Hcdetect

HCDetect.exe

(Microsoft)

Background process of the Microsoft Home Click networking software.  Microsoft Home Click is a simple home network setup and configuration program which comes included with 3Com’s HomeConnect networking products.  It is used primarily in North America and is seen very little elsewhere.  HCDETECT.EXE runs in the background for network printer notification, detection, and the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) taskbar icon.  There is a bug in HCDETECT.EXE where it does not automatically detect shared USB printers (see Microsoft Knowledgebase article Q272133).

Recommendation : 
There are problems with HCDETECT.EXE, resulting at times in the need to reboot the network in order to regain lost memory.  That said, HCDETECT.EXE is a necessary component of the HomeClick software – you should therefore leave this process alone.

HDAShCut

HDAShCut.exe

(Microsoft)

High Definition Audio Property.  Task found on the  Startups  tab of   The Ultimate Troubleshooter  and whose role is simply to optimize the High Definition Audio features of Windows depending on the HD sound card in your PC/laptop.  It runs at Windows startup, does its job, and then closes.

Recommendation :  
Leave alone.  This task only runs for a few seconds at Windows startup.  If you disable it the quality of the sound on your PC can be significantly decreased, particularly for the discerning users who work with sound (music recording, music mixing, video editing, etc..).

HDAudPropShortcut

HDAudPropShortcut.exe

(Microsoft)

High Definition Audio Property.  Task found on the  Startups  tab of   The Ultimate Troubleshooter  and whose role is simply to optimize the High Definition Audio features of Windows depending on the HD sound card in your PC/laptop.  It runs at Windows startup, does its job, and then closes.

Recommendation :
Leave alone.  This task only runs for a few seconds at Windows startup.  If you disable it the quality of the sound on your PC can be significantly decreased, particularly for the discerning users who work with sound (music recording, music mixing, video editing, etc..).

Hgcctl95

HGCCTL95.exe

(E-Color)

Colorific Tray icon.  The Colorific color calibration software comes bundled with a number of high end video cards.  This System Tray icon enables you to bring up the Display Properties, and be automatically positioned on the Colorific tab.

Recommendation : 
Totally unnecessary clutter of the System Tray – color calibration is something you do infrequently when you change monitors or printer drivers and you can access the Display Properties in so many other ways.  Delete using  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Hidserv

HIDServ.exe

(Microsoft)

Microsoft’s Human Interface Device Audio Service for Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP.  This background service is entirely to do with USB and provides support for Audio devices attached to your USB ports, and for Audio controls operating through a USB connection.  This process will typically be needed if you run a multimedia USB keyboard where you can control volume and other audio aspects, or if you use a USB gaming joystick which gives you the power to control the audio aspects of your PC.

Recommendation : 
If you do not use any of the above, disable using  The Ultimate Troubleshooter,  then test that your PC is running fine.  In Win98SE/ME/2000 disabling it should not cause you any problems – we have however experienced one or two problems disabling this service under Windows XP.

Holu

Holu.exe

See   IWAR.
 

HOMERunner

HOMERunner.exe

(TomTom International B.V.)

You have the   TOM TOM Home   program currently open or running in the System Tray  (or set as a startup item).  The  TOM TOM Home  software enables owners of a TOM TOM SatNav (Sattelite Navigation System) to connect it to their PC via USB cable and update it over the Internet, back it up, or configure it.

Recommendation :
Down to end-user requirements.  Unless your job includes constant travelling, in which case you should leave this program to auto-start automatically at every Windows boot-up (so you can update your TOM TOM often), then it is most likely that you will only ever need to upgrade and update your TOM TOM SatNav only occasionally.  You can disable this program from automatically starting at every Windows boot-up on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.  This program consumes very little memory when it is idle, typically between 2Mb to 6Mb.

HPAdvisor

HPAdvisor.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Total Care Advisor.  You either have it opened, or it is running in the background in the System Tray, or you have it as a startup item.  We have found  HP Total Care Advisor  pre-installed on HP Business PCs running Vista since March 2007.

HP Total Care Advisor  is a suite of help and hardware check programs to help you check the health of your PCs – for example :  battery check to check how good your battery still is (as opposed to whether it is charged or not) and whether it needs to be changed, hard disk checks, check peripheral connections, etc...  You can also access HP Help & Support through it.  Lastly, it also has a few other features which simply duplicate those already in Vista, such as whether you have antivirus software and whether it is up‑to‑date, whether you have Automatic Updates turned ON, etc...

HP’s own description of  HP Total Care Advisor  is as follows at the time of writing, 3-Jun-2007 :  “HP Total Care Advisor.  A free, interactive guide for support, system health and services.  Just click HP Total Care Advisor on your desktop start menu and a 'cockpit' appears on the screen.  This dynamic interface provides easy, centralized access to information about your business computer to help keep it protected and up to date.  Total Care Advisor lets you set up automated tasks, see warranty information and view peripheral connections.  To save you time, it also prioritizes alerts, recommends actions and gives you quick access to problem-solving resources and support.  Coming pre-installed on select HP business desktops and notebooks running Windows Vista in Summer 2007.”.

Recommendation :
It is fine to use  HP Total Care Advisor  when you need it, of course, but you absolutely do  not  want it running automatically at startup.  In our own tests, and on our TUT users’ PCs, this program gobbles up memory randomly – on one day it will consume only 15Mb of memory and on another day, or sometimes in the next hour (!!), it will gobble up 55Mb of memory, and that’s just a middlish figure.  We have seen it use as much as 109Mb of memory when simply running in the background.  That’s staggering.  Yet, on another day, on the very same PC, the same program would use only 25Mb.

