Acer Empowering Technology
Ever wondered what the Empowering Key on your Acer keyboard actually launches? Yes, we all know its some sort of “friendly and intuitive” software that provides users an overall interface to access the various software pre-installed within the Empowering suite. But there’s actually quite a bit more to it.
If you’re interested, I suggest reading an IT News Online article on the Acer Empowering suite published slightly more than a month back. Not only do they explain the various aspects of the technology, they also highlight the diffrent configurations of the technology on different IT devices manufactured by Acer (e.g. notebooks, desktops, etc.).
But while the “specs” for Acer’s Empowering Technology seem alright, response towards this software suite has been surprisingly negative. A recent Acer Travelmate 3010 notebook review highlighted that the Empowering suite merely added an additional, and unnecessary layer of complexity.
In my opinion, the Empowering suite isn’t particularly useful, and I doubt I’ve pressed the Empowering Key more than five times so far. I usually have everything organised pretty well on the desktop, Quick Start menu, and the Start Menu. But I’m sure some Acer users do use it, and there really is little reason not to have it pre-installed. You could just ignore it if you don’t want to use it after all.
May 3rd, 2006 04:36
As a reseller I have noticed that Empowering Technology is causing “blue screen” problems at computer start on brand new AcerPower F5 and M5. After losing too many hours finding this problem, now I systematically uninstall all Empowering Technology related stuff… I asked the question about that problem to Acer support getting the only answer “update the BIOS”, but BIOS is up to date !
June 17th, 2006 05:08
[...] Of course, that’s not all. The AT3205 comes with both HDMI and DVI connectivity, plus the recently discussed Empowering Technology. [...]
January 22nd, 2007 14:14
Is it safe to uninstall the empowering technology? For the rest of the software i mean?
March 7th, 2007 06:05
[...] Then there’s the mother of all add-on applications: Empowering Technology. I’ve only ever come across a couple of other blogs that talk about this software whose sole purpose is to make changing something “important” on your PC, notebook or whatever, simple. Apart from the one on The Acer Blog, which in turn links to a pretty cool explanation here, I also found a quick review of it on Tracy and Matt’s blog. [...]
March 10th, 2007 15:57
Acer Empowering Technology seems to make it impossible to use a registry cleaner. I’ve tried two, and all hell breaks loose. Among other things, Control Panel is all but disabled.
March 18th, 2007 13:51
I used the eLock to test it out and it locked all my programs documents everything so I had to use my back up disks now i have the acer toolbar again but without the widgets
help get them back?
March 25th, 2007 04:25
I didn’t take time to learn what the Acer Empowering suite was and didn’t set up any passwords when I first started with my new computer.
After a couple weeks I began to receive “administrator has prohibited access to usb drive” errors. This expanded to the dvd/cd rom drive, also.
I googled the problem and for most other people it led to an Intel Desktop Management suite, which, of course, I didn’t have. Checking the eLock panel showed nothing was locked out.
After searching high and low, I formated and reinstalled everything. This time I set up passwords everywhere possible.
I am convinced the Empowering technology locked out my drives.
Last week I began to receive an error message that my eData Security Management program was improperly installed. I think it’s only a matter of time for it all to backfire on me again.
What problems will I cause by uninstalling everything?
How can I be sure everything has been uninstalled completely?
April 11th, 2007 09:13
Does anyone ever get an answer here??? All I want to do is REMOVE Acer’s Empowering Tech & NO where can I find the answer. Anyone have any ideas?
April 11th, 2007 23:04
recently i brought the acer aspire 5052anwxmi.the seller didnt provide acer empowering technology.im looking forward to have one.can someone pls direct me to the right website or link where i can download the software?
