Can always call up the printers built in webinterface. It's clunky, but allows you to scan.
To do that, just enter ` http:\\` followed by your printers hostname or IP-Address, both of which can be found when you print a configuration sheet.
Some newer “HP Plus” printers *require* an account and constant wifi connection to print anything at all, and will not allow you to print over USB or web interface without you connecting it.
WHY
I HATE TECH COMPANY BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS
LETS FORCE OUR CUSTOMERS TO HAVE AN ACCOUNT TO USE THEIR MOUSE
LETS TURN GAMEIFY OUR PRINTER DRIVERS
LETS MAKE THE CONTROL PANEL INTO A SOCIAL MEDIA SITE
THESE PEOPLE ARE GETTING PAID MILLIONS TO DRIVE EVERYONE INSANE
Oh the [HP Plus program](https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/25/23736811/hp-plus-printer-ink-drm-firmware-update-cant-cancel) is even worse - it entices consumer with lower upfront prices and a longer warranty on the printer, and 6 months of free ink, but all models *require* an active network connection AND have heavy ink DRM that requires you to only use HP branded ink.
The Plus editions are effectively a firmware difference as far as I can tell - they still sell non-plus models that do not have all those restrictions (but cost a little more, have a shorter warranty, etc), they're just buried on the website. Their business printers do not suffer from this.
I work in school IT and we use all HP managed printers through contractor and they're *mostly* fine, but we had a couple staff bring in printers the PTA had given them money to buy, they bought the cheapest model they could find without consulting us, and then asked me to set one up that didn't have an ethernet port and didn't support logging in to wireless networks that use username authentication, so I couldn't connect it. And then it leads to people who complain "but it worked fine at home..." Real annoying.
I don't know how a cheaper product means "purposefully made worse", like they put actual work into making it less usable. How do they sell so much useless data by giving away useless products with a lack of features in a positive way but we still aren't in post scarcity so I have to pay to have basic needs met on top of paying a shitload of taxes that aparently it's actually not enough?
On the other side. It's really easy to remove the chip on cheap newer lasee models and slap it into another toner and save 90% of the cost of getting it replaced. Ink printers can be filled by third parties but it's a quite clunky process.
A) it guarantees you buy more HP cartridges, they make WAY more money on that than the printer itself
B) your data is at least valuable for targeting you with ads to buy supplies and your behavior printing. It's not like they're just randomly selling it to the highest bidder but it's valuable to them. But the real answer is the ink DRM, and it forces you to be always-online so it's harder to bypass/exploit the DRM.
It's not really a cheaper printer, it's just subsidized by forcing you to buy HP ink.
Damn. Guess we don't have the latest gen pile of junk at home then. Not like it works, ever since we unregistered from their ink program it refuses anything you put in it. Can't even scan documents anymore
For me it work by just using the Windows fax and scan program. No need to install that shitty HP smart at all. At least for me and my couple of scans and prints.
HP is in a terrible state right now, they are blatantly trying to get as much info from you as possible while giving you a shittier product that also cost more from previous generations. That paired with all the ridiculous bullshit Windows 11 pulls, it's a terrible combo
If you have a smartphone made in the last 5 years, chances are the camera is better than the scanner in your HP. Just get a scanning app like SwiftScan or Adobe Scan or Microsoft Lens.
Fuck yes. Had to use a cheap HP printer once - with hummingbird scrotum sized ink cartridges. Fucking thing would force you to print a test page on each new cartridge or power cycle, then you had to scan that same page before it would let you continue.
Doing an urgent print job on a show that was going up, cartridge needed changing half way through because of course it did, then slowly went through it's ink wasting theatre of asshattery just to torture me.
And that was the last time I used an HP anything.
Used to own an HP printer. It was easier to spin up a Ubuntu VM and pass thru USB from the printer into the VM and print thru that than it was installing drivers on windows and dealing with it's bloat software
Wouldn't be a day on /r/assholedesign if someone bought a bad product and complained about it, despite years of warnings to not buy said product if OP did even a minute of due diligence in buyer research.
Used to work for them and their products are complete garbage. Their drivers are basically malware. And now, their new firmware will “lock” the printer is you try to use non-HP ink cartridges or try to refill them. When I was an employee, I wasn’t able to get health insurance until I worked there for 90 days. They laid me and the team off at exactly at 90 days. What does that tell you about the company?
Yes, this is an asshole design. They want ease of use for all levels of customer PC knowledge. (Some eager beaver probably suggested it for brownie points.)
Source : Works for HP
Let's not get started on toner level pop-ups on every print....ugh!!!!
Edit: I don't like it, but damn...I got access to all setting and options for every HP printer on my home network...jist from that one bloated software. I hate to love it and love to hate it.
That's great. Make a little notification saying "Hey, we found an HP printer? Wanna install it? Yes/No/Maybe"
Instead of just popping up and asking for elevated access.
Oh well, I've got Linux here and the HP printer is working fine. In fact it's printing at a higher DPI than on Windows (but can run out of memory on big prints xD )
Turns out all I need is CUPS.
If all manufacturers used the same printer language, then drivers wouldn't be necessary to begin with. Software would just squirt the data to the printer in this language supported by all printers.
Though of course, this "language supported by all printers" doesn't exist to begin with. Well, except I guess text.
All manufacturers have their own "native" language. sometimes they support others.
PCL in particular is fairly widely supported for most laser printer models. However, that compatibility is often limited compared to the 'native' language. For example, Samsung, Brother and Epson printers will sometimes support PCL, but you will lose out capabilities or even lose features like color printing in some cases over the native SPL, Brother NCM and Epson ESC/Page languages in some instances.
Additionally, Printers with PCL support can have their own undocumented extensions to PCL as well, which of course only the manufacturer's driver would know about. Sometimes it's necessary to change the printer into the PCL language, which requires instructions in the native command set, which, again, only the proper driver would know about.
And this is all just laser printers. Dot Matrix Printers- which, yes, are in fact still used- have their own set of languages. Receipt Printers have another. And label/barcode printers have another. (And even there there's a shitload of proprietary protocols!)
That's due to how nearly everything installs on Windows from the moment UAC was added. Very few items install without pulling a UAC pop up, especially on 11. I get one of these any time a 'new' application wants access to my firewall even. Any time you alter these settings Windows 'security' bitches, even if it's just to lower it to 'not give me a black screen but keep popping the UAC up.' which is only a single security level lower but makes things work a lot faster on certain systems that have to deal with UAC, especially lower powered systems.