So, again, do use  HP Total Care Advisor  once in a while to check the health of your PC using HP’s own monitoring and checking tools, but do  not  have it startup automatically at every Windows boot-up.  Therefore, make sure you go to the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  and disable this task to stop it starting up at every Windows boot-up.

Hpboid

Hpboid.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Status Server.  Service installed by the drivers for some of the HP business laser printers and which forms pat of HP’s EAC technology – Enterprise Configuration Agent – where the printer drivers automatically query the printer, whether it is networked or locally connected, and then automatically reflect the printer’s physical configuration in the Windows printer configuration screens.  Thus, if you decide to buy an envelope feeder and attach it to the printer, this task will get your PC to query the printer and automatically incorporate into your printer driver the fact that the printer now has an envelope feeder.

Recommendation :
The early history of this task, and its sister task, HPBPRO, is absolutely disastrous :  unnecessary multiple instances of this task sucking up the PC’s processing power;  or HPBPRO taking up between 80% to 100% of CPU usage, thus slowing the PC down to a crawl.  To put the record straight, a lot of these issues were resolved in later versions of these services  (picked up through a driver update), but in June 2006 they have not disappeared completely and these two tasks still create problems with some HP printer drivers on some PCs.  This task goes hand in hand with HPBPRO (HP Port Resolver), thus whatever you decide to do with HPBPRO, you should do with this task.

Hpcron

Hpcron.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Part of HP’s Simple Trax software.  HP’s Simple Trax is backup software which is included with some HP CD-Writers and which enables you to backup to CDs – you can perform both manual and scheduled backups with Simple Trax.

Recommendation : 
Although we are not 100% sure about it, from the reports we have received HPCRON seems to be a background task which notifies the end-user of the success or not of a Simple Trax backup operation that was running in a background window while the user was doing something else in the foreground.  Users who have disabled it with  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  report being able to continue using Simple Trax in the normal manner.

Hpfbkg02

Hpfbkg03

HPfbkg02.exe

HPfbkg03.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Background task which is part of the drivers for the HP DeskJet 600C  (HPFBKG02)  and  HP DeskJet 660C  (HPFBKG03).  This task only gets installed if you install your printer using the full DeskJet Printing System software suite.

Recommendation :
At this stage we are not sure of what  HPFBKG02  or  HPFBKG03  really do, so our recommendation has to be that you leave them alone.  That said, this task does not get installed if you install the printer via the  “Add Printer”  method and use the folder Disk2 on the installation CD  (or the second floppy disk if you have installation floppy disks).  This task also does not get installed in Windows 98SE and later where both these printers are then known to Windows and do not need external installation media.

Hpfsched

HPFSched.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HPFSCHED.EXE is a background task which is installed by the drivers of some HP DeskJet printers (e.g. 660C, 670C, 680C, 690C, 720C). Its sole purpose is to remind you from time to time to clean the cartridges in your DeskJet so as to keep the print quality high.  Most end-users find these popups extremely irritating and in that respect Epson have found a better compromise by implementing the cleaning of cartridges as an automatic hardware feature which kicks in at specific intervals of usage, as well as being something you can start manually.

Recommendation : 
Disable or delete with  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

HPHC_service

HPHC_service.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard HP Health Check Service.  First, HP’s own description of this service found on its PCs and laptops :  “HP Health Check is a tool developed  to automatically scan your machine to alert you about important updates and about Hardware or Software conditions that may impact the performance of your machine. This tool is available as a download to instal on any HP Consumer Desktop PCs running an version of the Windows Vista Operating System.”.

Well, what can we say !!!   Right from the very start, the above description of the product, there are problems.  This is one utility which had un-HP-like quality control problems right from the description of the product itself, with the silly spelling and grammatical errors exactly as you see them above.  This then continues with instances of the product detecting supposed problems but not able to repair the problems nor download updates;  with crazy errors such as  “String not recognized as a valid DateTime”  or  “1603 Fatal Error during Installation Consult Windows Installer Help (Msi.chm) or MSDN for more information”;   with instances of the program redirecting the user to the Microsoft Help site with no indication as to what the user should do;  and, to cap all the other problems, there have been instances of the program suggesting driver upgrades which proved catastrophic.

Recommendation :
You do not want to be running this program and you should ignore absolutely anything it suggests (if your PC is running fine and you are not experiencing problems, then there is no reason to upgrade drivers just for the sake of upgrading drivers).  It is our opinion that HP have done such a bad job on this utility that they will have to rewrite it and rename it for the IT community to ever give it the thumbs up.  Disable this service by changing its  Startup Mode  to  Disabled  on the  Services  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Hphipm07

Hphipm09

Hphipm11

HPHipm07.exe

HPHipm09.exe

HPHipm11.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP PML Driver for HP’s Photosmart printers.  PML stands for  Printer Management Language and is an  object-oriented  request-reply printer management protocol where each PML object is associated with a unique piece of printer information while the PML commands specify the way the objects are accessed.  From a layman’s perspective all you need to know is that PML is one of many printer control languages and it is the one used by your HP Photosmart printer (on account of the fact that it is better suited for the handling of digital imaging objects).

