OEM utilities — MSI Center, ASUS Armoury Crate, Gigabyte Control Center — do more than tune fans and lighting. They run background services that read a detailed hardware profile and report it to the manufacturer.
What they know about you
These tools read the full hardware profile for legitimate reasons — warranty registration, BIOS updates, device support. The same data also feeds the manufacturer's device database. Either way, it is one more service on your PC that holds a detailed picture of your hardware.
Why they matter after an HWID change
After you change your HWID, an OEM tool can behave oddly — showing the device as "unregistered", asking to reinstall, or hesitating over BIOS updates. It is still holding the old hardware picture while Windows reports the new one.
What to do
The simplest option: if you do not actively use these OEM tools, remove them. Most hardware works perfectly without MSI Center or Armoury Crate — they are convenience apps, not requirements. Disabling them in Task Manager's Startup tab, or uninstalling them, removes that whole layer and makes hardware-identity hygiene simpler.