A Safer HP ZBook Screening Utility

Evidence boundary: these are pre-protocol screening results. They are excluded from the nine-workflow formal baseline and do not establish that the computer is faster.

What changed

The normal commands are now Check, Benchmark, Tune, FullTest, Compare, Undo, and RestartTest. A generic Microsoft maintenance task no longer causes a false managed-device warning when domain, Entra, MDM URL, and enrollment-specific signals are absent.

Every new benchmark, aggregate, and comparison JSON record declares EvidenceClass: PreProtocolScreening and FormalBaselineEligible: false. Derived records reject missing provenance. Automatic comparison also skips legacy files and the separate restart-test measurements.

The optional one-time sign-in recovery path now requires agreement between the active Lacksan resume task, its state ID, and an integrity-checked recovery record. Cleanup only passes when the LSA secret is absent, captured Winlogon state is restored, and the task is removed.

Support boundary

HP ZBook Firefly 14 inch G8 Mobile Workstation PC
Intel Core i5-1145G7
Windows 11 Pro build 26200
BIOS T76 01.24.02

Check and Benchmark are read-only. Changing actions stop outside this lock, and battery/DC power values are preserved.

The current settings

The allow-list contains 12 per-user preferences and five AC-only processor settings. The list is not proof that every entry improves responsiveness. Most values already matched on the lab computer.

Registry and Windows preferences

ID	Registry value	Selected	Activation
`UI.TransparencyOff`	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize\EnableTransparency` (DWORD)	`0`	Sign-out or Explorer restart
`UI.WindowAnimationOff`	`HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\MinAnimate` (String)	`0`	Sign-out
`UI.MenuDelay200`	`HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\MenuShowDelay` (String)	`200`	Sign-out
`UI.TaskbarAnimationsOff`	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\TaskbarAnimations` (DWORD)	`0`	Sign-out or Explorer restart
`UI.ListSelectionFadeOff`	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\ListviewAlphaSelect` (DWORD)	`0`	Sign-out or Explorer restart
`UI.IconShadowsOff`	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\ListviewShadow` (DWORD)	`0`	Sign-out or Explorer restart
`UI.VisualEffectsPerformance`	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\VisualFXSetting` (DWORD)	`3`	Sign-out
`UI.DragContentsOff`	`HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\DragFullWindows` (String)	`0`	Sign-out
`UI.KeyboardDelayMinimum`	`HKCU\Control Panel\Keyboard\KeyboardDelay` (DWORD)	`0`	Sign-out
`UI.AeroPeekOff`	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\EnableAeroPeek` (DWORD)	`0`	Sign-out or Explorer restart
`Capture.GameDvrOff`	`HKCU\System\GameConfigStore\GameDVR_Enabled` (DWORD)	`0`	Application restart
`Capture.AppCaptureOff`	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameDVR\AppCaptureEnabled` (DWORD)	`0`	Application restart

The current evidence does not contain a direct Microsoft support statement for every raw per-user registry interface above. The exact implementation partly follows the inspected WinUtil configuration; this documentation gap remains open.

AC-only processor power settings

ID	Microsoft power-setting GUID	AC value	Limit
`Power.AcEnergyPreference`	`36687f9e-e3a5-4dbf-b1dc-15eb381c6863`	`33`	Balanced value retained after mixed screening
`Power.AcCoreParkingMinimum`	`0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583`	`100`	May increase power and heat
`Power.AcMaximumProcessorState`	`bc5038f7-23e0-4960-96da-33abaf5935ec`	`100`	Firmware may still limit performance
`Power.AcBoostMode`	`be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c7`	`2`	May increase heat and fan activity
`Power.AcCoolingPolicy`	`94d3a615-a899-4ac5-ae2b-e4d8f634367f`	`1`	Active cooling may use the fan sooner

What was not changed

No Windows or HP service was stopped, disabled, or reconfigured.
No security, update, management, or HP support task was disabled.
No driver, BIOS, firmware, graphics mode, or HP performance profile was changed.
The state-changing restart/automatic-sign-in path remains unexecuted in the preserved lab evidence.

Evidence ledger

Documented facts

Microsoft documents the processor power settings and AC value API.
Automatic logon has physical-access risk; LSA storage avoids a plaintext Winlogon password value.
HP driver, firmware, graphics, and performance controls are model-dependent.
System Restore is not a complete disk or personal-file backup.

Lab measurements

The exact support lock matched the lab ZBook.
Sixteen of 17 settings already matched initially.
Only AC energy preference was varied during recorded apply/rollback screening.
Mixed results did not identify a universal responsiveness winner.

Hypotheses

Visual preferences may change perceived directness more than measured readiness.
Aggressive processor behavior may help sustained CPU work while increasing heat and energy.
Firmware and HP/Intel thermal controls may dominate Windows requests.

Unresolved questions

Physical reboot persistence and cleanup.
Nine deterministic customer workflows.
Instrumentation overhead and seven valid repetitions.
Thermal, fan, AC-energy, and battery impact.
A supportable, measured service-stop candidate.

Rollback and safety

Before changing an allow-listed setting, the utility captures typed original registry values, original AC/DC power indices, the active power plan, registry and power-plan exports, and a SHA-256-protected manifest. It attempts a restore point and verifies both application and rollback. A compliant re-run creates no backup and performs no write.

This is exact rollback for the allow-list, not protection from disk, firmware, or unrelated system failure.

Primary sources and project evidence

Vendor sources were retrieved July 25, 2026.

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