Help me set up Windows 10 on a used device!

Hey all, so I just received a used HP ZBook X2, and man oh man, its gorgeous to look at that sweet sweet 4K dreamcolor display!! Given that its used and purchased off craigslist from a complete stranger, I want to make sure I safely reset Windows 10 so there is no chance it came pre-installed with any spyware etc.

BUT-- I want to make sure I preserve the HP specific driver stuff and play it safe with it as I heard there are many HP specific software that come with the machine I want to make sure remains, which may include firmware updates etc. So, I'm a little hesitant on which way will preserve the HP pen and dreamcolor stuff that I want, and still be safest to prep my laptop for working on sensitive material (ALL my design work is NDA, so I have to be careful, especially on my Disney projects)

So Windows 10 has quite a few options for resetting a device and re-installing Windows etc.

Anyone do this recently that can coach me on the best way to go about it, and maybe a list of things to avoid etc? My concern with the option "clean install" is the windows settings app tells me it will delete the existing apps that the manufacturer would have put on it, is that correct? i suppose then I could go hunt down the HP drivers etc, but wondering if there is an easier way to reset while ensuring that I have removed any malicious files

I appreciate any tips and advice team, excited to get working on this thing!!

 

UPDATE:
So I saw that Windows 10 has a nifty Reset feature that essentially wipes the installation, reinstalls along with all the manufacturer stuff, so thats what I did. From what I can tell, it guarantees that there is nothing sketchy remaining on the PC, and I should get a new Windows 10 experience similar to what I would get if I had bought this new from HP. This really is easier than Windows 7!

 

Cool!

I noticed some promising units going on eBay. I have no reason to get one, but I'd sure like to test one out!

 

Yea I scored this bad boi on craigslist for $1200 CAD! It's specs are in my signature, all maxxed out so its current value if I were to try to obtain this system would be close to $4500 CAD!
I will try working on it tomorrow, but initial impressions are that this is a HUGE step up from my T902 so far. The 4k screen with its color accurate dreamcolor display is a joy to look at. At 14" though, it might juuuuust be big enough for your preferences, the Acer D7 Ezel and D9 would be the only 4K EMR option bigger that I know of.

 

@stoneseeker : My first recommendation would have been exactly what you (apparently) did, use the REFRESH or the RESET function under Windows Update & Security > Windows Security > Recovery. I suspect that you will be happy with that.

HOWEVER, there is also another way. Several months ago, when I had to have my X2 repaired, I exchanged a lot of e-mail with the WorkStations Team at HP. One topic was reloading a fresh copy of Windows. Here's what they said:

"...in general, HP Support Assistant is actually geared towards consumer products. It [...the subject was failure of an update to install...] could be due to something HP Support Assistant is looking for that it just isn’t finding find since you have a higher-end workstation.

We do normally recommend running HP Image Assistant with Commercial systems and Workstations.

Here’s a link to the most recent version [...as of late September, 2020...]:

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/cmit/HPIA.html

If that still doesn’t solve that strange behavior, please give our Workstations team a call and they can help out. They can be reached at:

1-800-334-5144, and use the shortcut [...say this at the voice prompt...] 'Z-Series Running Windows'..."

If you elect to do this, be sure to thoroughly read up on the Image Assistant BEFORE you attempt to implement it. It is not a simple "click and forget" tool...

I hope you enjoy your new art tablet, it's a great little machine...

 

Congrats on the Zbook X2!

If I were in your position I'd wipe the SSD clean and then reinstall using the installation image provided by the HP Cloud Recovery tool. The HP image has customized drivers and other things that you wouldn't have just by doing a standard clean installation of Windows.


https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05115630


Edit: Spyware can be placed in hidden partitions or even recovery partitions, which is why I suggest a full wipe.

Some SSD info from HP:
https://store.hp.com/us/en/tech-takes/how-to-secure-erase-ssd