Barely a month into Meg Whitman’s tenure as chief, Hewlett-Packard announced on Thursday that it would not sell the company’s dominant personal computer business — closing off a strategic path offered by her predecessor.

In the announcement, Ms. Whitman was quoted as saying that after a review, the company had decided that keeping the division would be “right for customers and partners, right for shareholders and right for employees.”

“The outcome of this exercise reaffirms H.P.’s model,” the company said.

Ms. Whitman’s predecessor, Léo Apotheker, announced in August that H.P. was exploring “strategic alternatives” and might sell or spin off its dominant personal computer business; that it was scrapping the TouchPad tablet computer; and that it would acquire a British software concern, Autonomy, for $11.7 billion.

The actions touched off a storm of confusion and sent H.P.’s stock plummeting. Within a month, Mr. Apotheker was dismissed after less than a year on the job, and succeeded by Ms. Whitman, the former chief of eBay.

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