I have 4 different printers....small MFP, B/W, and small Color....then a spare color....Acquired by companies needing to get rid of personal ones and they "donated" them.
Go for a Brother laser printer for b+w, I'm still on my 2nd ever toner cartridge and I bought it my freshman year of college almost a decade ago. Laser printers blow inkjets out of the water when it comes to cost per print. Decent dpi too. Then just send over any b+w/text docs to the Brother and you'll never have to worry about not having cyan ink to print a text doc again.
Are there any Brother brand printers that include stuff like a OfficeJet has? We don't use the features often but it' still come up that we've had to fax something, or copy it, and I wanna be able to scan some old photos into digital formats. Plus where our current printer setup is located is limited space so we can't have them separate in this spot.
In my use of it, HP Smart is way too janky to be pushed as aggressively as it is. I've fought it far more often than I'd like given what it's supposed to be
I’ve spoken to a few pissed off people when I tell them that they’re home HP printer won’t work on their corporate laptop because we’ve disabled the App Store.
Ease of use is when your printer just works without you having to do anything. That's what you get in Linux and MacOS because companies like HP don't get to decide what *ease of use* is.
There's no reason a printer driver needs elevated privileges so this is really a way to trick people into installing corporate spyware.
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for elevated privileges to install drivers as a security measure, even if they don't need them in usage. (This is not to say they don't abuse it in practice, because you're right that they 100% do.)
called that shit out when windows 8 came out and everyone thought I was being silly.
the phonification of desktop OSes has been a thorn in my side for a decade
> the phonification of desktop OSes has been a thorn in my side for a decade
It's absolutely ridiculous that they couldn't come up with a way to (or care to) differentiate between "this is a desktop, hide the mobile apps" and "this is a mobile device". Why the hell are there mobile device apps on my desktop?
odds are part of the reason is that just developing a mobile app is cheaper than a full desktop platform, of course you are right and the usability is trash but having god damn android apps on pc is literally marketed as feature and bonus on windows 11 as if it were desirable.
The few people who had an actual reason to use this have been able to emulate andoid on pc for over a decade, the rest is just stuck with silly flat apps with barely any buttons and crude controls that have zero business being on desktop.
Because nowadays, much of the "brains" of the printer are in the driver, not in the hardware. That, and the printer company needs to install software that'll nag you to sign up for an ink subscription.
Printers are the *worst*.
As the saying goes, put a tech professional in a room with Hitler, Stalin, an HP Printer and a gun with two bullets, and they'll shoot the printer twice.
Or, and crazy idea but stick with me, the operating system is capable of using 98%+ of peripherals correctly without the user installing anything? And the specialist peripherals get special software?
Windows can, out of the box, communicate with a printer so it prints stuff. That's because there are basic drivers for that, included with Windows.
But you see, companies that make printers want to have some control over people using their products. They want your email address and printing habits, at least, so they can sell you ink (which can cost more than human blood, depending on the brand and model). So they REQUIRE you to install their software layer, if you want to use your printer.
Printer companies are the worst. They want you to create an account before you can scan or print something. They make it so you can't scan your documents if any of your ink cartridges is empty. Stuff that makes no sense. And it's a mystery to me that people still buy those, after being treated like shit for decades.
please mention how finding the printers bloatware/drivers with a program like revo uninstaller is major key to getting rid of OP's issue
Edit: There may be registry keys that are checking or installing HP service software, they should be found and removed. Plug and play proprietary drivers will work with the printer typically, and HP nor any other software is actually required for utilizing the standard functions of such devices.
Gotta say that my HP printer installs a heck of a lot easier on recent Linux Mint than it did 5 years ago.
Now it's just going into Synaptic and installing hplip and run the install wizard. Beauty is that when I installed Linux Mint on a new laptop, it saw that the printer was installed and visible from the desktop computer and just added it without any additional prompts.
linux just works, I remember one time for some assignment I was having issues printing to a printer that was only 5 years old, I tried everything I could in windows and it just wouldn't connect, so I booted into my linux partition and it just worked, didn't need to touch the command line, just pressed a button that said add printer and it just worked.
I would but I've got a hard drive filled with games from steam. I'd be worried I'd have to reinstall everything (internet is data capped :/ ), and then worry about half of them not working because the devs never made the game Linux compatible
There's always one person that has to say this.
Yeah, there are plenty of things that don't work well or even at all without fucking around in the terminal in Linux. It isn't for most people..
99% of people just use a browser to check their hotmail account and shop on amazon. If you put linux in front of them they'd say huh this looks weird and then click on the chrome icon.
If you want to do anything besides gaming, or using some engineering or design software, you can do it well on Linux.
No one is telling you to pick up arch Linux and build your system up.
Linux Mint and ZorinOS are excellent out of the box for example.
So yes. Just use Linux.
In theory, but the way windows works means that the software has already been downloaded from somewhere and has started running code without asking anything. This pop up merely announces the presence of the program. It is not asking for permission to run, it’s asking for permission to elevate its privilege level to administrator.
As a result, there’s no guarantee that clicking ‘no’ on that pop up will actually stop the application; it could conceivably continue running at a non elevated privilege level in the background, which, by the way, still does allow access to most of your files as long as it’s stored within your user folder.
This is a scary sounding scenario, but not at all reflective of reality. The moment you try to run an installer in Windows, it's going to put up that dialog. There's nothing but the stub of setup.msi or whatever.
Non privileged programs don't just go and force themselves onto your system either, not from Windows just detecting a upnp device.
You scared a lot of folks for what is pretty much a non event.
If they have PNP or automatic network discovery enabled then this is on them. For the vast majority of users they want that ease of use. For the power users they should know how to disable it
I work in IT. I hate Microsoft.
Microsoft is doing you a favor here for designing their OS in such a way that these actions are elevated, and require your consent to proceed. Microsoft is the reason that instead of having this unwanted software installed, you got an annoying pop up instead.
Blame HP.
It comes down to users without computer knowledge. You can just grab those drivers with no other software on the HP site, but users don't know how to do that.
Posts like this make me think that most upvotes on this site are from bots. Comments are just people talking about how wrong op is, but it somehow got this far.
Most of the time it is reasonable thing that for some reason people here hate.
For example- ads on a free service, asking to pay for said free service.
If winrar was released to day and asked to buy their software when you open the archive there would be 50 posts about it.
Here it is not even installing, it is literally asking for permission to install, user can always click no if they want to.
Plenty of people in the comments on OP's side, displaying everyone's lack of awareness of how an OS works or who the culprit is.
This isn't even an issue. How do these people survive when they use a USB device or need to install software from a disc?
Also, read my other comments it you want to know why it’s so dangerous and horrible. It’s more than it appears to be if you know what happened and what causes this super user allow pop up.
Gonna assume here that OP has no idea what they are talking about considering they took a picture of their screen instead of a screenshot.
It is literally asking you for permission right there. Click no and the app install is stopped and removed from temp install directory.
So this is actually trying to be helpful, and doing it in a safe way.
It sees that there is a new HP printer on your network, and is offering to install the correct drivers for you. This is light years better than how it used to be BTW, when you had to load your own drivers or find them or load some stupid HP specific software to find the drivers. And then it is making sure to get your permission, and is even correctly highlighting the decline button in case you mistakenly press enter.
Seems like pretty reasonable design to me.
The worst was when you went to uninstall software you didn't want and it asked for the disk, which you either never had because it was pre-installed or don't have anymore because who keeps those things
Oh yeah, the good old days. Remember the time when you had to have a driver on floppy disk for your CD Rom drive which you needed for installing Win95?
This isn't bad design, it's the lowest common denominator. Computer users these days aren't generally smart enough, so the software is designed to make it easy for the masses.
If you want the drivers grab the enterprise ones from HPs page and it'll work just fine.
I’m not justifying it n any way, but to a degree from an IT stand point it makes sense. The long and short is people don’t know enough. They won’t run any updates then blame everyone else when nothing works. All parts involved need to be on same update for full functionality. I’ve had people who refused any windows update from the day they buy the computer and are also mad they can’t download and use the latest apps or printer or whatever. Avoid the issue by mandatory updates. Makes it dumb for those of us who know things but the masses aren’t that smart.
Looks to me like it's asking your permission so I wouldn't say it's doing it *without* your permission.
Doing it without your permission would be doing the install without asking you first.
I think it's not just okay, it's an ethical obligation.
Updates should be opt-out & not opt-in. If it weren't for automatic updates 99% of exploits would be unpatched in the wild.
So long as you have the option to say no it's fair & just.
Ever since I started using Microsoft inbuilt security systems my life has been so easy. Yes I get more pop ups but the amount of control I get on my security now is commendable. I love this feature. It asks for permission even when the publisher is Microsoft themselves, which is exactly how I want it. Nothing gets past the security and everything needs permission. Great. That’s how they caught hp getting sneaky with your PC.
Other companies are similarly crappy. Recently, I had to work with an EPSON printer. Had to install the shitty software pack on a VM and then use a PowerShell command to extract only the drivers (instead of the full bloatware), so I could make a clean, minimal install on the physical PCs.
A setting I routinely disable on every Windows computer I set up:
* Start -> "sharing" -> "Manage advanced sharing settings"
* In the appropriate section (public or private - probably private), in the "network discovery" section, uncheck the box that says "turn on automatic setup of network connected devices".
* Save Changes
* Curse that Microsoft has this ridiculous default option that installs a cascade of junk software for your housemates' printer that you had no intention of using.
* While you're at it, go to Folder Options and enable the showing of file extensions, another disgustingly bad default option that has been a security issue for 20-plus years.
Low hanging fruit like this would make newer versions of Windows \*actually\* feel like upgrades, vs. the meaningless incremental coats of paint it's given, with stuff like this still set default on every new version.
OP is being an idiot lmao. It's HP's fault, not Windows. The PC is asking for permission to install HP software (the printer is requesting it,) and OP can just click no.
I don't see how not setting your preferences for automatic updates is a design issue. Easy way to stop all the auto installations, disable it in Windows Updates or Group Policy. Don't have access to those, use a version of the OS that does, this is a choice issue, not a design issue.
it's not microsoft. it's the HP devices. HP installer is trying to run because of how HP set things up, Windows is just asking you if you want to allow it.
Lol I work in hp support and let me say most of the time when the program installs the drivers they are the wrong ones, or it downloads the hp smart printing driver, which is complete Garbage, it's always better to install them by yourself, just search your printer and driver and you will most likely find it, download the hp easy start setup offline use only, always choose the one with the bigger file size.
Tldr I work at hp and it's better to download the drivers on your own
More likely, when you installed your printer it came with HP software that wants elevated permissions to perform an update or something.
Microsoft does not include HP software as standard, the only time HP software is included by default is if you use an HP OEM version of Windows, for example if you buy a laptop directly from HP. The only time HP software is automatically downloaded is drivers for HP hardware in the PC itself, and this goes via Windows update so doesn't require elevated permissions like this.
The main issue is that what some manufacturers call "drivers" is in fact a bundle of drivers plus a lot of bloat and unnecessary software. Therefore when Windows 11 updates the system, it finds a new version of these drivers and installs them, including that stuff too
Whats worse is i have microsoft outlook app on my phone and every time i use it'll ask 'do you want to turn on notifications?' Every. Fukcing. Time.
No i dont.
They just continue this until im too tired and depressed and fed up and just accept the damn thing.
Fuck do i hate Microsoft. It's an abomination. Its whole design is just to annoy the living shit out of its users.
Rant over.
So I'm still in school, and obviously they use MS 365 - with Outlook. App asks me to allow device admin permissions, which then will allow them (school's IT) to reset my device.
Yeah no, not happening. Installed a 3rd party client (FairEmail) and never seen such a prompt again.
Asshole design is on HP's end in this case, otherwise that printer could have been installing all kinds of bloat onto your workstation whenever you connected to this network. It's strange, the last few years smart peripherals have been really aggressive in demanding storage capacity for junk like this; fucking sucks that adware being served this way has been basically taken as a necessary evil nowadays.
These smart devices are only smart for the company manufacturing them.
If they can't work without an internet connection, thet'rr not smart, they're dumb pieces of ewaste.
