HP Software startup problems

It is my wife's machine, Compaq CQ5210f (identical to mine as shown below) and these problems are driving her crazy. You might imagine what she is doing to me :( I have run the PCDecrap free software two times and during the first run I removed all HP junk--including the HPhelpupdater. Still having the same problem, I ran it again--no HP software shows. I have taken the check mark out of all HP items showing in msconfig and she still gets the HPhelpupdater. I have also removed all HP stuff from the Control Panel--no hp stuff is listed there now. The only way I can get rid of the helpupdater from her startup window( when she boots up) is to use the task manager. I am lost in paradise and wish to be rescued--I can't take it anymore. As always, TIA

You forgot to mention what the actual problem is;)
Is she getting an error message during startup? If so, what does it say?

Did you do a search for HPhelpupdater.exe and delete the file?

Did you check Services to see if it is running as a service? If so, disable it.

Search for this key in the Registry:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\HPHelpUpdater

If you find it, delete it.

Nick, you read my mind. I was going to approach the registry question next. And now that you have beaten me to the subject, I am hesitantly queasy about going into the registry. I have been there once or twice but only in steps and hand holding. Will you, or someone, lead me through the steps to do what Nick is suggesting. I will greatly appreciate it.

Midknyte negative on both of your suggestions--HPhelpupdater.exe is not on her machine so I guess the decrap software got rid of it. Thanks for your reply.

"HP" is Latin for "a lot of useless fluff".

Their software is notoriious for the way it esconces itself into the system and slowing down startups. From what I have read, HP has said it's Microsoft's problem, but Microsoft says its HP's problem for not conforming to Windows properly.

Couldn't agree more. Strange but I had removed all of the HP crapware from my machine several days before removing it from wife's PC. Her removal attempt was not as thorough.

I will try and produce an easy guide to safe Registry editing later today :)

As promised (phew!):

Nick, I want to say how grateful I am to you for creating such an apparent easy to follow guide to work in the Registry. I haven't tried applying it just yet but I will try it later and will certainly post back. Again, many thanks and I suspect I am thanking you for others as well.

You're very welcome :)

If there are any bits that are hard to follow, or if anyone has any suggestions for improvement, please let me know.

Nick, I haven't posted back before now because I wanted to try try try to get into the registry and then locate the key you named several posts above. I told you I was nervous about the registry even though your tedious work to produce the "how to" made the task easier to deal with. I saw the options as to which area to go into, I couldn't find the 'secret' passage way. Fear!!!
BTW, you asked and there were a couple of times I had to guess left or right button on my mouse to get to the next step but I chose the correct (right) button to press and succeeded in getting past that. Because I have already typed this response, I'll post it and then I am going to try once more. I wish I could be more exact in my description of these steps.

EDIT: OK. Tonight, I have been using my machine to practice on and think I have the correct steps to apply. When I can get on her machine or when she isn't home or using it, I'll apply this practice session--I hope.

Nick's method looks good. One thing to add is that a person should make a back of the registry if your going into it. A quick recovery method.

I export the registry to a "RegBU" file every so often but always when I am going into my computer to do something. Learned the hard way. :)

Hey greengoose1, he covers that in about the third window in his instructions. At least that is what I did.