If you’ve got a Lenovo laptop, you’ve probably noticed an app called Lenovo Vantage has popped on your PC. It sounds like a pension scheme and an instant candidate for uninstallation, but it actually contains a useful set of utilities for keeping your laptop healthy and up-to-date.
Sadly, however, Lenovo has also bundled a whole load of other promotional garbage with it, reducing the usefulness of this utility and making it an occasional nuisance. So should you keep or get rid? Let’s look more closely at it’s good and bad points.
Lenovo Vantage: the good bits
The best thing about Lenovo Vantage is that it includes a series of diagnostic tools that check on the health of your system and ensure that key software drivers are up to date. If you’ve got a problem with your laptop, Lenovo Vantage might well identify the cause.
Most of these useful features can be found under the Device tab at the top of the screen. These include:
Hardware Scan This is the place to go if you’ve got a problem with your laptop. The Hardware Scan feature is like an MOT for laptops, checking all the key components are working as Lenovo intended. If you’ve got a faltering hard disk, dodgy memory stick or wobbly power supply, this will probably identify it.
Device Settings This includes a bunch of handy tweaks that you might not find in the regular Windows 10/11 Settings menu. From here, for example, you can switch on the clever Intelligent Cooling feature, which throttles performance when it detects the laptop’s being used on your lap, to keep the base cooler.
You’ll also find the option to set a new Battery Charge Threshold. What the Charlie Dickens does that do? Well, if you’re almost always using your laptop plugged into the mains, you’re better off setting the battery to charge to less than 100%. This will reduce the length of time the laptop can run on battery power, but improve the health of your battery in the long run. Given most laptop batteries can’t be replaced these days, that’s almost certainly worth doing.
System Update In some ways this replicates the Windows Update settings, ensuring you’ve got the latest security patches from Microsoft. But it also houses Lenovo’s own hardware driver updates, letting you know if there’s a new piece of software for your graphics chip, touchpad or other components.
In my experience, major Windows updates often knock out the touchscreen on my Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga X1. However, a quick visit to this section of the Vantage app often reveals a new display driver that returns the touchscreen to working order.
Lenovo Vantage: the bad bits
Unfortunately, Lenovo has added various bits of cruft to Lenovo Vantage over the years. We first wrote about this software in 2018 and it was a reasonably lightweight utility. Since then, it’s been bogged down with various add-ons, many of which add little value or are just Lenovo promotional fluff (you’ll see many such complaints in the Comments section below). These include:
The Lenovo Vantage Toolbar A largely useless waste of space in the bottom-right of the screen, that by default adds another battery bar to go alongside Windows’ own. You can switch the toolbar off by clicking Device, then selecting Power under the Device Settings menu. Scroll down and flick the Vantage Toolbar switch to off.
Promotional articles The main Dashboard of the Lenovo Vantage software is now stuffed with editorial, much of it simply pimping other parts of the Lenovo business. There’s not much you can do about this other than ignore it.
Pop-up messages and promotions Lenovo Vantage has become quite noisy, with warning and promotional messages popping up while you’re trying to get on with stuff. To switch the bulk of these messages off, click the down arrow in the top-right corner of the Vantage screen, select Preference Settings and switch off App Features and Marketing in the Messages section. This leaves only the most critical messages activated.
Should I uninstall Lenovo Vantage?
Despite its problems, Lenovo Vantage still adds value to the computer, especially for less experienced users who might otherwise miss things such as driver updates or hardware faults. However, the added promotional puff has certainly made Lenovo Vantage less attractive. On balance, I’d still keep it installed, although make sure to turn off the toolbar and pop-up messages, as shown above.
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I appear to have acquired Lenovo Vantage on my desktop and it has mucked up all of my Excel folders (I no longer see the Excel icon just the Lenovo ‘L’ icon – I can’t open any Excel filtes, and when I try to create a new Excel file – just just saves as Lenovo …. which I then can’t open! I just get the Lenovo images looping round – can’t find any way of getting rid of it – or using excel – totally frustrating
That is very strange. Can’t think of any good reason why Vantage should be associated with Excel files – it’s not spreadsheet software. You might try looking at your default program settings and ensure Excel is set to open all xslx files.
I have Lenovo desktop AND laptop. On my desktop it keeps inundating me with annoying pop-ups trying to make me use their voice control/Cortana which I DON’T want to use. Is there a way of at least disabling that feature (and notifications)? Thank you.
You could try disabling Vantage from running at start up. That should knock out any notifications.
Thank you. I will try that.
