Discontinued Operations - Cash flow (Details) - Enterprise Services - Discontinued Operations, Disposed of by Means Other than Sale, Spinoff - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended	6 Months Ended
Apr. 30, 2017	Apr. 30, 2016	Apr. 30, 2017	Apr. 30, 2016
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Depreciation and amortization	$ 129	$ 358	$ 388	$ 734
Purchases of property, plant and equipment	$ 53	$ 224	$ 131	$ 486

Amount of capital expenditure attributable to discontinued operations.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 205
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 5B
-Subparagraph (c)(2)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51717284&loc=SL51721673-107760

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_CapitalExpenditureDiscontinuedOperations
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of deprecation and amortization expense attributable to property, plant and equipment and intangible assets of discontinued operations.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DepreciationAndAmortizationDiscontinuedOperations
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsAxis=hpe_EnterpriseServicesMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DisposalGroupClassificationAxis=us-gaap_DiscontinuedOperationsDisposedOfByMeansOtherThanSaleSpinoffMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: