HP Printer Install Woes
Yesterday I received my new printer. It's a HP Photosmart Plus B209, which is printer, scanner, copier and wireless.
I never used to pay too much attention to instructions, but I've found myself reading them more and more as I get older. Not sure what's up with that. Anyway, the printed instructions are pretty brief - in short, unpack the printer from the packaging then put in the CD to continue the printer setup.
This was my mistake which I'll come back to later.
The Good
It took some time to go through all the steps, and although I didn't have any trouble at all, it did take some time for the printer to do it's first print after doing whatever it was doing during the 'aligning' printer phase.
Once this finished and the installer completed, I tried a few scans and prints, and although it's early days, I'm pretty happy with it. I didn't have a wireless prior to this new printer, so printing was really a pain in the neck, so it's an immediate improvement.
The Bad and The Ugly
Why must hardware devices always come with really bad software - these things are really the definition of crapware. All I want is a simple driver, but no, HP decide I need browser plugins, the Yahoo toolbar, image editors and libraries, and god knows what else. All without even asking me. At least, if there was an option, is was hidden somewhere non-obvious.
That was my mistake - putting in the CD.
When it came to connecting the printer to another laptop, I decided I wasn't simply going to use the CD that came with it. Thankfully, there is a smaller download (although still nearly a 100MB download if memory serves) which is just the driver. This did just what I wanted. Thankfully.
It's not just HP of course. All hardware devices seem to come with either crapware or bundled software that you just don't want. I wish they would STOP DOING THIS!
Not that they will, but this has helped vent some frustration at least.