My Lenovo Vantage App seems to be caught in an infinite loop. I get the splash screen and it never moves beyond or get an error message. I’ve uninstalled it and reinstalled it without any success. The error message is” Vantage has encountered a problem”. I’ve downloaded the most recent update to the Lenovo System Interface Driver without any success.
I have the same problem and it began after a Windows 10 update. The Lenovo in question is a Y50-70 probably 2-3 years old. I have another Lenovo for my personal use maybe a month over a year old and it is fine. The two units are very similar but not the same model. Of course, the unit that no longer works is the one I purchased for s society that I belong to. I see this problem listed in many places and tried some of the fixes recommended, does not work. I think it is a metadata situation but do not feel like taking an end around by installing Windows 10 again while maintaining your old data and programs.
How can I keep Lenovo from shutting down whatever I am doing, all the windows and files I have open with no advance notice? Very Angry. I would like to delete all lenovo software.
I have the same Lenovo Vantage update/shutdown of my desktop. The screen goes black, then the Windows sound doodle that happens when an HDMI connection is lost. I have to restart my machine to get back a complete reading of what I was doing. I don’t have an answer for you. Just agreeing.
hi, im just worried about going ahead with these critical updates on my Lenovo ideapad 310, ive only had it 3months, bios update -10(64) Lenovo fw update for Seagate rosewood 2d hdd – 10 (64), LAPTOP DETAILS- serial number- PFORVCJX, PRODUCT NUMBER- 80TV, BIOS- 3JCN26WW, when I click ok to go ahead, its says, this bios is only for thinkpad 310/315, do you want to go ahead and download, don’t know what to do
Should be fine to download, Joe. Just make sure the laptop is plugged in so the power doesn’t cut midway through the update.
My laptop mic is turned off automatically after a short time. to use my mic again, i need to manually turn on my mic through lenovo vantage or through pc settings. do you think its because lenovo vantage?, or there’s a problem with my laptop?. and maybe you have any suggestion for me?. thanks.
I uninstalled Lenovo Vantage from my new laptop. It was causing all kinds of issues with my touch display including ghost touches and strange brightness spikes and dips. It was also constantly accessing my microphone. After uninstalling Vantage, my laptop functioned like a normal laptop.
How did you do it? I inadvertently let the program be installed. I HATE IT! Found the exact same problem as you. Can’t find it in programs and features. Followed another’s advice to find it in the menu and uninstall. It still has not completely gone. Screen is as bright as ever and audio is ridiculously low. FN buttons do little if anything to change that. Now what?
find the lenovo vantage app in the windows start menu then right click on it and then select uninstall. I did it that way.
I just purchased my Lenovo Flex 5 about 3 months ago and I keep getting the pop up to install Bios update for the Lenovo Vantage. I hate updates because then afterwards, the computer will malfunction in some type of way. I am trying to figure out if this is a must to do??
very useful what other protection is worth having with the lenovo vantage
Does Lenovo Miix 520 have support for Lenovo vantage for battery threshold feature?
Yes, it does.
I dont personally find this software lightweoght as is takes up 13 gb from my 26gb of storage.(Lenovo yoga 330)
Thanks. Uninstalled.
why is it that when vantage is installed, the camera for video conferencing cannot be used?
I have a Thinkpad S440, has served me well over the years. I am very reluctant to download Vantage since I have very bad experiences adding software on other PC’s I have had. I blocked basically everything I do not need on this Thinkpad and in addition installed the full version of Norton and fulle security, whitelist what I need. My Thinkpad has lasted me for more than 5 years and it still works satisfactorily. This the first PC that has lasted me for more than three years since I bought my first one back in teh good old DOS days in 1989. That one had 4 Kbyte of RAm and 128 Kbyte hard drive 🙂 TImes change
I have a Lenova desk top and the Lenova vantage install was forced on me. I uninstalled because it slowed performance way down and caused me to reenter my router password every time one of its pop-ups, popped in on the right of my screen. After uninstall everything is back to normal and working good! My media is working better too!
“lightweight an unobstrusive”, haha…. It is basically just to show nice offers and stuff with a tiny bit of irrelevant infos. It is definitely not a software you need. There is older Lenovo Software that updates your system without all the offers and crap.
Nothing more fun than to sit in a train at 15% Power start “Vantage” just to see that it connects to the internet to download the newest crap before it lets you flip that switch… ZzzzZZzzz Can`t think of a worse Software.
