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How to remove the Intel Product Improvement Program from my control panel/pc?

klepp0906
Novice
9,425 Views

I have no idea where/how this snuck its way onto my pc (perhaps with the installation of XTU?) however there's no option to remove it that I can find whatsoever.  Its evidently tied to lrio.exe which is executed via scheduled task daily. 

Seems its executed even though ive opted out within the program.  Nice!

That being said, I can obviously remove the task (which will undoubtedly be put back whenever intel updates whatever software snuck it in) but I dont know that this will remove the entry from my control panel and I dont want to go creating a mess that will end up without meeting my needs and breaking things.

Can anyone guide me on where this came from and how to remove it completely (including from the control panel?)

To be clear, this is the Intel Product Improvement Program not the Intel Computing Improvement Program (which also came from who knows where and created a control panel entry, but was fortunately removeable conventionally ala add/remove programs).

thanks for any insight. 

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
9,347 Views

The alternative method for adding items to Control Panel is via an entry in the registry (in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID). Search for an entry below this key that contains "Product Improvement Program". Once the entry is identified, you can look for where the facility is installed and hopefully there's files there to uninstall it.

A shortcut may be to look for this facility in a subdirectory of "C:\Program Files\Intel", "C:\Program Files\Intel Corporation", "C:\Program Files(x86)\Intel" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel Corporation".

Hope this helps. If not, Intel Customer Support will need to investigate it.

...S

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
9,411 Views

Do the following:

  1. Right-click on the Windows Start button and open the Apps and Features applet.
  2. Scroll down to the Intel(R) Computing Improvement Program entry.
  3. Select this entry and then click on the Uninstall button.
  4. The facility will be uninstalled. You know it is finished when the entry is removed from the Apps and Feature applet display.

Hope this helps,

...S

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klepp0906
Novice
9,406 Views

As per the last part of my post:

To be clear, this is the Intel Product Improvement Program not the Intel Computing Improvement Program

The Intel Computing Improvement Program did reside in add/remove programs and was removeable conventionally.  The Intel Product Improvement Program has no entry there to remove it nor do I know where it came from. 

klepp0906_0-1623450624956.png

 

 

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
9,403 Views

From Apps and Features, click on the link for the old Programs and Features and see if this control panel applet is displayed there. If it is, you will be able to remove it. If not, you could try going to C:\Windows and search for *.CPL files. If you find the one for this entry, you will hopefully also find an uninstaller.

Hope this helps,

...S

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klepp0906
Novice
9,401 Views

good call on checking apps and features list to be thorough.  Unfortunately this is all it has relating to intel.

klepp0906_0-1623451380904.png

As far as .cpl files, i've been unable to locate one yet.  One step ahead of you there lol.  I dont know enough to know if the control panel can be populated without a cpl present or if a cpl can reside outside of the windows folder.  I've just been unable to locate one yet.  Certainly if i could I'd just delete the task, the folder containing lrio.exe and the cpl and be close enough to rid of it (apart from wherever it resides in the registry).

Sure would be great to know where it came from to begin with.  Obviously piggybacked in on something intel so that ships sailed, but to prevent it happening again in the future either way i'd like to know lol.

Thanks for the replies

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
9,399 Views

Huh? You should find all sorts of .CPL files within the C:\Windows folder tree. Use File Explorer, select C:\Windows and then type *.CPL in the search box in the upper right-hand corner of the window. I believe that Control Panel automatically exposes those CPL files found in the System32 (for 64-bit executables) and SysWOW64 (for 32-bit executables) subfolders.

...S

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klepp0906
Novice
9,394 Views

yes.  sorry if my reply wasnt clear.  Plenty of cpls do exist.  None that scream "intel product improvement program" and the ones that i thought were close enough to try, were not. 


here are all the .cpl that are present in the Windows folder and its subfolders.

appwiz.cpl
bthprops.cpl
desk.cpl
Firewall.cpl
FlashPlayerCPLApp.cpl
hdwwiz.cpl
inetcpl.cpl
intl.cpl
irprops.cpl
joy.cpl
main.cpl
mmsys.cpl
ncpa.cpl
powercfg.cpl
sapi.cpl
sysdm.cpl
TabletPC.cpl
telephon.cpl
timedate.cpl
wscui.cpl

 

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
9,388 Views

That's it? My system has literally hundreds.