Recommendation :
Essential for the full functioning of your HP Photosmart printer – Leave alone.

Hphmon03

Hphmon04

Hphmon05

HPHMon03.exe

HPHMon04.exe

HPHMon05.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

System Tray digital camera Card Reader enabling task for the HP Photosmart P1000, P1100, P1115, P1200 and P1315 series of printers (and other HP Photosmart printers).  The icon shows as a digital camera memory card in the System Tray.  Our Thanks to The Ultimate Troubleshooter user who corrected our original description.

Recommendation :
HP have explained to us that disabling this task disables Windows’ ability to access the digital camera card reader on your Photosmart Printer and your ability to transfer images from it to the PC – you should therefore leave it enabled if you use the card reader.  Note :  if you run Windows 2000/XP and you experience 100% CPU usage that you can trace back to HPHMON03/HPHMON04/HPHMON05, then it is probably because your printer port is configured as EPP rather than ECP (this printer port configuration requirement only applies to the earlier Photosmart Printers).

Hplampc

HPLampc.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Energy Star and Fast Lamp Warm-up background task installed by the drivers for many Hewlett-Packard scanners, such as the 3200C, 3300C, 3400C, 4200C, 4300C, 4400C, 5200C, the list goes on.  This task runs as soon as Windows boots and what it effectively does is tell the scanner to pre‑warm the lamp in advance of you actually needing to use the scanner.

Recommendation :
This is as buggy a piece of software as the one it supposedly replaces.  HPLAMP.EXE  was incredibly buggy and HPLAMPC.EXE was a patch produced by HP to supposedly fix the problems with HPLAMP !   Well, it certainly has differences, as in ....... different bugs !!!  It is effectively just as unpredictable and bothersome as its predecessor.  It works on some PCs, but prevents the scanner software from  ..... finding the scanner on other PCs (!!!), or it crashes and disappears from the Tasks tab altogether, or it conflicts with other background tasks.  And, just like its predecessor, it does not stop there – on yet other PCs it is responsible for the scanner lamp never turning off !!!  HP have issued patches and software updates to this patch but it still remains a very flaky piece of software in our opinion.  So, if you are not experiencing problems with this task, or with your scanner, then do nothing.  If, on the other hand, you have HPLAMPC problems, or the light on your scanner never turns off, the most important thing to remember is that you can use your scanner without this task – simply do as follows :

1)   Terminate this task on the  Tasks  tab of TUT.

2)   Switch over to the  Startups  tab of TUT.

3)   Right‑click on this startup and choose  “Rename the file that this Startup points to”.

4)   Next, right‑click and disable this startup.

5)   Click the big green  APPLY  button to make your changes stick.
 

Hpmdlbwa

Hpmdlbwa.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Scan Button task for the HP OfficeJet R Series.  This task enables the user to press the Scan button on the OfficeJet front panel to scan documents.

Recommendation : 
There are known problems on some PCs between this task and the mouse, or with other devices which share the same printer port as the OfficeJet (eg. Zip drives).  If you experience such problems then disable this task with  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  and then use the HP Precision Scan software from "Start \ Programs" as, once HPMDLBWA is disabled, you will no longer be able to use the Scan button on your OfficeJet control panel.

HpmmKbd

HpmmKbd.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard’s multimedia keyboard driver which enables the end-user to use the automation features of the HP multimedia keyboard.

Recommendation : 
There are a few reports of conflicts with some applications.  If you are trying to troubleshoot unexplained problems, disable using  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Hpnra

HPNRA.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard Network Registry Agent background task installed by the drivers for many of HP’s printers since 2002.  The main purpose of this task is as follows :  you buy an HP printer and connect it to your PC.  You then install the drivers which talk to your printer and automatically configure the driver to reflect  exactly  what your printer has.  Later in the life of the printer you decide to expand the printer, e.g. add an extra tray, or an envelope feeder.  At this stage the printer driver on your PC still does not know that you now have an envelope feeder and will therefore not give you the envelope feeder as a tray option when you print.  To ensure that the printer is aware of the new envelope feeder, you have to go into the Printers Control Panel and edit the Properties of the printer.  At that point you can either go and add the envelope feeder manually, or you can do it automatically by clicking on the  Update Now  button on the Configuration tab.  When you click on that button, HPNRA kicks into action, talks to the printer to get its new configuration, and then updates the Windows Registry with your printer’s new details so that the driver now shows you that your printer has an envelope feeder.

Recommendation :
In all our years in IT consultancy we have ourselves never come across a situation where add‑ons such as extra paper trays, duplex unit, envelope feeder, are added  at a later stage.  This is not to say it does not happen – this is simply stating that it happens extremely rarely as in most cases these add-on items are purchased at the same time as the printer itself.  The vast majority of users will never ever need to use the  Update Now  feature of the printer driver, so we recommend you disable this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.  You can always temporarily re-enable it if you find yourself one day to be one of those rare users who does expand the printer at some stage after the initial purchase.

Hpobkgo1

HPObkgo1

(Hewlett-Packard)

This background program is called by HPOJVDIX described below.

Hpohmr08

HPOhmr08.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Background support task for the scanning driver modules of the drivers for some HP All-in-One printers (scanner/printer/fax).

Recommendation :
Essential for the proper functioning of all scanning functions – Leave it alone.

