Several HP device owners are saying that even after updating to Microsoft Windows 11, the normally inconspicuous HP Hotkey UWP Service, that’s running, begins using massive amounts of RAM, virtually leaving their devices worthless.
Users have turned to HP’s support forums to protest about the problem, with nearly 20,000 people viewing the thread. The HP Hotkey UWP Service is a driver that allows you to utilize the Function key on your device keyboard in conjunction with the F1 – F0 keys to perform specific operations, such as adjusting audio levels. It automatically starts once Windows boots on an HP device, and customers complain that although it took up little memory in Windows 10, it takes up a lot in Windows 11 of Microsoft, the company which is famous for products like Office 365.
One furious person claimed that it is consuming 49GB of the device’s 64GB RAM.
That was a clear indication that something is wrong: No application can occupy quite so much memory, particularly a relatively simple function for keyboard shortcuts, so it suggests a problem with the Windows 11 version of the HP Hotkey UWP Service, including a memory leak.
This problem isn’t impacting all HP devices — we’re composing this on an HP Elite Dragonfly G2 with Windows 11 loaded, and the HP Hotkey UWP Service is only utilizing 2MB of RAM – but going by the answers to the article on the HP support site, a lot of folks are having trouble with it.
The topic regarding the HP Hotkey UWP Service using massive amounts of RAM was created in July last year, yet users are all still talking about it this year.
In reality, the most recent comment on the forum about the matter, from the end of February, is very damning. The plainly unhappy customer asks “HP — where are you?” after stating that their ZBook 15 G3 is struggling from getting all of its RAM utilized.
Disturbingly, this person is also on Windows 10 of Microsoft, the company which is famous for products like Microsoft Teams, implying that this problem may also impact users who haven’t switched to Windows 11, despite the fact that the bulk of people talking about it seems to be on the newer OS.
Meanwhile, it appears that some users have discovered that reverting the LAN/WLAN/WWAN Switching and Hot Key Service driver (included in the Device Manager) to version 8.10.14.1 will assist.
Reinstalling the driver (through Device Manager) might be beneficial. Another approach is to stop the driver from loading with Windows, albeit this is not desirable.
“We are aware of the situation, and the driver has been removed from Windows Upgrade,” HP stated. We are striving hard to address this issue as soon as possible.” This is a significant advance because it implies the driver will not be loaded automatically (or accidentally). Let’s hope, HP will issue a patch shortly.