thanks
April 12th, 2007 05:53
Hey there,
Ive recently brough a acer aspire 7000, all worked good, But the other night i looked at the Empowering Tech Software, and asked “eLock” me to put a password in so i did, After booting it up the next morning i had a very long wait on the boot then i lost my C: and D: drive’s and could not access nothing, i then used notron Partition magic 8.0 to see if there was any error with the disk’s nothing came up so then i though must have bin a polici inforce with something from eLock, im still trying to get it working it’s just one big pain in the ass to be honest, if anyone know’s how to fix this problem, Any help would be greatly thank’d
-Lee
April 30th, 2007 19:35
geez your stories are scary,the only problem i had with my acer 5051awxmi is that when i started to play the vids from youtube online in offline mode,the edata security says it is not properly installed,either reinstall it or restart the computer,the hell i dont need that so i just went to the programs and settings and uninstall the edate security management,for now no problems are being encountered,maybe just let it be as it is.install uninstall,play,surf the web,download upload,anything just dont try to mess with the built in unecesary progs inside the notebook,and for those probs listed above me,did you try your erecovery cd?but b4 you do it be sure to backup your files in a removable idsk or the drive E:,before running you erecovery cd.it will be reset to your default OS and settings leaving it as the way you bought it,or you could also use the factory settings recovery,when the acer logo pops out,press and hold alt + f10,if didnt work try it agin this tym pressing the f10 repeatedly.then the factory recovery will ask ou and guide you all the way viola,back to zero.=]
May 1st, 2007 03:09
i dont know how come u people get so many problems with ACER Empowering Tech. My laptop is probably lighter than all of u in configuration ie it is Aspire 3624 WXMi celeron M but i have never had an issue with this suite of programs. this suit has definitely made my life easier and let handle the lappy n easier and shorter ways. no BSOD’s no elock problems. no problems what so ever in the last one year i have been using this machine
May 21st, 2007 21:05
Hi people,
I recently bought an ACER 5573wmxi, and when i got it from my vendor, the empowering technology suite wasnt installed. i cant find the utility in the ACER resource DVD.My retailersays that no other cd was available with the notebook.When i press the e buton now, iget a missing software link dialog box.where can i download this utility? cant seem to find it in acer sites.
May 29th, 2007 07:37
I bought the Acer aspire T180 dual core 4 weeks ago.
In that 4 weeks I have done umpteen factory restores that i have lost count.
Empowering technology was malfunctioning sound card disappering just to mention a few reasons for restoring to factory settings.
I took it back to PC world today 3 days out of their 28 day instant replacement or refund period.
It has now been left with their tech guys for the next 48 hours to sort out what is wrong with it.
The tech guy believes its software problem and that empowering technology is the root cause.
He has my permission to uninstall it if that is found to be the culprit.
It was also explained that the lure of the dual core and 1024 mb ram has been misinterpreted as being a good pc but the reality is that by the time the 256mb for the shared graphics is swallowed up then the 500 or so mb vista swallows i am left with around 250mb of memory if lucky then with empowering technology taking its bit as well not suprised when i checked available memory that i had well less than 200mb and had to optimise a lot.
As long as no other issues are found they will give me half price memory upgrade so just have to wait 48 hours to see what the outcome is.
May 31st, 2007 15:52
As a reseller I have supplied dozens of Acer desktops and laptops and found them to be very reliable and good value. However I have also just spent many hours on three recent Power M6 systems pursuing intermittent BSOD crashes. The outcome was that they all had multi-function printers with card readers and the eLock software causes the printer drivers to hard crash whenever accessed (either over a network connection or USB). I got no useful help from either Acer or Canon with this problem. I for one will be uninstalling all the Acer software as a matter of routine in future. It doesn’t appear to cause any other problems if you just remove it. If the eLock has already gone sick and locked the removable storage you can return the storage icons to the standard ones afterwards using the TweakUI Icon Repair Tool – search for XP Powertoys download.
June 1st, 2007 09:54
Just to update my previous post
PC world have replaced my Acer it was faulty motherboard .
However not happy as the pc that was replaced used up my 3rd norton internet security 2007 installation and norton are not giving a damn. Have 7 months left on subscription and was offered for the sum of Ł40 new subscription and they would add on my outstanding 7 months. No chance will use the 3 month free trial and then get another antivirus elsewhere.
August 4th, 2007 21:15
Something is wrong with the Empowering Technology program on my laptop. I bought an Acer Aspire 5100 Notebook sometime in February this year. Here recently the entire thing messed up. It caused so many problems, I couldn’t barely do anything. It stopped Optimizing my RAM and everything. I kept getting a blue screen and (BEEP BEEP BEEP) and the next thing I know, my computer just rebooted. Now, i’ve reformatted my whole computer… I had Windows XP Media Center, and basically had to down grade to XP Professional. Since Windows XP MCE didn’t come with my computer when I bought it.
September 17th, 2007 18:35
My aunt has recently bought a new Acer and she had me set it up for her and everything. Today she called me up with a problem with Empowering Tech. She said it was really messing up her computer once she had her internet hooked up. So of what ive learned on here, ET is just plain garbage. And now i plan on just uninstalling it.
November 8th, 2007 11:08
[...] aggravate users rather than help them—and, yes, that includes newbies. Acer vets have mostly carped about eTechnology, while notebook forums are littered with system-performance complaints. Once [...]
November 8th, 2007 11:39
[...] aggravate users rather than help them—and, yes, that includes newbies. Acer vets have mostly carped about eTechnology, while notebook forums are littered with system-performance complaints. Once [...]
