http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/06/microsoft-wins.html

Where does it say that I'll be buying an HP in 2009?
Too many other PCs out there for me to take notice. But I'll keep that in mind.

If you have an HP printer it's hard to work out how any more reg entries could be put on a machine.

You really get tired of all this kind of thing, things being tied to things you buy.

One day when the sun shines purple.........

Yeah, one nice little HP printer and several hundred MB of unnecessary software and start-up entries.
HP!!! "Call home" with print statistics, "free daily software updates" several times a day,"advance notifications" always at the most inconvenient time and of course the all important "ink level monitoring" program.
O Joy!!!

davey

I have a Brother All-In-One MFC-240C USB attached printer on my XP Home system and I like it.

Buying replacement cartridges can cost more than the printer originally cost so I found a refill company Island Ink-Jet that refilled the cartridges for one tenth the cost of new replacement cartridges.

It has one startup application that provides ink level monitoring and it does not "Call Home" nor check for updates.

I disable all that crap. On many models that have an LCD screen built into the printer/scanner the ink levels can be checked via the hardware, of course the software can be ran once in a Windows session to see what the ink levels are too.

They have way to many registry keys such as installing registry keys for models you don't even have which makes me think they need to rethink and redo their installation routine.

I did all that you mentioned before coming to the forum.
What a fun project??? I will especially remember downloading a couple hundred MB from HP on my little dial-up 56 KB in order to get a driver or something like that and having it refuse to install at the last minute because I "only had 254 MB RAM" and they insisted I must have 256 MB RAM.Really gave me the "warm fuzzies" for HP.No, I didn't take it out on my little HP printer.I could care less what my ink level is.Always have a "back up" on hand.
davey
P.S. I forgot about all the other models software and such.I must be losing my "warm fuzzy" feelings.Sure doesn't take much to bring 'em back.

That's why we all should use The PC Decrapifier (See here) before we start using a new computer that comes frequently pre-installed with all sorts of 'useful' stuff.

That works on OEM computers with everything pre-installed. I'm glad my Dell XP restore CD doesn't put all the crap back on. Some computer manufacturers restore CDs have the nasty habit of installing all the junk people don't want and don't have an opt out option, some are stupid enough to even change an NTFS drive to FAT32 when using a restore CD.

Hi Fred,
Thanks for the reminder about Decrapifier.I did not know about anything like that after HP gave me the "warm fuzzies".
Too bad!!!
Thanks for JavaRa.Sure simplifies maintaining Java.
Now if it would just clean my coffee pot.
davey

CLR works great but rinse it out thoroughly after its use.

It is good for cleaning wick type humidifiers.

Don't brush your teeth with it.

Humidifier?
You are quite welcome to come down to this humidity trap between the Appalachian Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay in Summer.
Oops.Just remembered you are up in Moose country for the Winter.Bet you need that humidifier before you blow-out your PC with a static build-up.
davey Maybe soak 'em overnight in the coffee pot? Nah! Who wants to go all night without a good cup o' Joe.
Of course, a back up pot!!!

I like the canon pixima printer/scanner thing that I have now. The software it comes with will allow you to just install the drivers and nothing else, it doesn't even run any processes at all. The ink for it is ridiculous though.

I have driven down to Raleigh N.C. with a days stop over in Washington DC. to visit the Air and Space museum during late August and thank &Diety for air conditioning as walking outside induced an immediate sweat just like jumping into a swimming pool.

With electric baseboard heaters in my apartment I need it to prevent my nose and mouth from drying up and tasting like a Sahara desert sandstorm.

There's always instant in the microwave in a pinch.

Coffee break:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF5X2t7JyyA <== the quality is a bit poor but the message is good

David Lynch COFFEE:
http://ecomm.davidlynch.com/catalog/coffee.php

WOW! I have an HP PC. It came loaded with a huge amount of crap, including a plethora of things I would consider viruses and it would NOT allow me to delete or uninstall them. HP would NOT help me with the problems I was having. Finally, the tech admitted what I already knew. My problem was the OEM. I then purchased my own XP CD and paid a tech to wipe my hard drive and install it. NOW I have a nice system BUT I should not have had to go through all that trouble and the whopping extra expense. Two years later I bought an HP printer. It slowed my system to a crawl, hung up mid-print and sometimes simply could not be found. Calls to HP always resulted in the same answer: Re-install the setup again. I took the printer back to the store and got a refund. What you need to know about HP. GOOD Products. BAD software and BAD support.

NOW I have a Brother MFC-240C printer (same as YoKenny's) It is pretty good BUT I have a question about to post elsewhere.

You can disable most of HP's startup programs, and when you're out of Ink it's either Windows or some generic HP program that will tell you you're out. I only start the main HP program for a visual reference of the ink levels however that isn't even necessary if you have an LCD screen on your HP printer as some of them have a built-in ink level you can see on screen.

That is 110% true my friend. Their printer/scanner combos are very high quality which I much prefer over the likes of Lexmark, etc., however their software and support is downright sinfully dreadful.

They just need the guys and gals that code the Lexmark software to code theirs as well as it's very minimalistic and gets the job done without all the bloat.