Hpoipm07

HPOipm07.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Background HP task installed by the drivers for the HP OfficeJets K60 & G85.

Recommendation :
We do not yet know what this task does so can only recommend that you leave it alone.

Hpojstart

HPOJStart.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

This background program gets installed when you install the HP software suite for some of Hewlett-Packard’s OfficeJet printers, e.g. the OfficeJet 500.  This program sometimes causes problems when you need to use parallel port devices, such as parallel port CD-ROM or Hard Disk drives, parallel port tape drives, etc..

Recommendation :
Not necessary.  If you experience problems with the use of your parallel port when you are not using your OfficeJet, delete it using  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Hpojvdix

HPOjvdix.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

This background program gets installed when you install the HP software suite for some of Hewlett-Packard’s OfficeJet printers, e.g. the OfficeJet 500.  This program sometimes causes problems when you need to use parallel port devices, such as parallel port CD-ROM or Hard Disk drives, parallel port tape drives, etc..

Recommendation :
Not necessary.  If you experience problems with the use of your parallel port when you are not using your OfficeJet, delete it using  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Hpotdd01

HPOtdd01.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

An amazing background task installed by the HP Photo and Imaging software for some HP printers (e.g. DeskJet 9600, DeskJet 3550, and some of the PSC all-in-one printers).  The sole purpose of this task is to set your HP printer as your  default printer  every time that you boot your PC up !!  Stunning.

Recommendation :
We want to know what was going through the minds of the programmers who invented this task !   Sure enough, systems consultants like ourselves got deluged with calls from end-users who had more than one printer available to their PCs and who kept printing to the wrong printer because they thought their default printer was another printer – “I can assure you, I changed the default back to my Lexmark T912 just yesterday, and this morning it is again on my DeskJet 9600 !”.  Disable immediately with  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.  If you find that the HP software re-enables it, then search for  HPOTDD01.EXE  on your hard disk and rename it to  HPOTDD01.EXE.RENAMED  as this will ensure it cannot get started.

Hppwrsav

HPPwrSav.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Power Save background task for the HP ScanJet 3200C.  The original version of the Windows 95/98 drivers would cause the PC to freeze for 3 to 8 seconds several times an hour, would cause Internet disconnection, or would have the mouse freeze occasionally.

Recommendation : 
If you have a ScanJet 3200C and experience the above problems, either download and install this patch,  or download the very latest drivers which should be dated at least January 2002.

hpqbam08

hpqbam08.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP CUE Alert Popup Window Objects.  Task which is spawned by the device discovery module of the drivers for some HP All-in-One (AIO) printers.  This task takes care of popping up various alerts as instructed by other components of the printer drivers.

Recommendation :
This task is a core background task of the drivers for your HP AIO printer – Leave alone therefore.  This task normally uses 1Mb to 7Mb of memory.

hpqSRMon

hpqSRMon.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Photosmart Essential Image Unloader Application.  This background task, which shows as an icon in the System Tray, is a monitoring task – as soon as it detects that you have connected to the printer’s memory card reader or USB port, a device which holds pictures/photos (e.g. a memory card, a digital camera, or a USB pen drive with photos & pictures on it), it fires up the HP Photosmart Essential Productivity Suite photo downloading, photo editing, and photo printing program.

By default this task monitors only the printer’s memory card reader and the printer’s USB port;  however, in some versions, you can right‑click on the icon in the System Tray to configure it to monitor for connecting media on your PC’s USB ports.  In some versions you can also configure it not to monitor anything.

Recommendation :
Down to end-user preference.  This task normally uses 2Mb to 7Mb of memory.

Windows XP/Vista users :  the features implemented by this task are built into Windows XP/Vista; thus you only need to leave it running if you prefer the HP interface over the Windows XP/Vista interface.

Additionally, if you only ever use the printer’s memory card reader and USB port for printing directly from the printer’s LCD display, and never to transfer pictures to your PC (ie : you use your PC’s own card reader and USB ports to transfer pictures to your PC), then you can also disable this task as it is then of no use to you.

Should you decide not to have this task running, you can disable it on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

HPQToaster

HPQTOA~1

HPQToaster.exe

HPQTOA~1.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard  “Toaster”  task found on new HP laptops bought in April 2006 and later.  We do not yet know what this task actually does, nor how it gets started.

Recommendation :
As we do not yet know what this task does, we can only recommend that you leave it alone.

Hpqtra08

HPQtra08.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Digital Imaging Monitor  task installed by the drivers for many of HP’s All-in-One and PhotoSmart ranges of printers, or installed by the HP software which comes with HP digital cameras.  This task shows up as a System Tray icon.  The icon has a green check mark if the connection between your PC and the HP printer/camera is fine, or a red cross if there is a problem (printer/camera not turned ON, not connected, communication error, or problem with the printer, etc..).  In addition to providing a visual status of your HP printer or camera, this task also monitors your printer or camera for events relating to the imaging functions of your printer or camera, and depending on the event it detects, it starts the appropriate program on the PC.  For example :  end-user pressing the  Scan To  button on the printer which results in the HP Director software opening up on the PC to complete the scanning process;  or, insertion of a memory card in your PhotoSmart or All‑in‑One photo printer which results in the HP Image Transfer or HP Image Unload software opening up.

Recommendation :
Some versions of this background tasks have caused significant boot-up delays on Windows 98/ME PCs.  If this sounds familiar, check our  Drivers  page for a newer version of your printer or digital camera software.

