Originally published at: Windows is automatically installing HP printer bloatware, even if you don't have one | Boing Boing
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I have an HP Laser Printer, so I do have the software installed, both on my PC and my MacBook. I bought the printer used from a friend, but I will probably be replacing it soon. The software just sucks. It does seem to have stopped forcing me to re-login to the HP website every fucking time I use it, though. It will probably start doing that again, soon, though.
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thats actually a real good o…oh. damn.
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I so rarely need to print things that i got rid of my at-home printer and my life was improved. I’ll have to check when i get home if i got this bloatware
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Every day since I switched to Macs 15 years ago has been such comparative smooth sailing. The way Macs are locked down be irritating and can have some drawbacks. But the relative lack of aggravations like this, as well as the near absence of any viruses, has been such a constant relief.
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Other feeds are suggesting the underlying problem is that Windows is currently thinking any printer is an HP, due to a bad update from HP. Since Windows now thinks any printer is an HP, everybody with a printer gets the HP suite.
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Brother laser printers are the solution for my home office.
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That actually didn’t stop this. (Almost?) Every printer got labelled as an HP which resulted in the download.
Everything still worked properly, it was just the name and update metadata.
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Just another reason to disable Windows updates and update when it works best for you, and also review what actually gets updated.
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Thanks @beschizza for the heads-up; I just checked, found the app on my Win 10 PC and uninstalled it.
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Just a heads up, it might re-install itself after you restart your computer. It happened about three times on my computer last week, but seems to have finally worked and it’s no longer there on startup.
I reported it as malware each time in the windows store (an app I did not choose to install in the first place keeps coming back after I explicitly uninstall it), not that it did anything, but I felt a bit of smug satisfaction.
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… if you want a picture of the future, imagine Windows 98 stamping on a human face forever 
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Ok so i’m home now and looking for this HP app and this thing is 285MB. For printer software? This seems like a lot. Uninstalling
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ugh, don’t even get me started on file sizes (especially of ‘routine’ updates), that is like Sorcerer Supreme of my pet peeves.
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I think that’s about half the size of video card drivers 
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From Microsoft’s documentation on “Automatic installation for UWP device apps”:
You don’t say, gentlemen, you don’t say.
Snark aside, this is almost certainly the mechanism at play here. Apparently Microsoft doesn’t know exactly why Windows Metadata and Internet Services thinks that we are all garbage HP printers today; but aside from the misidentification this is design behavior for automatic installation of device apps(including “Print support apps”, which I assume is what HP’s is specifically) from the Microsoft Store on detection of hardware.
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Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the engineers who started HP with an excellent line of electronic test equipment, would be ashamed at how deeply their creation has been corrupted.
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Ack! It left my Brother printer alone, but overwrote my Canon.
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Gone are the days i recommend HP to any one, now its Brother or nothing and laser, just stay away from the ink jet printer con…
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