My place of business has just spent a little of their cash on some table top printers. Nothing fancy, just some H/P 6940 deskjets. These are decent little printers for the money. Intended for the consumer market, they are also nice to have in a business environment, where a big, heavy, over-complicated printer is not required. I was dealt the task of unpacking them and connecting each one to my workplace Windows XP box, to make sure all was well. Not a bad task to be dealt, and someone had to do it. My bosses like to double check things, as we have had our share of ‘out of box failures’ on many items. (Hey, there’s a phrase for the modern age!)
I started with my windows box, as the office where these printers are going is big on windows boxes. Uh, let me say right now; this Dell windows box runs just fine. The anti virus software is all up to date, and I keep the security patches up to date with Microsoft’s baseline security analyzer. Ok? Is everyone Ok with this? Does everyone understand that this is not an anti-windows, anti-microsoft poop-throwing rant? Good, as long as everyone is clear.
Anyway…
I connect the printer to the USB port, and Windows recognized the device almost immediately, with the famous ‘new hardware found’ message in the system tray. The next step, per the instruction sheet, was to plop the supplied disc into the CD tray. I figured the windows driver would install, and in a few seconds, I’d print the standard windows test page, just as you would with any other printer you just set up. Simple enough, right? Not so fast.
This CD installed a boatload of additional software, without a menu ever appearing, asking me if I wanted to install any of it. The entire package was enormous, more than 200 megabytes I think, and included photo managing software and numerous ‘service options’. Those service options planted bells and whistles in the system tray and start menu, and included some gizmo that pops open all by itself, and reminds the operator to take advantage of all that HP has to offer, or something like that. I didn’t pay much attention to it, as my first thought was more along the lines of how to get rid of it.
Really, all I wanted to do was install the printer driver, that’s all. Is that too much to ask? This business of installing all kinds of unwanted software, with icons and menu items that I did not ask for, is going way, way too far. I know, I know, out beloved Apple Computer has pulled this type of stunt on occasion, but this bit about installing all these gee-gaws with a printer driver, without even offering the operator the option of just clicking on a ‘no’ button, is something I consider to be a very annoying problem. Luckily, I’m one of these nerds who sets a restore point on the windows box, before starting something like this, so the unwanted software was easily removed. A trip to HP’s website revealed the presence of a ‘stripped down’ driver package for this printer, with only the driver included, and only for USB connected printers. So, why wasn’t this option included as a choice on the disc that was included with the printer? As one of the wisest men to ever live might have said, ‘We ain’t gettin’ no place fast’. (Or was that one of the ‘wisest guys’ to ever live?)
I ran into a similar some months back, after installing a new video card in a PC. ATI felt it was necessary to install a ton of useless software, in addition to the driver for the card. Checking ‘No, and don’t remind me of this again’ to every window that popped up seemed to solve the problem. But it should not have been necessary in the first place. So,,,,, YOU!!! Yes You, out there in computer land! This goes for everyone at HP, Epson, ATI, and pretty much every vendor,,,
..We only want the driver, understand? I just want that little piece of software that makes the computer talk to the printer, or the video card work the way it’s supposed to. I do not want a lot of bells and whistles, or pop-up reminder boxes, or icons on the desktop. I know you’re in the business of selling things, but at least give me the option of saying ‘no’, to installing useless junk that I don’t want. Are we clear? Jeesh!
I didn’t get around to installing the H/P 6940 software on my workplace Mac, but I suppose I’ll have to try it sooner or later. I imagine it will install all the unwanted nonsense on a Mac as well. Guess I’ll just have to warm up my drag-and-drop fingers, so I can drag it all to the trash.
Anyone got a similar tale?
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