If you use HP software to scan from your All‑in‑One printer, or use HP software to download your digital pictures, then this task is necessary and you should leave it alone.  If not (you use the Windows XP utilities, or some other software), then you can disable it (or uninstall the relevant HP software).

Note :  
When associated with an HP printer, this task has the side-effect of resetting at every boot-up your HP All-in-One or PhotoSmart printer to be your default printer.  This proves totally frustrating for users who are connected or have access to more than just the one printer, and where they like their default printer to be a printer other than their HP All‑in‑One/PhotoSmart printer – in such cases the only two solutions are either to disable this task on the  STARTUPS  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  and therefore forego the above mentioned features that it provides, or you can install our free System Tray program, A Really Small App,  www.AReallySmallApp.com,  and right‑click on it after every boot-up to set your default printer as per your preferences.

HPSF

HPSF.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard Support Framework.  Also called HP Support Assistant.

As per HP’s description :   “With HP Support Assistant, it’s easy to keep your PC running smoothly. Optimize PC performance. Automate support tasks. And get assistance when you need help. All of this from one place on your own PC.”.

HP Support Assistant is shockingly invasive software.  One would expect Support Software to be software which you call upon when you actually have an issue to deal with.  Not so with HP Support Assistant – it gets into your face within 5 minutes of having started Windows 7, springing in front of what you are currently reading and insisting on at least 5 to 7 clicks of the mouse before you can get rid of it, and all this when there is absolutely nothing wrong with your laptop/PC – you only bought the laptop the day before and it is already insisting on scanning your laptop to tell you if you need a driver update, or whatever else.  This is extremely irritating software, and extremely irritating software can never be useful, period !   And it does not stop there – on many laptops this software simply ..... errors !   So ..... irritating software which either errors on boot-up or uses up to 50% of your CPU time.  Hmmmm.

Recommendation :
You’ve guessed it – uninstall this most irritating and truly useless piece of software.  Your wonderful new HP laptop/PC will work a lot better without it !   It is truly amazing :  in December 2010, and beyond, HP/Compaq make stunning new laptops, and yet they laden those laptops with this utterly irritating and debilitating program.

To uninstall  HP Support Assistant  choose the  “Tools \ Control Panel”  option in TUT, then  Programs & Features  and uninstall  HP Support Assistant.

If you are lucky enough that HP Support Assistant is not gobbling up most of your laptop’s processor time you will find that this task normally uses 25Mb to 75Mb of memory.

Hpsjbmgr

HPsjbmgr.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP ScanJet Background Manager process.  Installed when you install the drivers for some HP ScanJet scanners.

Recommendation : 
Leave alone unless you are experiencing problems.  If you are experiencing problems, then experiment by disabling it through  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Hpsysdrv

Hpsysdrv.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP background task which keeps track of system recovery information.  This information can be used by HP Support to help troubleshoot system recovery issues.  This task is purely for troubleshooting problems experienced when doing a complete system recovery from the HP recovery CD that came with your PC, and only HP engineers have the means to interpret the information it generates.

Recommendation :
Since a complete system recovery effectively wipes your entire hard disk and restores your PC to the state it was in when you first bought it, this task is effectively useful only in the few hours following a System Recovery and only if you have experienced problems with the System Recovery, and also only if your PC is still under warranty with HP so you can have access to an engineer.  At all other times this task has effectively no purpose and so you can disable it on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.  The reason most HP PCs have this task running in the background from day 1 is that when you buy an HP PC and turn it on for the first time, you go through a 30‑minute process which installs and configures Windows – that process is in fact a  “System Recovery”  but on a brand new PC out of the box !  (Note:  only initially disable  HPSYSDRV, do not delete it;  then check that your PC is behaving properly for a week or two – the reason for this is that although we ourselves have never had a problem after disabling this task, we have had unverified reports from one or two users claiming that the HP function keys did not work after disabling  HPSYSDRV.  Again, we have not been able to reproduce this ourselves.).

Hpw8tbx

HPW8Tbx.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

Toolbox for HP Printing System.  System Tray printer status icon installed by the drivers for HP’s DeskJet 1220C printer.  It enables you to access various features of your printer such as checking ink levels, cleaning and aligning the heads, running diagnostic prints, etc..., from the icon in the System Tray.

Recommendation :  
Down to end-user preference.  You can disable it with  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

HPWMISVC

HPWMISVC.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP WMI Service.  Background service found on HP laptops and PCs.  This service is a generic HP service which identifies and monitors all the features present on your HP laptop/PC, which ones you might have disabled in the BIOS or through the HP utilities, and which presents this information to other HP utilities and programs such as the Quick Launch Buttons, the Wireless ON/OFF button, etc...

Recommendation :
Leave alone.  This service is crucial to the proper working of any feature of your laptop/PC which depends on knowing what hardware features are available.

This background service normally uses 4Mb to 7Mb of memory.

Hpwuschd

Hpwuschd2

HPWuSchd.exe

HPWuSchd2.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Windows Updates Scheduler task installed by some of the more recent full printing suite driver installs.  This task checks periodically, when you are on the Internet, for updated drivers for your HP equipment.

