Driver error causes HP laptops running Windows 11 to run out of RAM and stop working

On HP's support forum, quite a few users complained about this problem, with views reaching nearly 20,000. HP Hotkey UWP Service is a driver that allows you to use the F1 - F0 function keys on your keyboard to perform certain tasks, such as volume up and down. It starts automatically when you start using the machine and then runs in the background, while HP Hotkey UWP Service takes up only insignificant memory on Windows 10, on Windows 11 it takes up a huge amount.

Even an angry user said it consumed up to 49GB of 64GB of RAM on a laptop. Many people believe that there is a memory leak problem when deploying the HP Hotkey UWP Service driver on Windows 11.

This issue does not affect all HP laptops. HP Hotkey UWP Service takes up only 2MB on their HP Elite Dragonfly G2 laptop, but based on support forum responses, a lot of people are having this issue.

The first posts about HP Hotkey UWP Service taking up huge memory space started in 2021, but people still complain until now, HP doesn't seem to care. A Windows 10 user in the support forum also reported the same error, but mostly Windows 11.

Faulty driver and software updates are common, but as long as companies are transparent about those issues and offer a roadmap to fix them, customers are more likely to sympathize. HP's silence on the matter only added to the anger of users.

Currently, some users find that bringing the LAN/WLAN/WWAN Switching and Hot Key Service drivers back to version 8.10.14.1 can resolve the error. Reinstalling the driver may also help. Hopefully HP will release an official fix soon.

Samuel Daniel

Update 09 March 2022