...S

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klepp0906
Novice
9,376 Views

thats it from an individiual unique standpoint.  there are multiples of that which show up when i search as well.  however theyre all the same cpl nested in other folders and/or hard links to the same cpl.   For example there are 24 appwiz.cpl alone. 

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
9,348 Views

The alternative method for adding items to Control Panel is via an entry in the registry (in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID). Search for an entry below this key that contains "Product Improvement Program". Once the entry is identified, you can look for where the facility is installed and hopefully there's files there to uninstall it.

A shortcut may be to look for this facility in a subdirectory of "C:\Program Files\Intel", "C:\Program Files\Intel Corporation", "C:\Program Files(x86)\Intel" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel Corporation".

Hope this helps. If not, Intel Customer Support will need to investigate it.

...S

klepp0906
Novice
9,326 Views

now THIS bore some fruit.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{6AD9E4EF-882C-4635-823B-A464A699B725} 

found it.  

working my way into it as we speak so no idea about uninstall files just yet, but the first odd thing i noticed.

The scheduled task points to lrio.exe

klepp0906_0-1623584164386.pngklepp0906_1-1623584194653.png


wheras the registry points to a different file altogether.

klepp0906_3-1623584283386.png


lrio.exe or iasopt.exe it can never be simple >.<
I imagine lrio.exe is the actual telemetry program whereas iasopt.exe is the frontend/control panel shortcut for it.  I dont mind telemetry so much as dropping that in the control panel.  Lots of programs have telemetry and usually you confirm it on install, or can modulate it within the program.  This is just sloppy. 

Will let ya know what comes of further investigation.  I'm not holding my breath on finding any type of uninstaller so i might end up having to create a backup image and start deleting things

gonna run a VM and install any intel stuff i can (if any as i dont know t hat it'll find "intel" hardware and might deny installation) to try and find whats installing it to begin with.

thanks for the info






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klepp0906
Novice
9,323 Views

well, driver & support assistant certainly installs the "computing" improvement program.  Irrelevant as that doesnt create the subsequent task and is removeable like most programs ala add/remove programs. 

XTU i could not install (as i assumed) in a VM due to being an "unsupported platform" and so i'm going to look into proset and a few other things.  It might ride in with XTU, no way of knowing unless someone else here with XTU chimes in.

That being said this is the entirety of the folder thats pointed to from the registry and includes both lrio.exe and iasopt.exe.   the latter definitely opens the same gui as the control panel icon does.

klepp0906_4-1623588449902.png

the subfolders just have a couple dlls within.

I assume one of those dlls is registered as/with a service or is somehow responsible for that showing in my control panel.  Wonder why such a backhanded way of hiding this and making it unremovable?  Even though the gui shows im clearly opted out, that telemetry service is running like clockwork and has been for many moons evidenced by task scheduler log. 

Ultimately its looking like im left with potentially breaking things trying to get this to disappear from my control panel

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klepp0906
Novice
9,317 Views

well, i did find how it gets there.   Rides in on intel extreme tuning utility.   No way to opt out on install, no way to remove short of removing XTU itself.

fortunately I  have a backup image so now im gonna manual try to dig it out (which of course it'll likely come back every time i update XTU) but i know more than I did a few days ago at least.

It appears renaming the CLSID will make it poof.  I imagine we can call this one solved at this point.   I know where it comes from and I know that a cpl isnt the only way to populate the control panel   

Thank you again for the input, was helpful!

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Zhihui_Z_Intel
Employee
9,288 Views

IPIP is just a SDK and provided as a merged module to be included by Intel application installers.  It might be used by multiple apps (such as XTU) on your machine.  It is by design to not let user uninstall IPIP manually because it is by itself not a standalone application.  If it is uninstalled manually, the apps that try to use it may malfunction.  If all the apps that use IPIP are uninstalled, IPIP will be uninstalled automatically.

Let me know if IPIP (the scheduled task lrio.exe and the control panel consent dialog) cause any issue on your machine.

Thanks.

klepp0906
Novice
9,278 Views

I appreciate the extra information.   My motive for the inquiry is entirely satisfied.   Apart from being unenthusiastic about the bloat in the control panel, its never caused any issue and I dont expect that it will. 

 

regards

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