Recommendation :
Unless the software is antivirus or firewall software, we always recommend against background tasks that check for software updates.  They typically slow down boot-up times, often generating errors during the boot-up process, slowing down your Internet connection, particularly if you are on dial-up rather than broadband, and the worst behaved ones install software without your knowledge, potentially creating conflicts.  In the case of HPWUSCHD/HPWUSCHD2 we have seen it occasionally crash on boot-up on some PCs.  Most importantly, if your printer works fine and without problems, there is no need to  fix what does not need fixing through the installation of the latest drivers whenever you are prompted to !   Only update your drivers when you actually have problems that need fixing – to do that, navigate to HP through our  Drivers  page.  Delete this task immediately with  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Hpzdui01

Hpzdui01.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Installer Driver UI Plug-In.  Program used by the drivers installation program for some HP printers.  In principle this program should not be running  after  the program has been installed properly and the PC rebooted but, unfortunately, on a few PC it does continue to run nevertheless.

Recommendation :
This program originates from a particular range of drivers whose installation were problematic at the best of times.  The annoying thing about having this program running when it should not, is that when it is running there are two other of its siblings which run also, HPZNUI01.EXE, and  HPZOPT01.EXE, and those 3 programs together use up to 34Mb of memory unnecessarily.

Problem :   These programs belong to a particular set of HP drivers which are notoriously buggy and unless you have a lot of time on your hands, and patience, we recommend living with the problem and not attempting to correct it.  Seriously !

If you have  A LOT OF TIME  on your hands, however, and you are patient, and you have Windows XP or Windows Vista, and you are an advanced user, and you are prepared for your printer  NOT  to work again (!!!), then you could try picking up the latest HP drivers from our  Drivers  page and uninstalling your current drivers, rebooting, and re‑installing your printer.  Remember, though, from our experience and that of other users, there is a more than 50% chance that it won’t be fun !

Hpzipm12

HPZipm12.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP PML Driver Service.   Background task installed by the drivers for a variety of HP printers, ranging from the HP PSC 2100, 2200, 4100, and 6100 series of multifunction printers, to DeskJet 6600 and 6800 series, PhotoSmart series, All‑in‑One OfficeJets, etc...  This task handles non‑printing related two-way communications between the PC and the HP printer.  Typically, on DeskJet and InkJet printers it will handle status-type communications such as ink levels, paper‑empty conditions, etc..., and will feed that information back to an HP icon in the System Tray.  In the case of more advanced printers, such as All‑in‑One printers or PhotoSmart printers, it handles additional non‑printing related communications such as scanning and photocopying events, access to the card reader, etc...

Recommendation :
Because of its role as, effectively, a printer status information gathering task, this task should be left running since, without it, you will not get useful information from the System Tray HP icon for your printer which will think the printer is disconnected.  However, some versions of this task have been more than problematic, with serious conflicts with specific software packages (Sage Accounting with some versions of this task), or with  “Unable to Start driver”  errors on boot-up.  If you experience problems with this task, first ensure that your firewall allows this task to communicate – if your firewall is preventing the task from talking to things external to the PC then this task will not work properly  (Note: at the time of writing, 25‑Sep‑2005, the Windows XP and Norton Firewalls allow this task to communicate by default, so you should not need to configure them).  Next, if you still have problems, see on our  Drivers  page if there are newer drivers for your printers which might correct the problem.  If problems still remain after the above then disable this task on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter  in Windows 98/ME,  or, in Windows 2000/XP, locate it on the  Services  tab and set its  Startup Mode  to  Disabled. 
As Hewlett‑Packard themselves state :   “Most if not all printing functions will work without it, and print quality and speed are not affected by this. However, other functions of the printer driver may be disabled. If a feature is noticed to be missing, the PML driver service can be manually started as described above. Remember to disable the PML driver service again before restarting the computer”.

Hpznui01

Hpznui01.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Installer Network UI Plug-In.  Program used by the drivers installation program for some HP printers.  In principle this program should not be running  after  the program has been installed properly and the PC rebooted but, unfortunately, on a few PC it does continue to run nevertheless.

Recommendation :
This program originates from a particular range of drivers whose installation were problematic at the best of times.  The annoying thing about having this program running when it should not, is that when it is running there are two other of its siblings which run also,  HPZDUI01.EXE, and  HPZOPT01.EXE, and those 3 programs together use up to 34Mb of memory unnecessarily.

Problem :   These programs belong to a particular set of HP drivers which are notoriously buggy and unless you have a lot of time on your hand, and patience, we recommend living with the problem and not attempting to correct it.  Seriously !

If you have  A LOT OF TIME  on your hands, however, and you are patient, and you have Windows XP or Windows Vista, and you are an advanced user, and you are prepared for your printer  NOT  to work again (!!!), then you could try picking up the latest HP drivers from our  Drivers  page and uninstalling your current drivers, rebooting, and re‑installing your printer.  Remember, though, from our experience and that of other users, there is a more than 50% chance that it won’t be fun !

Hpzopt01

Hpzopt01.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

HP Installer Option UI Plug-In.  Program used by the drivers installation program for some HP printers.  In principle this program should not be running  after  the program has been installed properly and the PC rebooted but, unfortunately, on a few PC it does continue to run nevertheless.

Recommendation :
This program originates from a particular range of drivers whose installation were problematic at the best of times.  The annoying thing about having this program running when it should not, is that when it is running there are two other of its siblings which run also,  HPZDUI01.EXE, and  HPZNUI01.EXE, and those 3 programs together use up to 34Mb of memory unnecessarily.