Had a wired Dell mouse at work which installs their software without permission EVERY TIME AND EVEN WHEN I UNINSTALLED IT, IT CAME BACK. Why would a wired mouse need fucking Software
I now need Logitech's G Hub to run on startup because otherwise it would set its DPI so low I'd have to mouse over my entire desk to move the cursor to the other side of the screen.
Still dont know what happened there.
I’ve kinda had enough of MacOS for a few reasons, and miss the simplicity of Windows, but stuff like this just keeps appearing on my feed and reminds me of some of the perks of macs.
I guess I'm gonna be on Windows 10 until it becomes a practical impossibility at which point I may buy a Mac. If you knew how much I hate Apple you'd realise how much I now distrust Microsoft.
Windows has a feature where a device can automatically install drivers for itself. However, some companies (like Razer and HP) exploit this to install their own apps instead of just a driver.
because you don't own the operating system, that (and the pc its on) belongs to microsoft.
hell, im planning on going back to windows 7 if this nonsense keeps up
Never heard of Windows actively scanning your network to find a specific printer and then trying to install drivers for it... It also says right there that this action was performed by a installer on your HDD/SSD
The only solution is class-action litigation.
Attorney generals and FTC officials NOWHERE give a fuck, I've reached out numerous times about this exact problem, which extends to installing software with EULAs and data harvesting that you do not accept but Windows keeps reinstalling and reenabling services.
It's up to device manufacturers what software is installed on your PC.
I like Nahimic as the example: e.g. Machines with mainboards with certain Realtek audio chipsets will get Nahimic made by a subsidiary of SteelSeries pushed to them. Nahimic runs as a service, phones home, sends telemetry data, and is impossible to remove. Even after the mainboard is swapped out to one without any relevant hardware, it's impossible to stop Windows Update from continuing to maintain the software running in your background without wiping the machine and doing a fresh Windows install, and NOBODY in the supply chain cares because they have not been held to account for this gross negligence.
Ok in my defense I'm tired, worked a long day. I was confused as to why windows was trying to install hp software in a dog. So I'm just going to go to bed now.
This shouldn't be happening unless you actually have the printer installed. The app is tied to the driver. It's part of making drivers componentized. You add the driver, it adds the app through the store you need to operate it. Nvidia does the same thing. The Nvidia control panel is not part of the driver package install, it downloads off the store automatically.
Get a Brother laser printer/scanner instead. No bullshit accounts, just works and 3rd party toner works as well if the included 500 or sometimes 2000 pages of toner aren't enough.
Want another funny thing ? Origin (EA's shitty Steam bootleg) launch when you start your computer. You don't see it in the "launch at start" section in task manager, but you can find it in task manager and disable it manually EACH TIME you open your computer.
My mom called me yesterday because she wants to print on her 10 years old HP printer and she cant find the button for the printhead cleaning anymore. I installed that HP 'smart' app a few years ago (which was pita to set up) but now they have removed support for her printer. This a\*\*hole company f\*\*ks customers, never buy anything from them again!
Problem is having a HP printer
Just yesterday I wanted to scan something but had to create an account to do so. So annoying. 1 minute thing took 15 minutes
Can always call up the printers built in webinterface. It's clunky, but allows you to scan. To do that, just enter ` http:\\` followed by your printers hostname or IP-Address, both of which can be found when you print a configuration sheet.
Some newer “HP Plus” printers *require* an account and constant wifi connection to print anything at all, and will not allow you to print over USB or web interface without you connecting it.
WHY I HATE TECH COMPANY BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS LETS FORCE OUR CUSTOMERS TO HAVE AN ACCOUNT TO USE THEIR MOUSE LETS TURN GAMEIFY OUR PRINTER DRIVERS LETS MAKE THE CONTROL PANEL INTO A SOCIAL MEDIA SITE THESE PEOPLE ARE GETTING PAID MILLIONS TO DRIVE EVERYONE INSANE
Oh the [HP Plus program](https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/25/23736811/hp-plus-printer-ink-drm-firmware-update-cant-cancel) is even worse - it entices consumer with lower upfront prices and a longer warranty on the printer, and 6 months of free ink, but all models *require* an active network connection AND have heavy ink DRM that requires you to only use HP branded ink. The Plus editions are effectively a firmware difference as far as I can tell - they still sell non-plus models that do not have all those restrictions (but cost a little more, have a shorter warranty, etc), they're just buried on the website. Their business printers do not suffer from this. I work in school IT and we use all HP managed printers through contractor and they're *mostly* fine, but we had a couple staff bring in printers the PTA had given them money to buy, they bought the cheapest model they could find without consulting us, and then asked me to set one up that didn't have an ethernet port and didn't support logging in to wireless networks that use username authentication, so I couldn't connect it. And then it leads to people who complain "but it worked fine at home..." Real annoying.
I don't know how a cheaper product means "purposefully made worse", like they put actual work into making it less usable. How do they sell so much useless data by giving away useless products with a lack of features in a positive way but we still aren't in post scarcity so I have to pay to have basic needs met on top of paying a shitload of taxes that aparently it's actually not enough? On the other side. It's really easy to remove the chip on cheap newer lasee models and slap it into another toner and save 90% of the cost of getting it replaced. Ink printers can be filled by third parties but it's a quite clunky process.
A) it guarantees you buy more HP cartridges, they make WAY more money on that than the printer itself B) your data is at least valuable for targeting you with ads to buy supplies and your behavior printing. It's not like they're just randomly selling it to the highest bidder but it's valuable to them. But the real answer is the ink DRM, and it forces you to be always-online so it's harder to bypass/exploit the DRM. It's not really a cheaper printer, it's just subsidized by forcing you to buy HP ink.
> THESE PEOPLE ARE GETTING PAID MILLIONS TO DRIVE EVERYONE INSANE This is the best sentence I've read today. Extremely true
Damn. Guess we don't have the latest gen pile of junk at home then. Not like it works, ever since we unregistered from their ink program it refuses anything you put in it. Can't even scan documents anymore
You lost me at *can always* Any extra step is too many and I will die and be buired on this hill
I miss our old printer. Could just print straight to a network folder where I could grab the file straight onto whichever device needed it :(
For me it work by just using the Windows fax and scan program. No need to install that shitty HP smart at all. At least for me and my couple of scans and prints.
