{"id":215,"date":"2009-12-15T04:09:46","date_gmt":"2009-12-15T11:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/2009\/12\/15\/hp-includes-crapware-with-printer-driver-i-like-the-printer\/"},"modified":"2009-12-15T04:09:46","modified_gmt":"2009-12-15T11:09:46","slug":"hp-includes-crapware-with-printer-driver-i-like-the-printer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/2009\/12\/15\/hp-includes-crapware-with-printer-driver-i-like-the-printer\/","title":{"rendered":"HP Includes Crapware with Printer Driver (I like the printer)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, it hasn\u2019t been a happy holiday season this year.  I find myself looking for work as my entire department was eliminated. A few days before Chanuka and two weeks before Christmas.  I\u2019d been at Comcast 12+ years.<\/p>\n

So, I found myself assessing the tools I need for job hunting (it\u2019s been a while since I was at Comcast 12+ years). My Xerox Personal Copier (circa 1994) needed a drum\/cartridge (approx $100) and my 8 year old fax machine (a $129 Brother) was sending stuff that was unreadable. True, I don\u2019t use a fax much anymore, but there are a few  non tech entities that still don\u2019t understand email and scans. I had a scanner that went in the dumpster about 10 years ago that I never replaced. It lasted just long enough to digitize my heirloom family pictures and my own film prints and negatives. <\/p>\n

Staples had this HP 8500 Pro 909g printer\/fax\/scanner\/color copier which, with a printer trade in rebate, was $249.98. And there is a $50 mail in rebate on top of that. OK, $200 to replace my all dead and dying Jurassic period home office communications\/imaging devices seemed like a good deal. C|Net liked this printer, too.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

I had an 8 year old printer to trade, and a friend to carry equipment  up and down stairs for me. I played with the printer at Staples for quite a while and liked what I saw. <\/p>\n

Hardware setup was quick and easy. I have no complaints there. Then I installed the printer driver suite. <\/p>\n

Imagine my displeasure when, at the end of the install, I launched IE and I noticed the Yahoo toolbar had been silently installed without my permission. And IE immediately crashed. Way to go, HP. I re-opened IE and disabled the Yahoo toolbar add-in, closed the browser and was greeted with a second \u201cInternet Explorer has stopped working\u201d intercept.  Opened IE and found some additional HP Browser helper objects (BHO\u2019s) in Manage Add-ons and disabled them. Closed the browser. Uninstalled the Yahoo toolbar. Back to normal. <\/p>\n

I then decided to contact HP Support to complain about foisting this crap on unsuspecting consumers. The first email response was from a delta semi moron who told me to contact Microsoft for Internet Explorer support in uninstalling the Yahoo toolbar. I emailed my reply and heard back from a different support rep. Apparently HP has so many complaints about the crapware they install that they have a permanent FAQ<\/strong><\/a> that includes the language \u201c ..special offers at HP Deals \u201c. The installer also PINS<\/strong> two icons to the Windows 7 Start menu.  <\/p>\n

OK, I\u2019ve vented. I feel better now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, it hasn\u2019t been a happy holiday season this year.  I find myself looking for work as my entire department was eliminated. A few days before Chanuka and two weeks before Christmas.  I\u2019d been at Comcast 12+ years. So, I found myself assessing the tools I need for job hunting (it\u2019s been a while since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[17,64,35],"tags":[],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":""},"post_excerpt_stackable":"

Ok, it hasn\u2019t been a happy holiday season this year.  I find myself looking for work as my entire department was eliminated. A few days before Chanuka and two weeks before Christmas.  I\u2019d been at Comcast 12+ years. So, I found myself assessing the tools I need for job hunting (it\u2019s been a while since I was at Comcast 12+ years). My Xerox Personal Copier (circa 1994) needed a drum\/cartridge (approx $100) and my 8 year old fax machine (a $129 Brother) was sending stuff that was unreadable. True, I don\u2019t use a fax much anymore, but there are a…<\/p>\n","category_list":"HP<\/a>, Software<\/a>, Technology<\/a>","author_info":{"name":"Barb","url":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/author\/barb\/"},"comments_num":"1 comment","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pvFKI-3t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}