Problem :   These programs belong to a particular set of HP drivers which are notoriously buggy and unless you have a lot of time on your hand, and patience, we recommend living with the problem and not attempting to correct it.  Seriously !

If you have  A LOT OF TIME  on your hands, however, and you are patient, and you have Windows XP or Windows Vista, and you are an advanced user, and you are prepared for your printer  NOT  to work again (!!!), then you could try picking up the latest HP drivers from our  Drivers  page and uninstalling your current drivers, rebooting, and re‑installing your printer.  Remember, though, from our experience and that of other users, there is a more than 50% chance that it won’t be fun !

Hpzsta9x

HPzsta9x.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

See   HPZSTATX   below.  Different name but same problems, except that you can also see this task on Windows 2000 PCs.  This task is typically installed by the drivers for HP’s PSC 2100 & 2110 all-in-one multifunctional printers.

Recommendation :  
As with HPZSTATX, if you have been experiencing printing jobs not coming out, get rid of  HPZSTA9X  as follows :   
1)  Terminate it on the  Tasks  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.
2)  Switch over to the  Startups  tab, right-click on this startup and run the  Delete from the hard disk the file that this Startup points to  menu option.
3)  Finally, delete this Startup entry.

Hpztsb01

Hpztsb02

Hpztsb03

Hpztsb04

Hpztsb05

Hpztsb06

Hpztsb07

Hpztsb08

Hpztsb09

Hpztsb10

Hpztsb11

Hpztsb12

Hpztsb13

Hpztsb14

Hpztsb01.exe

HPztsb02.exe

HPztsb03.exe

HPztsb04.exe

HPztsb05.exe

HPztsb06.exe

Hpztsb07.exe

HPztsb08.exe

HPztsb09.exe

HPztsb10.exe

HPztsb11.exe

HPztsb12.exe

HPztsb13.exe

HPztsb14.exe

(Hewlett-Packard)

 

HP DeskJet Taskbar Utility.  Background print job spooling tasks associated with some HP DeskJet printers (eg. DJ-930C, DJ-990C, DJ‑3580, and others).  This task also displays an icon in the System Tray called the HP Toolbox which enables the end-user to do various things such as cleaning the heads, aligning the heads, checking the ink level, etc...

Recommendation :
Essential under all older versions of Windows – leave alone.  Under Windows 2000/XP/2003, however, it is no longer essential to printing as, as long as the  “Print Spooler”  service is enabled (which it always is by default), printing to the printer will be fine.  It then becomes a matter of preference as to whether you want to have the HP Toolbox in your System Tray or not.  If you choose to disable it, you can do so on the  Startups  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

hqtray

hqtray.exe

(VMWare Inc)

VMware Host Network Access Status Tray Application.  This little app is responsible for detecting that your VMWare virtual machines are accessing the network outside the VMWare environment through the host operating system – when this happens the little icon which tells you whether you are networking to the host or through the host (out onto your home/office network or the Internet), lights up.

Recommendation :
Although not essential to the good functioning of your VMWare setup, we recommend leaving it running as it is a good visual debugging tool when you have networking issue with some of your virtual machines unable to access the Internet, or your host, or your home/office network.

This background task normally uses 1Mb to 10Mb of memory.

httpd

httpd.exe

(Apache Software Foundation)

Apache HTTP Web Server.  Background service installed when you have the Apache Web Server installed on your PC.  The Apache Web Server will typically get installed by a another program which you install and which needs to use web services.  Occasionally it will be a deliberate installation for the purpose of web design development.

Recommendation :
Down to end-user requirements.

If you did not deliberately install the Apache Web Server infrastructure, then leave it alone as it was most probably installed by another program which you installed and that program needs the Apache Web Server.

This background service normally uses anything from 1Mb to 52Mb of memory.

HWAPI

HWAPI.exe

(McAfee)

McAfee Hacker Watch Service.  Service installed by the McAfee Internet Security suite and whose role is to update the  HackerWatch.org  website with any suspected hacker attack which you decide to report to the HackerWatch service run by McAfee.  This service also interrogates HackerWatch.org when you try to  trace an event  through the Firewall tracing feature.  For more information on the HackerWatch programme, here is McAfee’s description at the time of writing, 1‑Aug‑2006 :  “HackerWatch lets you report and share information that helps identify, combat, and prevent the spread of Internet threats and unwanted network traffic.  Security is becoming increasingly critical as the Internet continues to see a surge in intrusion attempts, phishing, hacking, and worm and virus outbreaks. However, with the assistance of users worldwide, HackerWatch offers a unique kind of Internet reconnaissance: by collecting and analyzing users’ firewall activity, we can identify intrusion attempts, track complex attack patterns, and disclose the sources and targets of Internet threats. The resulting information this provides is lasting in its instructiveness: it helps all of us understand, block, and prevent unwanted Internet traffic and future threats.  An effective way to reinforce security is to expose those elements which threaten it. This is why HackerWatch also provides reports and graphical up-to-date snapshots of unwanted Internet traffic and threats. Snapshots include critical port incidents graphs, worldwide port activity statistics, and target and source maps showing unwanted traffic and potential threats to Internet security.”.