November 8th, 2007 14:16
[...] aggravate users rather than help them—and, yes, that includes newbies. Acer vets have mostly carped about eTechnology, while notebook forums are littered with system-performance complaints. Once [...]
November 8th, 2007 21:13
[...] aggravate users rather than help them—and, yes, that includes newbies. Acer vets have mostly carped about eTechnology, while notebook forums are littered with system-performance complaints. Once [...]
November 8th, 2007 21:13
[...] aggravate users rather than help them—and, yes, that includes newbies. Acer vets have mostly carped about eTechnology, while notebook forums are littered with system-performance complaints. Once [...]
November 12th, 2007 23:25
[...] aggravate users rather than help them—and, yes, that includes newbies. Acer vets have mostly carped about eTechnology, while notebook forums are littered with system-performance complaints. Once [...]
February 16th, 2008 18:07
If you understood your computers then they would be no need to have acer empowering technology. Other programs that run on windows and MAC as standard do the same job. eSecurity and Backup may prove useful, but get some decent smaller programs that secure your system, if you think you need to. Otherwise, REMOVE this software, it uses up memory and resources unneccessarily !
February 16th, 2008 18:10
http://support.acer-euro.com/empowering_technology/utility.html
or install if your a ‘dummie’
February 19th, 2008 18:43
I too had the problem of losss of access to the
USB drives and CD/DVD. After trying various other solutions, and deciding that the problem
was due to a faulty program, I found this web
site and followed the advice of Keith (May 31,2007) and removed all the Acer applications.
Hey Presto ! the problem disappeared as soon as I rebooted. Thankyou, Keith !
Note that Acer Tech. Support should be quite
aware of this problem, as they must have received many complaints. I think they are in
denial. This is a shame, because I have always
found their machines to be excellent. They stand to lose a great deal of business if they
keep installing this junk software on their new
computers !
Feb.19, 2008
February 22nd, 2008 15:08
I didn’t think much of the empowering technology one way or the other, until I started to try to transfer important data files that had been taken off of a very very very expensive set of scientific runs… and found them to be encrypted and useless. That cost me more than 5 times the price of the computer.
April 27th, 2008 05:08
have been using Acer Travelmate series,model no 5720 G since past 4 months. Recently my acer empowering technology toolbar stopped working.The battery of my laptop doesn’t seem to charge and whenever I remove the power plugin the system shuts down giving the following error messages:
1) acer.empowering.framework.supervisor.exe -application error.
2) Acer empowering technology framework has stopped working
June 3rd, 2008 02:20
I will purchase acer aspire4920 system
system is running in good.
I will change my OS(WinXP)
then the acer Emporwering technology
software missing so how to get this
software and how to install please send
this detail to my e-mail
June 6th, 2008 17:16
I have same case with manikandan, acer empowering technology on my notebook missing. please send me how to get and install to my email.thx
June 28th, 2008 14:37
I’ve used my Acer laptop for some months. When I got this it took less that 2 days to disable most of ET progs.
Now, while cleaning other stuff, I tried also to uninstall all ET stuff … and I soon became aware of the degree of crappiness of the shit that came preinsalled, as about one third agreed to uninstall at all. After aome googling done, I found suggestion of running PC Decrapifier. Didn’t do a thing, even when ET entries were manually selected.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that Acer didn’t enlist any question/answers related to this Aspire 2920 model. And if I were to make a decicion to buy something based on the look of manufacturer’s support pages, Acer would be at the end of the list.
Googling didn’t also tell any solution to uninstall those progs manually. Maybe something in those uninstallattions has broken already, as it seems those have worked for everyone else.
June 28th, 2008 14:40
Just noticed the two troll posts above.
You guys can’t be serious! =D
But then again, hadf some laugh ’cause tired and all … have you ever heard of manufacturer’s support pages or would you like to have .torrent?
July 8th, 2008 18:20
I bought Acer extenca 4620 laptop. Last week I formatted and reinstall windows XP SP2.after I installed all drivers but I couldn’t install Acer Empowering software. Because that one not include that driver CD. So anybody can tell me please how to download that software.
July 9th, 2008 14:13
I have an Extensa 5220, for about 2 months, way too much computer for my needs but I am enjoying it I used to get all twisted up about empowering tech but now I just ignore it. I like the push buttons for Internet explorer and windows mail.
The one thing I found out about 2 weeks ago is not to turn the laptop off but put it to sleep. Even if you do not leave it plugged into the mains I never do as I do not have power all the time. It turns itself off after a while never runs the battery out So I have changed all my settings to sleep. It starts up in about 30 sec and turns off in about 15 secs.
