The "hard" way 'round isn't all that difficult either. I have a CQ62 that used to be my wife's (we bought matching notebooks... sweet, huh?) and when she "retired" it, I used it as an OS installation mule (Linux, Server '12, etc.)
Recently, My 6 year old daughter was complaining that the Barbie website was stuttering and slow on the computer I had her on. I gotta wonder whether Barbie has a backroom deal with the computer manufacturers to sell more new systems, but I digress...
You can still download a Win7 iso, or buy an installation media disk for a few bucks, and using the CoA on the bottom of the computer, have a nice, fresh install without any bloatware. Either plug it in via ethernet cable, or download the wireless driver on another machine and thumbdrive it over to the Compaq, and you can start downloading updates and drivers that way.
It takes a bit longer and a little more work, but I'm pleased with the performance of the v120 on 3GB of RAM with the clean installation.