Recommendation :
Down to end-user preference.  Note, however, that this service, introduced in mid‑2006, has a tendency to gobble up memory on some PCs, from 30Mb to 50Mb.  Given the esoteric nature of this service and the serious doubts we have about the effectiveness of the HackerWatch programme (hackers mask their Internet Addresses, the IP address, all the time, or change them all the time) you may consider doing what we do, which is to disable all HackerWatch features and also ensure that the  Startup Mode  of this service is set to  Manual  on the  Services  tab of  The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

Hxiul

HXIUL.exe

(Alset)

Alset's HelpExpress.  Useless background adware which tells you when you need to buy printer cartridges, and where to buy them, and all sorts of other things like this.

Recommendation : 
Firstly Alset are the same crowd as Aveo who produce the similarly useless Aveo Attune.  Secondly, at the time of writing of this entry (March 2002), Alset and Aveo seem to have gone out of business.  Thirdly, as with Aveo Attune, some users have experienced conflicts with other software.  De-install HelpExpress immediately via the "Add/Remove Programs" icon in the Control Panel.

All of the tasks below, and many more, although not detailed on this page, are explained in full in The Ultimate Troubleshooter.

The Ultimate Troubleshooter (TUT), has the full database in a remarkably easy and pleasing interface which makes the process of fine tuning your PC, or troubleshooting your computer's problems, a snip.  Get it here.

HamsinClipboard.exe,  HDAudioCPL.exe,  HDDLifeNB.exe,  HDDLifePro.exe,  Hearts.exe,  HelpHost.exe,  HelpPane.exe,  HelpSvc Service,  Heomstool.exe,  HEROES3.exe,  Hgqhp.exe,  HH.exe,  Hibunevo.dll,  HidFind.exe,  Hidn.exe,  Hidn1.exe,  Hidr.exe,  HijackThis.exe,  Hkey.exe,  HLDASvc.exe,  Hloader_exe.exe,  Hmisvc32.exe,  HNM_Svc.exe,  HomeSite.exe,  HomeSite+.exe,  HomeSite5.exe,  Host.exe,  Hosts.exe,  Hot_Tarts.exe,  Hotkey.exe,  HotkeyService.exe,  Hotkeysvc.exe,  HP Connections.exe,  HP Wireless Assistant.exe,  HPAdvisorDock.exe,  HPb2ksrv.exe,  HPbhksrv.exe,  HpBootOp.exe,  Hpbpro.exe,  HPCDTray.exe,  Hpcmpmgr.exe,  Hpconfig.exe,  HPCONN~1.exe,  HPDrvMntSvc.exe,  HPFPEGN0.exe,  HpHMon07.exe,  HPHotkeyMonitor.exe,  Hphupd04.exe,  Hphupd05.exe,  Hphupd06.exe,  Hphupd07.exe,  Hphupd08.exe,  HPMUP081.bin,  HPoant07.exe,  HPoavn07.exe,  HPOFxM07.exe,  HPOFxM08.exe,  HPOGrp07.exe,  HPOhmr08.exe,  HPoojd07.exe,  HPoorn07.exe,  HPPAPML0.exe,  HpqCmon.exe,  Hpqdirec.exe,  HPQGalry.exe,  HPQGPC01.exe,  Hpqimzone.exe,  Hpqnrs08.exe,  Hpqste08.exe,  Hpqthb08.exe,  HPQUSGL.exe,  Hpqwmi.exe,  Hpqwmiex.exe,  HPrblog.exe,  HprSnap5.exe,  HprSnap6.exe,  Hptasks.exe,  HPTLBXFX.exe,  HPWAMain.exe,  HPWebJetd.exe,  HPWirelessMgr.exe,  HPZeng04.exe,  HPZeng05.exe,  HPZeng06.exe,  HPZeng07.exe,  HPZeng08.exe,  HPZeng09.exe,  HPZeng10.exe,  HPZeng12.exe,  Hpzinw12.exe,  Hpzstc01.exe,  Hpzstc03.exe,  Hpzstc04.exe,  Hpzstc05.exe,  Hpzstc07.exe,  Hpzstc08.exe,  Hpzstc09.exe,  Hpzstc10.exe,  Hpzstc12.exe,  Hpzstw05.exe,  Hpzstw09.exe,  Hpzstw10.exe,  HSChkProxyExe.exe,  HTC.exe,  HTCUPCTLoader.exe,  HTTPFilter Service,  HWSetup.exe,  Hypertrm.exe
 

PRESS & RADIO

September 2009
AskJack Blog,
The Guardian, UK

May 2009
Courier Mail, Brisbane, Australia

October 2008
The Philadelphia Bulletin

September 2008
NetworkWorld.com
——
VNUnet.com
London, UK

February 2008
The Wall Street Journal

September 2007
TechByter Worldwide

August 2007
IT Week Labs Blog
London, UK

June 2007
On Computers
Joy&Bob Schwabach
——
Simplehelp.net
——
Courier Mail, Brisbane

May 2007
Christopher Null
at Yahoo!Tech

January 2007
WFAA.com TV
Dallas/Fort Worth  Texas

2006
TechNewsWorld.com
——
Developer Shed
——
The Wall Street Journal
——
WTVN Radio
Columbus, Ohio

2005
WorldStart Computer Tips
——
A-Clue.com
——
Corante.com
——
PC Magazine
'Top 100 Classics'
——
Infodad.com

2004
PC Magazine
'Top 100 Classics'
——
The Examiner (Texas)
——
St Petersburgh Times
——
ToledoBlade (Ohio)
——
Office Zealot
——
Kevin Respecki
——
Mike McBride Online