About once a week when I have 20 mins or so I turn it off properly and then turn it on again, it seems to take that long, I am sure it really does not. Since I have put it to sleep I never have any problems I used to want to chuck it out the window but not any more
July 12th, 2008 14:06
I havn’t had any problems with my 3 acer computers. I think ET is a good, reliable piece of kit that actually works. I never use security things in it though. I mostly use eMode Management. Altough I have an acer cmputer that has threats on it and are unstoppable. Recetly, I have been fixing another acer. They are very reliable PC’s.
August 10th, 2008 20:14
tidak dapat membuat empowering technology
August 31st, 2008 02:04
i have recently bought an acer aspire T180 from and friend i want to restore it back to factory settings however i need a empowering mangament password any idea on how i can retrive this?
September 5th, 2008 15:14
So, I have a Acer Aspire 5720. I like it, great laptop, but I can’t stand the toolbar on the screen. I like my nice, wide screen clutter-free. No icons, no recycle, nothing. If I want a program, I’ll put it in my start menu or put a shortcut in my applications folder in My Documents.
It’s slow, yes, but my complaint is completely asthetics. I’m used to slow computers -my Acer is riddled with little things that drive me mad. My past computers have also been slow after the first golden week of ownership is gone. I’ve gotten used to it.
I love the apps for EmpTech, very useful, but all the ones that I want to access -Battery, Volume, and Internet- are on the start bar. The floating green toolbar is useless for me.
So, of course, I want to kill it. What I’ve found online has been less than helpful… though this has renewed my search. Enough complaining, someone must know something.
September 20th, 2008 13:35
hey im having the same problem wit my labtop the thing is i purchased it in 2006 and this moring when i work up it will load but the thing is it stays at the acer aspire blue screen and will not go any futher i called the tech people and they told me to go to erecovery and when i got to erecovery it says to put in a password i been tryin to figure out for the pass 3hrs on what is password when i do not have a password set on my computer
September 25th, 2008 14:28
I’m with Rhia. I too love a clean desktop and that floating green bar is totally annoying! I also hate being told that if I don’t like it, I can just exit out of it. I really dislike programs that tell me what is or is not annoying to me, the user, not to mention the person that shelled out the money for the computer. I just wish these computer guys would quit trying to win awards for beautiful tricks and dazzling animation and just let me do my work!
If anyone can tell me how to a) get rid of the floating green E bar and/or b) get rid of Acer E technology – I would be much obliged.
September 28th, 2008 08:50
I’ve spend a lot of time seeking for this utilities. At least I’ve found the Acer Empowering Technology for Windows XP on this page Acer Empowering Technology. It’s really works on Windows XP!!!
November 9th, 2008 10:00
I have had problems with Acers empowering programs right from the start a year ago. I even considered though it away. I have recently bought 2 Toshibas they work just fine. I will never ever buy an Acer again.
November 12th, 2008 01:22
Is there way to hide the floating bar as it’s extra annoying. Cheers, Hason
November 12th, 2008 09:34
Anybody having issues with the network adapter through the empower tools? I have also tried to see if i can remove the program without any luck. Please let me know.
November 18th, 2008 15:54
TO ALL OF YOU THIS HAPPENED TO ME.
My mother got me an acer aspire as an early b.day present. Bought it in July and by Sept. I was having problems with it. Since I am only 13 after asking my mom day after day to call ACER customer Service she did, got no where. They wanted to sell her a recovery cd for 19.95,,,,remember the pc is only 4 mos. old. Anyway she said no way. I at my 13 yrs know plenty about computers, I started searching and after two minutes I clicked on START and on the SEARCH bar I TYPED eRecovery(capital R) and then under those results I clicked on eRecovery Management, this asked me to put a p/w and I did. WELL THIS TURNED OUT TO BE AND WORKED WHEN YOU TRY TO RECOVER TO IT’S ORIGINAL SETTINGS AND ASKS FOR THE STUPID Empowering Technology Password. I couldn’t figure out the darn p/w even after my mom yelled at them on the phone, but this way I set my p/w and was able to put it on empowering technology p/w and I was able to do my pc’s recovery to its original settings. I hope this helps all the ones having the DARN EMPOWERING TECHNOLOGY P/W ISSUE.
November 30th, 2008 00:14
my advice is seriously just close empowering technology, and remove it. My computer kept telling me that my optical drive was elocked, and when i phoned support they said, “well unlock it then”.i did not even have elock manager and with empowering tech’s performance so far was in no way keen to install more of it so i closed it all down, uninstalled it, rebooted it and you know what? my pc has never worked better. It had some useful functions, like at a glance what the hell hardware do i have, but there are free to download programs that will do that for you anyway and considering the aggravation, I am glad i got rid of the damn thing.