HP Health Check is a utility that comes with every Compaq or HP branded computer which actively scans the computer and alerts the user of important updates from HP, it can also suggest fixes, performance enhancements, updates and other hardware/software issues that may affect the computer’s performance. One of the first things I did when I bought my Compaq Presario C714NR was to get rid of bloatware (unnecessary preinstalled programs/softwares) and start up services that load up when you start Windows. One of those services is the HP Health Check Service.

I disabled the HP Health Check utility because I consider it useless, its also annoying (set to start automatically), it always runs in the background (checking for updates) and uses up valuable system resources. Another thing I don’t like about it is that when it finds new updates or issues with the computer, it just pops out of nowhere and when it loads, it slows down the computer and eats up a lot of the memory. This can be a pain if you’re in a hurry or in the middle of doing something very important or using a video editing or graphics editing program like Adobe Photoshop that also uses a large amount of system resources. If your computer can’t handle the load, the programs could crash and you could lose your work.

This short and simple tutorial will show you how to disable the HP Health Check utility service and also how to start it manually.

NOTE: This tutorial was done with a computer running Windows Vista.

1. Click on START/Windows logo then type in “Services.msc” and hit ENTER.

2. Look for HP Health Check Service.

3. Right click on HP Health Check Service and select Properties.

4. Click on the Stop button and on Startup Type, select Disabled.

5. Click on Apply, then click OK.

That’s it. The HP Health Check Service should now be disabled. In case you don’t want to disable it and prefer to start it manually, in Step 4, instead of selecting Disabled on the Startup Type, select Manual.

How to start the HP Health Check Service manually

1. Click Start, then click on Help and Support.
2. Click Troubleshooting Tools
3. Under Health Check, click on Use this tool to scan your system for security, performance and maintenance issues.

HP Health Check should be up and running and you can proceed with scanning your computer for updates, issues and recommended fixes.

Hope this short simple tutorial helped you manage the HP Health Check Service. If you know of another way of disabling or managing the HP Health Check Service or if you have any questions about it, feel free to leave a comment below. You might also want to check out my other Tips & Tricks posts for other useful and related tutorials.