked like it was running a marathon. This garbage was taking up nearly 40% cpu. Installed Nov 17, probably during windows update. I found another hp app, moviestore, just installed a few days ago, have to check it out to.

    4. Louis Sparks said on December 4, 2017 at 5:06 pm
      Reply

      It worked on my Windows 8.1.

      Was able to stop and remove program as suggested.

    5. Mark Hazard said on November 28, 2017 at 5:51 pm
      Reply

      You can go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features. It does the same thing.
      That is the desktop Control Panel.

      1. TelV said on November 29, 2017 at 9:43 am
        Reply

        Hi Mark,

        You don’t have to bother with my request anymore: I’ve fixed the problem by associating control.exe to open .cpl files. Running just “appwiz.cpl” from the Run command now opens Windows Programs and Features menu correctly.

        Sorry to have bothered you.

      2. TelV said on November 28, 2017 at 10:10 pm
        Reply

        @ Mark, can you help me out with something (hopefully Martin will allow it).

        Go to Control Panel —> Default Programs —> “Associate a file type or protocol with a specific program” and then in the list, scroll down to .cpl and let me know what’s listed under the “Current default” column. Here’s a pix of what the menu looks like: https://imgbox.com/tdyHnsAv

        As you can see from the image, the default is “Unknown application” on my system but this can be changed via the “Change Program” button (hopefully).

      3. TelV said on November 28, 2017 at 8:34 pm
        Reply

        I’m aware of that Mark, but you’re missing the point I think. The system isn’t working as it should and I want to fix that. In fact there are more file types that CryptoPrevent has kept under its wing in spite of being uninstalled and these can be seen here: https://imgbox.com/QEdAXEvh

        I submitted a ticket to the developer but it appears to have been ignored. They don’t have a user forum and there’s no uninstaller of the type that removes all the registry keys in addition to the application. In fact I reinstalled it this morning hoping to get a CLSID code which can be used to uninstall the product along with the other data, but the application doesn’t create one. I used its own uninstaller hoping that that would work, but all it does is uninstall the program leaving the registry keys in place. Using the “Undo protection” option seen in the above link clears all the boxes, but not the actual registry keys which control them or so it seems.

      4. Mo said on November 28, 2017 at 7:49 pm
        Reply

        I was just wondering why go through Win+R and entering the commands to stop the service and uninstalling it. Doing all this seems to be easier and safer via Control Panel.

    6. Martin Brinkmann said on November 27, 2017 at 9:59 am
      Reply

      Can you check if appwiz.cpl is in system32?

      1. TelV said on November 27, 2017 at 10:47 am
        Reply

        Yes, it’s there.

        I just ran sfc /scannow and DISM but both report no errors: http://imgbox.com/S245CTKM

        I also tried running the command using the full path but get the same result.

      2. Martin Brinkmann said on November 27, 2017 at 11:12 am
        Reply

        What happens when you run it directly from the system32 folder?

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