HP Help and Support Center

Now it's not so much that the Microsoft Help is very useful, but that the HP version that overrides it is so un-useful.

You run into an error on your computer and it asks you to report it by clicking a button. You do that and usualy the Microsoft version will take all that info run through some processes and check it's database and inform you that you can find the information regarding your problem by following a link to: www.microsoft.com... and then doing a search for whatever just happened to your computer. (TIP: you will get much better results by searching the Microsoft problem on Google.) More about the Microsoft focused search suckage in a later post.

But the HP version that replaces it takes you nowhere!! It says that it could not possibly find any information on the problem you just had anywhere. Now you've sent it the error number and the process that caused it. But it can't find anything. Take the exact same two data elements and type it into Google. You'll get something like 200,000 results, the first ten of which are probably very useful. The HP Help and Support results are worse than the Microsoft ones that it replaces. And here is the kicker; try to remove it.

There is nothing in add remove programs so I clicked on the HP Help chat button. At least that should be handy. The guy tells me that I have to hit ALT+s and type in the model, product and serial numbers. They are each like 12 chars long mixed case and cannot be copied. This is the first thing he told me to do! He would not help me until I transcribed those lengthy character strings and I thought, "this is the first thing every user chatting with their help has to do. You would think they would have made it easier on the user by now." I mention this to the chat-helper and he says this is just how it is and it's required. Then I noticed that the data is in the Help page and that I could copy it. I told him I would just find the solution on Google.

The highest paid virus writers are working at HP, Dell, and Symantec and they are getting paid to put this crap on your computer by the manufacture in order "to help" you. And we pay them to do it.