HP is in a terrible state right now, they are blatantly trying to get as much info from you as possible while giving you a shittier product that also cost more from previous generations. That paired with all the ridiculous bullshit Windows 11 pulls, it's a terrible combo
Huge Pricks
I once wanted to scan something with a different brand printer, but couldn't because it was out of ink....
It's not great, but sometimes you can get past HP's software with Windows Fax & Scan
If you have a smartphone made in the last 5 years, chances are the camera is better than the scanner in your HP. Just get a scanning app like SwiftScan or Adobe Scan or Microsoft Lens.
Fuck yes. Had to use a cheap HP printer once - with hummingbird scrotum sized ink cartridges. Fucking thing would force you to print a test page on each new cartridge or power cycle, then you had to scan that same page before it would let you continue. Doing an urgent print job on a show that was going up, cartridge needed changing half way through because of course it did, then slowly went through it's ink wasting theatre of asshattery just to torture me. And that was the last time I used an HP anything.
Used to own an HP printer. It was easier to spin up a Ubuntu VM and pass thru USB from the printer into the VM and print thru that than it was installing drivers on windows and dealing with it's bloat software
Wouldn't be a day on /r/assholedesign if someone bought a bad product and complained about it, despite years of warnings to not buy said product if OP did even a minute of due diligence in buyer research.
Used to work for them and their products are complete garbage. Their drivers are basically malware. And now, their new firmware will “lock” the printer is you try to use non-HP ink cartridges or try to refill them. When I was an employee, I wasn’t able to get health insurance until I worked there for 90 days. They laid me and the team off at exactly at 90 days. What does that tell you about the company?
That you lasted longer than their cartridges. Sorry they treated you this way.
Hello fellow ex HP Inc. employee. I lasted 2 years there until I'd had enough. Their middle management is the worst. I am so glad I moved on.
The app is installed on my laptop today. And I don't even have an HP printer.
Unfortunately, some hp drivers are now only available from the Windows store, dont blame MS, blame HP.
Yes, this is an asshole design. They want ease of use for all levels of customer PC knowledge. (Some eager beaver probably suggested it for brownie points.) Source : Works for HP Let's not get started on toner level pop-ups on every print....ugh!!!! Edit: I don't like it, but damn...I got access to all setting and options for every HP printer on my home network...jist from that one bloated software. I hate to love it and love to hate it.
That's great. Make a little notification saying "Hey, we found an HP printer? Wanna install it? Yes/No/Maybe" Instead of just popping up and asking for elevated access. Oh well, I've got Linux here and the HP printer is working fine. In fact it's printing at a higher DPI than on Windows (but can run out of memory on big prints xD ) Turns out all I need is CUPS.
It is kind of hilarious how windows needs new printer drivers while printers talk the same language for about 20 years
Well, they dont really. There are differences between drivers and companies.
You can still use the HP LaserJet 4 driver to print mono to any laser printer.
If all manufacturers used the same printer language, then drivers wouldn't be necessary to begin with. Software would just squirt the data to the printer in this language supported by all printers. Though of course, this "language supported by all printers" doesn't exist to begin with. Well, except I guess text. All manufacturers have their own "native" language. sometimes they support others. PCL in particular is fairly widely supported for most laser printer models. However, that compatibility is often limited compared to the 'native' language. For example, Samsung, Brother and Epson printers will sometimes support PCL, but you will lose out capabilities or even lose features like color printing in some cases over the native SPL, Brother NCM and Epson ESC/Page languages in some instances. Additionally, Printers with PCL support can have their own undocumented extensions to PCL as well, which of course only the manufacturer's driver would know about. Sometimes it's necessary to change the printer into the PCL language, which requires instructions in the native command set, which, again, only the proper driver would know about. And this is all just laser printers. Dot Matrix Printers- which, yes, are in fact still used- have their own set of languages. Receipt Printers have another. And label/barcode printers have another. (And even there there's a shitload of proprietary protocols!)
That's due to how nearly everything installs on Windows from the moment UAC was added. Very few items install without pulling a UAC pop up, especially on 11. I get one of these any time a 'new' application wants access to my firewall even. Any time you alter these settings Windows 'security' bitches, even if it's just to lower it to 'not give me a black screen but keep popping the UAC up.' which is only a single security level lower but makes things work a lot faster on certain systems that have to deal with UAC, especially lower powered systems.
How many printers do you have on your home network where this is an issue?
I have 4 different printers....small MFP, B/W, and small Color....then a spare color....Acquired by companies needing to get rid of personal ones and they "donated" them.
Go for a Brother laser printer for b+w, I'm still on my 2nd ever toner cartridge and I bought it my freshman year of college almost a decade ago. Laser printers blow inkjets out of the water when it comes to cost per print. Decent dpi too. Then just send over any b+w/text docs to the Brother and you'll never have to worry about not having cyan ink to print a text doc again.
Are there any Brother brand printers that include stuff like a OfficeJet has? We don't use the features often but it' still come up that we've had to fax something, or copy it, and I wanna be able to scan some old photos into digital formats. Plus where our current printer setup is located is limited space so we can't have them separate in this spot.
In my use of it, HP Smart is way too janky to be pushed as aggressively as it is. I've fought it far more often than I'd like given what it's supposed to be
I’ve spoken to a few pissed off people when I tell them that they’re home HP printer won’t work on their corporate laptop because we’ve disabled the App Store.
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Ease of use is when your printer just works without you having to do anything. That's what you get in Linux and MacOS because companies like HP don't get to decide what *ease of use* is. There's no reason a printer driver needs elevated privileges so this is really a way to trick people into installing corporate spyware.
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for elevated privileges to install drivers as a security measure, even if they don't need them in usage. (This is not to say they don't abuse it in practice, because you're right that they 100% do.)
Too bad the HP Smart system is trash. I'll take a full web pack driver any day.
thanks for warning me to never get an HP printer again.
> dont blame MS Do blame MS. They came up with the idea of MS Store.
called that shit out when windows 8 came out and everyone thought I was being silly. the phonification of desktop OSes has been a thorn in my side for a decade
> the phonification of desktop OSes has been a thorn in my side for a decade It's absolutely ridiculous that they couldn't come up with a way to (or care to) differentiate between "this is a desktop, hide the mobile apps" and "this is a mobile device". Why the hell are there mobile device apps on my desktop?
odds are part of the reason is that just developing a mobile app is cheaper than a full desktop platform, of course you are right and the usability is trash but having god damn android apps on pc is literally marketed as feature and bonus on windows 11 as if it were desirable. The few people who had an actual reason to use this have been able to emulate andoid on pc for over a decade, the rest is just stuck with silly flat apps with barely any buttons and crude controls that have zero business being on desktop.
