I've been a fanboi of HP LaserJets for over 30 years, but Win11 tries to persuade you to install HP "Smart" (a PoS PitA) in order to get current drivers. Grrrrr

"Our test Windows 10 PC was far too busy suggesting that we should take a look at Copilot to bother with the HP Smart app nonsense."

10/10 for sarcasm, sirs.

For some reason a mental image of Mrs Doyle arises.

“Will you not have a cup of tea install Copilot? Go on, go on, go on go on go on GO ON…”

“Best to just say ‘yes’, your Grace. It saves time.”

I'm severely allergic to to tea Mrs Doyle, a single cup would kill me.

... Oh, just a small cup then...

Just be thankful it wasn't the latest album from U2 that downloaded automatically. At least an HP driver may be of use to some people.

I have a NUC with a failing fan, so I wouldn’t hear it over the rattle and hum!

It's a download of 242.8 MB - before it gets installed. But I suppose it's better than an unwanted download of Windows 11.

242MB? Time was when we complained about printer drivers growing to that size. But this isn’t even a driver, it’s an ancillary helper app, right?

But this isn’t even a driver, it’s an ancillary helper app, right?

Microsoft even claims to be [1]getting rid of proprietary drivers, so it's a very reasonable question.

[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/11/go_native_or_go_home/

Wait till all those people receive the HP printer Microsoft bought for them (with their money of course)...

"Excuse me, Mr. Consumer person. Please review what your license allows us to share with our partners. Never mind us here under your kilt. All legitimate, I say. Only the necessaries."

I found candycrush and a few other games installed in win10 without my knowledge

Always accompanied by that chirpy “Shovelware Shite just got installed! Check it out!” popup notification that makes me want to punch someone. Anyone, frankly.

“We just used your bandwidth to stick some rubbish onto your drive without your prior knowledge or consent! No need to thank us!!”

Updates should be ONLY FOR SECURITY.

About as welcome as a U2 album?

Why not have ALL versions on Windows install as an OS, pure and simple but maybe with a welcome screen that says something like " Welcome to Windows. We have some great FREE applications that were sure you'll LOVE. Just pop over to www.bloat.windows.com and take your pick of free apps and tantalising tasters"

Or something.

I now feel the need to go and have a shower with carbolic soap and a really aggressive loofah

"I now feel the need to go and have a shower with carbolic soap and a really aggressive loofah"

Sorry, but there is *no* loofah aggressive enough .... unless you tie your loofah to a Bully XL Dog !!!

You need full body 'surface ablation' with lasers ..... only stings a little and you will need to avoid any deodorant sprays or After-shave for a while !!!

:)

What a silly suggestion, why on earth should MS pass up the revenue they can collect from third parties to shovel unwanted shi rubbish onto our systems ?

Don't forget that we are no longer the customer, the purveyors of annoying adverts, slurpers of our search histories*, purveyors of questionable games/hardware (especially HP printers these days), and all the general riff-raff of the commercial world are MS's customers.

* Now that the whole system is designed around using the search box to find stuff instead of just filing it sensibly - and that search box configured to pipe everything we do (alongside all the other telemetry) to ... well we don't actually know do we ?

> Why not have ALL versions on Windows install as an OS, pure and simple but maybe with a welcome screen that says something like " Welcome to Windows. We have some great FREE applications that were sure you'll LOVE. Just pop over to www.bloat.windows.com and take your pick of free apps and tantalising tasters"

Because [1]MS doesn't care what *you* want , and doing things your way runs the risk that people might not take the "opportunity" to install One Drive- then pay MS for the extra storage- or get exposed to Candy Crush- and provide advertising eyeballs and microtransaction fees- in the first place.

Remember that this is the same MS that was aggressively upgrading Windows 7 and 8 users to Windows 10 against their explicitly-specified choice in the mid-2010s, and doing so using techniques that even bland, corporate IT publications were comparing to malware.

[1] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2023/11/30/windows_hp_software_uninvited/#c_4767897

Am I the only one who sees strange devices advertising their presence that apparently belong to folks who are nearby? One of my neighbors had a Rivian, and it seemed to be offering at least three different bluetooth opportunities to connect. My neighbor on the other side has an HP something that is always in my list of potential wifi access points... It seems possible that the device makers who may be collecting lists of hardware visible from our systems aren't concerned about whether we are authorized to connect to them, or ever have connected to them.

> "Would it be that hard for Microsoft to just provide an operating system without needless bloat?"

Of course it wouldn't, but that would be to misunderstand the situation.

MS isn't shoving endless unrequested bloat like Candy Crush onto your computer- or trying to railroad you into using One Drive, or whatever else- because they think it's in *your* interest, nor even do they care about what you want.

They're doing so because it benefits them and/or whoever paid them to put that crap there.

Unless you're a *very* large corporate customer, MS isn't much bothered about your individual needs.

If you're a low-end, low-profit consumer or small business customer, they don't give a toss and don't need to. As the cliché goes, you're not the customer, you're the product.

In other words, shut up and play Candy Crush because we'd quite like some of those microtransaction fees.