My niece’s Lenovo Yoga 510 has collapsed during a Vantage bios 10 (64) update, now it can’t be switched on at all, and it’s Novo button doesn’t work either, what should we do in order to make it functional again? HDD replacement?
Good review. I have a Lenovo Legion Y530 and was thinking of subscribing to smart performance by lenovo vantage, any recommendations on that regard? I also have installed McAfee so I don’t know if its gonna bumb with it. Thank you
I have a paid up one year to the Smart scan.. I hate it. please take it off. i don’t like to wait for it to check everything.
I have a $4,500 ThinkStation P620 with 64Gig of Ram and this Lenovo Vantage has deleted files when it has locked up my computer. It has also screwed up Excel files for me. When working with Microsoft Visual Studio with a Web API application it deleted all of my Controller files. For months I was under the impression that it was bad memory or a bad CPU or even a bad external SSD. I replaced most of my memory, added a new external SSD but when I went to Task Manager and saw my CPU pegged using Lenovo Vantage and did a Google search and found so many problems. Nothing has help my machine as much as right click end task Lenovo Vantage. The person who wrote that problem should be fired. Totally Night and Day
Dear Barry, I am nearly 80 and very non-tecky. Have just had to buy a new (Lenovo) computer (laptop) and now things keep being offered….such as this Lenovo Vantage, which I DON’T want. But it sits in the bottom line with the few items I do use (Google, Skype, etc) and I CANNOT erase it! Can you advise me how to, please? Thank you 🙂 Lisa Robinson.
Hi Lisa,
Easiest way to remove it is to open Windows search, search for “add remove” and choose the option to Add/Remove Programs.
You should find Lenovo Vantage listed there.
Barry
Right click on one of the icon hit open with, than point it to office.
I’m going to do a ram upgrade and ssd upgrade to my lenovo ideapad s145-15ast, I was told I don’t necessarily need to the Bios update but that I could, to make sure everything is UpToDate. Now I’m seeing this vantage app and wondering if it’s a good idea to keep it for when i do the upgrade and I want to update the bios. I should I just erase it and do the Bios update directly from Windows?
Hi I have a ideapad 3 which as I learnt uses a specially modified graphiics driver fpr its intel UHD built in card. I upgraded/updated mine with the generic intel UHD driver from intel as I didnt know then. but when I run vantage so it can update my graphics driver to older one. but it doesnt find any new update available for me .. so how do I go back the orginal driver that lenevo provided.
I know this is an old feed. I have de-installed it as it messed with my Graphics card RTX 3070 ti Laptop…. Competely messed with the power balance of the GPU, frame drops in games and so on…
Lenovo Vantage don’t offer, now, a free health check. You should update your article. It’s free only the hardware scan. The PC wasn’t cheap, anyway.
It is a shame that Lenovo used the app as a upsell platform for other services. Would have been nice to just have the basic settings for adjusting and updating. You can download a simpler app that does this from Lenovo if you want to skip Vantage app. If your used to manually updating system drivers, you can do so on the support page for your device. I don’t find the Vantage app uses a lot of resources, so I am fine with it installed. I am actually much less impressed with my IdeaPad 5 laptop then the software. Already two months into ownership had to send it for repair of poor WiFi card. That’s two weeks of not having a new laptop. At least Lenovo provided an extra month of warranty for the repair delays. Other than Lenovo’s ThinkPad business laptops I think their whole consumer line is mostly of mediocre quality.
I had to get rid of it. It disabled my laptop camera and nothing I tried (camera settings, privacy settings) would show anything but a padlock in the window-in-window. I missed a Microsoft Teams job interview!
Is there a “better” alternative software to Vantage?
is it is okay to accept the lenovo new updated web privacy statement , i read it but it says that it may sell information and will send a concent and also i am concerned with the sharing of personal information but without accepting it i wont think the vantage will start ,so is it safe to accept it.
I had the same problem, and uninstalled it as well. Now everything is fine.
I own a lenovo lap top have no idea what g bla-bla is.however nowday with all this Cyber wars fears I am no different. I have real fears specially because I do so much of bills online.
I do not like at all to be “boxed into lenovo all entire world” and I have been charged with Best buy Geek contract of $ 346.00 then when I tried to find out how it got charged BOOOM no way to find out.
So no I will trust Lenovo advantage. or for that matter none them regardless of the origination. I have lost real money by charges that I was no able to stop to this day.
IMO, The only good thing about Lenovo Vantage is its ability to push a bios update to my device, which a windows update scan unusually seems to always miss. Thank you for the article, after a quick read, I am confident I can get rid of it forever. All the best,
Shaun