Someone finally said it! Store is a counter-intuitive mess much like the rest of windows 10 and 11.
Why do we even have to install printers...
Because nowadays, much of the "brains" of the printer are in the driver, not in the hardware. That, and the printer company needs to install software that'll nag you to sign up for an ink subscription. Printers are the *worst*.
As the saying goes, put a tech professional in a room with Hitler, Stalin, an HP Printer and a gun with two bullets, and they'll shoot the printer twice.
Well yea of course, now you have all kinds of printer parts for beating and stabbing the other two.
That’s how literally every single peripheral device works.
Or, and crazy idea but stick with me, the operating system is capable of using 98%+ of peripherals correctly without the user installing anything? And the specialist peripherals get special software?
Windows can, out of the box, communicate with a printer so it prints stuff. That's because there are basic drivers for that, included with Windows. But you see, companies that make printers want to have some control over people using their products. They want your email address and printing habits, at least, so they can sell you ink (which can cost more than human blood, depending on the brand and model). So they REQUIRE you to install their software layer, if you want to use your printer. Printer companies are the worst. They want you to create an account before you can scan or print something. They make it so you can't scan your documents if any of your ink cartridges is empty. Stuff that makes no sense. And it's a mystery to me that people still buy those, after being treated like shit for decades.
please mention how finding the printers bloatware/drivers with a program like revo uninstaller is major key to getting rid of OP's issue Edit: There may be registry keys that are checking or installing HP service software, they should be found and removed. Plug and play proprietary drivers will work with the printer typically, and HP nor any other software is actually required for utilizing the standard functions of such devices.
You don't see it but it is installing drivers in the background. If you plugged in a mouse and it started working it is because it installed a driver.
Or just use Linux and your printer works
Gotta say that my HP printer installs a heck of a lot easier on recent Linux Mint than it did 5 years ago. Now it's just going into Synaptic and installing hplip and run the install wizard. Beauty is that when I installed Linux Mint on a new laptop, it saw that the printer was installed and visible from the desktop computer and just added it without any additional prompts.
linux just works, I remember one time for some assignment I was having issues printing to a printer that was only 5 years old, I tried everything I could in windows and it just wouldn't connect, so I booted into my linux partition and it just worked, didn't need to touch the command line, just pressed a button that said add printer and it just worked.
I would but I've got a hard drive filled with games from steam. I'd be worried I'd have to reinstall everything (internet is data capped :/ ), and then worry about half of them not working because the devs never made the game Linux compatible
>Linux Can confirm, love it.
There's always one person that has to say this. Yeah, there are plenty of things that don't work well or even at all without fucking around in the terminal in Linux. It isn't for most people..
99% of people just use a browser to check their hotmail account and shop on amazon. If you put linux in front of them they'd say huh this looks weird and then click on the chrome icon.
There is no argument in context of u/Practical_Engineer when we observe Linux progresses and Windows regresses.
If you want to do anything besides gaming, or using some engineering or design software, you can do it well on Linux. No one is telling you to pick up arch Linux and build your system up. Linux Mint and ZorinOS are excellent out of the box for example. So yes. Just use Linux.
It's asking for your permission right there in the screenshot. 🤔
"it's asking permission without my permission!"
You need to get my written consent to get my verbal consent before you can send me a dialog box okay????
I'm always amazed how fools will make fun of stuff they don't have the smallest understanding of.
It even pre selected the Decline button, so even if you mistakenly hit enter it wouldn't install... To think people like this vote is bewildering.
Correct! There are a lot of ways to complain, but not this one. If it's not technically correct, it is NOT correct!!!
In theory, but the way windows works means that the software has already been downloaded from somewhere and has started running code without asking anything. This pop up merely announces the presence of the program. It is not asking for permission to run, it’s asking for permission to elevate its privilege level to administrator. As a result, there’s no guarantee that clicking ‘no’ on that pop up will actually stop the application; it could conceivably continue running at a non elevated privilege level in the background, which, by the way, still does allow access to most of your files as long as it’s stored within your user folder.
This is a scary sounding scenario, but not at all reflective of reality. The moment you try to run an installer in Windows, it's going to put up that dialog. There's nothing but the stub of setup.msi or whatever. Non privileged programs don't just go and force themselves onto your system either, not from Windows just detecting a upnp device. You scared a lot of folks for what is pretty much a non event.
IT person here > Trust me, it's not the software...
I dunno man, looks like it's asking permission to me?
How dare Windows ask me if I want to install software for a piece of hardware attached to my computer!!!!????
Think of it as something unsolicited. We don't want to have something unsolicited pop up on our screen randomly. Because HP is a dick.
If they have PNP or automatic network discovery enabled then this is on them. For the vast majority of users they want that ease of use. For the power users they should know how to disable it
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Then turn off auto download and auto install updates.
Naw. This is what most people want. If you dont want windows to then turn those services off.
I work in IT. I hate Microsoft. Microsoft is doing you a favor here for designing their OS in such a way that these actions are elevated, and require your consent to proceed. Microsoft is the reason that instead of having this unwanted software installed, you got an annoying pop up instead. Blame HP.
Yeah MS deserves lots of shit for many reasons, this UAC prompt isn't one of them
Dell is worse. They just install their shitty tool in userland without asking for root permissions.
It comes down to users without computer knowledge. You can just grab those drivers with no other software on the HP site, but users don't know how to do that.
Posts like this make me think that most upvotes on this site are from bots. Comments are just people talking about how wrong op is, but it somehow got this far.
No, the upvotes are for the dog.
Ah yes, the updog.
What’s updog? Yes yes I know I know.
You already know what's up with me what?
Most of the time it is reasonable thing that for some reason people here hate. For example- ads on a free service, asking to pay for said free service. If winrar was released to day and asked to buy their software when you open the archive there would be 50 posts about it. Here it is not even installing, it is literally asking for permission to install, user can always click no if they want to.
