HP Support Assistant

If it affects your ability to record music in any way, then definitely uninstall it.
 
Otherwise, it's really up to you.  Some folks rely on these tech support tools. 
 
Personally, I would remove it (But as a former IT guy, I do my own PC troubleshooting so have no use for the manufacturer-provided help tools).  Of course, if you feel like you might need it down the road, probably best to leave it alone.

Thanks for your input. It doesn't affect my ability to record music, so I'll leave it alone for now. I was just wondering if this is just unnecessary bloat ware. I've not had an HP PC before and my previous machines have not had any form of 'brand' support preloaded.

I literally just spent several hours configuring my friend's new HP laptop today, running Windows 10.
 
In MY opinion, software that runs all day long to check for updates for things like BIOS, that may get updated 2 or 3 times in an entire year is just annoying, rather than helpful.  
 
On initial build or buy of a computer, I will fairly immediately check for things like BIOS updates, chipset updates, and such, as there are almost always updates between board manufacture and my purchase of it.  From that point on, I manually check for any updates to all of those pieces ONCE every quarter, or if I find myself experiencing issues, and I NEVER allow these auto-update checker programs to run on every boot.  
 
I also never allow programs like Avast, which IS an excellent antivirus program, to do any thing like running its 'Software Updater', which attempts to keep all your system components up to date for updates.  I have seen WAY too many cases where it just failed to find a need update, OR it found the WRONG software.
 
Anyways, I saw that HP Software Assistant, or whatever it is called, and after reviewing it, I completely removed it from my friend's system.  Microsoft Office by default also fires up stuff, like One Drive, or One Note, or whatever - I think of all of that stuff as being like some sort of Kum-Bah-Yah software that tries to make everyone happy, at the expense of everyone's happiness.
 
I would ALWAYS prefer to run more lean, and do not mind having the discipline to manually check for updates on a quarterly basis.  I DO make an exception for Windows Update maintenance, which I DO allow to run per its recommended settings, and since Avast is actually running by default/design, I don't mind it checking for new program versions and grabbing its virus definitions as needed.
 
Bob Bone
 

Mine hasn't worked for at least two years but after the Windows 10 update last week... it started working again. Weird. It's on my laptop and it doesn't bother me. I guess I should check to see if MS changed anything else.
 
J

I'm with you guys ... I go on search-and-destroy missions for any and all bloatware running in the background. If it doesn't help keep my PC secure or work with Sonar, it gets disabled or uninstalled.
Excluding necessary system drivers, obviously ...
 
Helps me to run a lot of tracks at lower latency settings.
 
I will say that I'm looking at the PCs built by PC Audio Labs (based in Tenn.) for my next purchase. They are one of those companies that streamlines PCs specifically for music (and video) production. They strip down all the unnecessary bloatware and substitute it all with high-performance hardware. They aren't cheap, though