Never, ever, whatsoever.
I know the default answer to slow computers is backing up and then wiping the internal HDD, reinstalling the OS, and starting fresh. Is that something you wanna consider?
That's what I used to do on my built-from-scratch desktop computer and with my OEM copy of good ole Windows XP.
But as I started to work as a freelancer, I needed my own laptop, which I bought in 2013. It came with Windows 7 Professional and possibly a disc to upgrade to Windows 8, but not a full Windows 7 I could reinstall at will. But yes, I'd always go for fresh re-start and that's why I always had desktops with an "independent" OS disc and I tended to hate laptops because I didn't know how to mod them or substitute faulty parts. Plus they seem to come with hardware blocks and whatnot from the manufacturers.
I guess that now that I have bought myself some time on the current laptop, I might look into going agnostic from the viewpoint of the hardware manufacturer.
So the new question is...
1 - Is it possible to have a shop to put together a clean, virgin laptop on which install an OS of choice?
2 - (How easily) Could I achieve that same clean slate on my current machine, whiping off all the HP crap to then install a copy of Windows 7 which hopefully will not cost too much now that 10 is coming out?