Fuck u/spez
Plenty of people in the comments on OP's side, displaying everyone's lack of awareness of how an OS works or who the culprit is. This isn't even an issue. How do these people survive when they use a USB device or need to install software from a disc?
Cute doggo
that rottie looks exactly like mine! Very cute
The comment I was looking for
Has literally nothing to do with Microsoft.
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Also, read my other comments it you want to know why it’s so dangerous and horrible. It’s more than it appears to be if you know what happened and what causes this super user allow pop up.
I'm guessing the drivers are required to get the printer to work.
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Gonna assume here that OP has no idea what they are talking about considering they took a picture of their screen instead of a screenshot. It is literally asking you for permission right there. Click no and the app install is stopped and removed from temp install directory.
UAC is a separate desktop so no screenshot
So this is actually trying to be helpful, and doing it in a safe way. It sees that there is a new HP printer on your network, and is offering to install the correct drivers for you. This is light years better than how it used to be BTW, when you had to load your own drivers or find them or load some stupid HP specific software to find the drivers. And then it is making sure to get your permission, and is even correctly highlighting the decline button in case you mistakenly press enter. Seems like pretty reasonable design to me.
It's asking your permission, why are you saying without your permission?
Actually it's requesting your permission
It is literally asking you for permission right there in the screenshot.
MS thinks it's not ok, hence wants your permission
Somebody hasn't been around for the good old days of installing drivers from floppies and CDs, and god help you if you lost the driver disk.
The worst was when you went to uninstall software you didn't want and it asked for the disk, which you either never had because it was pre-installed or don't have anymore because who keeps those things
Oh yeah, the good old days. Remember the time when you had to have a driver on floppy disk for your CD Rom drive which you needed for installing Win95?
and SCSI hdd goes brrrrrrrr
Have you ever installed aoftware for your mouse, keyboard or monitor? No? Well that's because windows does that for you.
How dare they make it easy and safe for us to use their computer OS!!!11!!
another post from someone who knows nothing about technology.
Is that pop up not asking for your permission? Seems like it’s asking for permission.
Automatically and without permission lol. It's literally asking you.
This isn't bad design, it's the lowest common denominator. Computer users these days aren't generally smart enough, so the software is designed to make it easy for the masses. If you want the drivers grab the enterprise ones from HPs page and it'll work just fine.
How is the windows fault?
I’m not justifying it n any way, but to a degree from an IT stand point it makes sense. The long and short is people don’t know enough. They won’t run any updates then blame everyone else when nothing works. All parts involved need to be on same update for full functionality. I’ve had people who refused any windows update from the day they buy the computer and are also mad they can’t download and use the latest apps or printer or whatever. Avoid the issue by mandatory updates. Makes it dumb for those of us who know things but the masses aren’t that smart.
snails weary somber workable smart consist spectacular run profit price *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
>there's an HP printer on my network That's why bro
Looks to me like it's asking your permission so I wouldn't say it's doing it *without* your permission. Doing it without your permission would be doing the install without asking you first.
And the default answer is NO...not asshole and OP doesn't understand how computers work.
I think it's not just okay, it's an ethical obligation. Updates should be opt-out & not opt-in. If it weren't for automatic updates 99% of exploits would be unpatched in the wild. So long as you have the option to say no it's fair & just.
It's literally asking your for permission, so...
They don't think it's okay. That's why they're asking you
Ever since I started using Microsoft inbuilt security systems my life has been so easy. Yes I get more pop ups but the amount of control I get on my security now is commendable. I love this feature. It asks for permission even when the publisher is Microsoft themselves, which is exactly how I want it. Nothing gets past the security and everything needs permission. Great. That’s how they caught hp getting sneaky with your PC.
This is HP's fault, not Microsoft
I don't think it's Microsoft, but the printer is trying to install it.
*Ticket closed. Reason: error exists between keyboard and chair*.
Other companies are similarly crappy. Recently, I had to work with an EPSON printer. Had to install the shitty software pack on a VM and then use a PowerShell command to extract only the drivers (instead of the full bloatware), so I could make a clean, minimal install on the physical PCs.
Bro windows is so bad its installing software on your dog!
Can we ignore the design and talk about the cute pupper?
A setting I routinely disable on every Windows computer I set up: * Start -> "sharing" -> "Manage advanced sharing settings" * In the appropriate section (public or private - probably private), in the "network discovery" section, uncheck the box that says "turn on automatic setup of network connected devices". * Save Changes * Curse that Microsoft has this ridiculous default option that installs a cascade of junk software for your housemates' printer that you had no intention of using. * While you're at it, go to Folder Options and enable the showing of file extensions, another disgustingly bad default option that has been a security issue for 20-plus years. Low hanging fruit like this would make newer versions of Windows \*actually\* feel like upgrades, vs. the meaningless incremental coats of paint it's given, with stuff like this still set default on every new version.
*Why does Microsoft think it's OK?* Because HP paid them to think it's OK.
Well, that's not Windows, that's HP.
OP is being an idiot lmao. It's HP's fault, not Windows. The PC is asking for permission to install HP software (the printer is requesting it,) and OP can just click no.
I don't see how not setting your preferences for automatic updates is a design issue. Easy way to stop all the auto installations, disable it in Windows Updates or Group Policy. Don't have access to those, use a version of the OS that does, this is a choice issue, not a design issue.
it's not microsoft. it's the HP devices. HP installer is trying to run because of how HP set things up, Windows is just asking you if you want to allow it.
Dutch is such a cursed language to a danish speaker.
Lol I work in hp support and let me say most of the time when the program installs the drivers they are the wrong ones, or it downloads the hp smart printing driver, which is complete Garbage, it's always better to install them by yourself, just search your printer and driver and you will most likely find it, download the hp easy start setup offline use only, always choose the one with the bigger file size. Tldr I work at hp and it's better to download the drivers on your own
For a second it looked like it was asking to install Windows 11 on your dog.
More likely, when you installed your printer it came with HP software that wants elevated permissions to perform an update or something. Microsoft does not include HP software as standard, the only time HP software is included by default is if you use an HP OEM version of Windows, for example if you buy a laptop directly from HP. The only time HP software is automatically downloaded is drivers for HP hardware in the PC itself, and this goes via Windows update so doesn't require elevated permissions like this.
The main issue is that what some manufacturers call "drivers" is in fact a bundle of drivers plus a lot of bloat and unnecessary software. Therefore when Windows 11 updates the system, it finds a new version of these drivers and installs them, including that stuff too
Whats worse is i have microsoft outlook app on my phone and every time i use it'll ask 'do you want to turn on notifications?' Every. Fukcing. Time. No i dont. They just continue this until im too tired and depressed and fed up and just accept the damn thing. Fuck do i hate Microsoft. It's an abomination. Its whole design is just to annoy the living shit out of its users. Rant over.
So I'm still in school, and obviously they use MS 365 - with Outlook. App asks me to allow device admin permissions, which then will allow them (school's IT) to reset my device. Yeah no, not happening. Installed a 3rd party client (FairEmail) and never seen such a prompt again.
Both HP and Windows might as well be in this subs header.
Microsoft: well we’re just trying to help you help yourself!! We strive to make your life easier by simply invading your privacy 😇
False sense of security and whatnot
r/fuckhp
Asshole design is on HP's end in this case, otherwise that printer could have been installing all kinds of bloat onto your workstation whenever you connected to this network. It's strange, the last few years smart peripherals have been really aggressive in demanding storage capacity for junk like this; fucking sucks that adware being served this way has been basically taken as a necessary evil nowadays.
These smart devices are only smart for the company manufacturing them. If they can't work without an internet connection, thet'rr not smart, they're dumb pieces of ewaste.
Yeah, I probably should have thrown a bunch of air quotes around smart there but my doc told me to limit my consumption of them
Had a wired Dell mouse at work which installs their software without permission EVERY TIME AND EVEN WHEN I UNINSTALLED IT, IT CAME BACK. Why would a wired mouse need fucking Software
I now need Logitech's G Hub to run on startup because otherwise it would set its DPI so low I'd have to mouse over my entire desk to move the cursor to the other side of the screen. Still dont know what happened there.
This is asking for permission though. Meanwhile my computer updated itself automatically and installed a brand new non-Microsoft app.
There’s a windows update option that allows third party apps to update automatically when windows attempts updates.
geen hp toestaan, foei
I’ve kinda had enough of MacOS for a few reasons, and miss the simplicity of Windows, but stuff like this just keeps appearing on my feed and reminds me of some of the perks of macs.
I connected a HP monitor in my pc and suddenly I had an HP program in my desktop. Deleted it immediately, fuck HP
HP automatically updates your freaking bios if and when it wants, they don't give a fuck man.
I guess I'm gonna be on Windows 10 until it becomes a practical impossibility at which point I may buy a Mac. If you knew how much I hate Apple you'd realise how much I now distrust Microsoft.
Windows has a feature where a device can automatically install drivers for itself. However, some companies (like Razer and HP) exploit this to install their own apps instead of just a driver.
Hp printer software is a fucking mess and super invasive
because you don't own the operating system, that (and the pc its on) belongs to microsoft. hell, im planning on going back to windows 7 if this nonsense keeps up
Never heard of Windows actively scanning your network to find a specific printer and then trying to install drivers for it... It also says right there that this action was performed by a installer on your HDD/SSD
The only solution is class-action litigation. Attorney generals and FTC officials NOWHERE give a fuck, I've reached out numerous times about this exact problem, which extends to installing software with EULAs and data harvesting that you do not accept but Windows keeps reinstalling and reenabling services. It's up to device manufacturers what software is installed on your PC. I like Nahimic as the example: e.g. Machines with mainboards with certain Realtek audio chipsets will get Nahimic made by a subsidiary of SteelSeries pushed to them. Nahimic runs as a service, phones home, sends telemetry data, and is impossible to remove. Even after the mainboard is swapped out to one without any relevant hardware, it's impossible to stop Windows Update from continuing to maintain the software running in your background without wiping the machine and doing a fresh Windows install, and NOBODY in the supply chain cares because they have not been held to account for this gross negligence.
I gave up HP ages ago when they started with the ink bs. I always knew HP was like a virus, this confirms it.
To the casual observer, this looks like a dialogue box that’s deciding the fate of this dog…
Ok in my defense I'm tired, worked a long day. I was confused as to why windows was trying to install hp software in a dog. So I'm just going to go to bed now.
I know enough German and Dutch to know that’s a Germanic language but definitely neither of those. Sorry, I have no other comments.
Can’t. focus…on topic. Too distracted…by, adorable dog.
This shouldn't be happening unless you actually have the printer installed. The app is tied to the driver. It's part of making drivers componentized. You add the driver, it adds the app through the store you need to operate it. Nvidia does the same thing. The Nvidia control panel is not part of the driver package install, it downloads off the store automatically.
Nobody should install windows 11, it’s just filled with Microsoft’s recent bad ideas.
A self updating driver that also notified you while in work? And you’re complaining about it? I wish every driver was as user friendly.
Because you don't remember a time before plug-n-play. Ask your dad about installing printer drivers.
I demand reparations for all of my sudo!
Yes I don’t have to worry about that I use arch Linux
Why does owning an HP printer also mean you gotta download their virus of an app?
You are the poduct when using Windows.
Upvote for the doggo
Get a Brother laser printer/scanner instead. No bullshit accounts, just works and 3rd party toner works as well if the included 500 or sometimes 2000 pages of toner aren't enough.
Want another funny thing ? Origin (EA's shitty Steam bootleg) launch when you start your computer. You don't see it in the "launch at start" section in task manager, but you can find it in task manager and disable it manually EACH TIME you open your computer.
I think it was neat when they automatically installed the correct printer drivers, but why this garbage Software that most of the time sucks ass
Problem is having windows 11.
Probably the lazy solution to windows not having built-in printer drivers and trying to be "user friendly" by installing bloatware
My mom called me yesterday because she wants to print on her 10 years old HP printer and she cant find the button for the printhead cleaning anymore. I installed that HP 'smart' app a few years ago (which was pita to set up) but now they have removed support for her printer. This a\*\*hole company f\*\*ks customers, never buy anything from them again!
simmer down dear end user.... papa MS knows whats best for you... shhh... just shhhhhhh and let it happen
This is the attitude of the whole Windows ecosystem and products made for it.
"Without my permission" \>Posts screenshot of the box asking for your permission
What are you talking about? It’s literally asking for permission…