printers that don't use much resources?

[ChingChang]

which manufacturers make software that doesn't use much resources? I have installed a few HP printers before and they seem to add a bunch of crap, with their software loading at startup.
any recommendations?

 

[-(Xyphox)-]

which manufacturers make software that doesn't use much resources? I have installed a few HP printers before and they seem to add a bunch of crap, with their software loading at startup.
any recommendations?

you can do custom installs and only install the printer drivers

 

[That_Sound_Guy]

All you need to do for any printer you get is manually install the driver yourself from the CD and not follow the automated CD installer for doing it. There is almost always a seperate folder on the cdrom marked "driver" or "windows" and then look for the inf file needed. You could always just download the driver file online as well.

 

[Joe Average]

I grabbed a cheap HP Deskjet D1320 last year from Wal-Mart for $22, and was surprised at how much space the full suite of software would consume: over 500MB, so fuck that. I grabbed the installer, let it extract, copied the hp_webrelease folder, extracted the drivers out and the necessary .inf files, modified them to only install the drivers and not run any additional software, wham bam done.

Those take about 4MB of space and the printer works great and does what I need it to do.

Why HP and other companies bloat that stuff into the upper atmosphere is beyond me... it's ridiculous.

 

[ChingChang]

I might do that, but are there any manufacturers that don't have bloated software? won't some features not be available if I don't install their software?

 

[criccio]

Whenever I install printers, (HP mostly), I have always went to the website and there has always been an option to download "just the driver" as well as the whole software package. Never had a problem.

You DO know how disable startup items, don't you?

 

[ChingChang]

bump

 

[bigdogchris]

Some fo the HP packages can take a GB of storage. It's a joke, they shove all this software down your throat that is no better than what comes with Windows. To bad HP makes great printers =(

 

[gimp]

99% of the time, the software is for informing you of low ink cartridges, and for photo editing/scanning/ocr. I've also seen it include photo album software, and other un-necessary crap for my needs.

you can easily find better, more resourceful software for these things. Even plenty of free stuff out there.

I do the same as criccio. Download JUST the driver from HP's website, and throw the cd away.

the times where the software is necessary, though, I use regedt32 to remove all that hp junk from starting up. Although secpol.msc would work also if you don't want to mess with the registry. And, of course, msconfig.

 

[Zepher]

My HP Laserjets don't take much space and resources, so I would consider getting a laserjet if you don't need color, or a color laserjet if you need color and aren't printing high quality photos. it will print photos fine but nowhere near the quality of even a cheap inkjet.

 

[Impulse]

you can do custom installs and only install the printer drivers

For most printers yes, for an HP networked printer which has built-in WiFi no... I mean, you can still trim most of the fat off the install (all the extra photography/album/w/e crap), but you still need their main app running in order to access it properly, well, on one machine at 'least... And the rest can use it as a shared printer off that one, unless you wanna be able to access the scanning/faxing functions as well, then you need the software again. Or if you wanna be able to scan from the printer to X/Y/Z machine on the household (convenient).

Why am I bitching about it? A) The software is horribly written and even though it doesn't seem to eat much background resources (once tweaked) it does feel really sluggish, particularly on older systems. Takes longer than Photoshop Elements to open on an old P3 933 (when all it's doing is looking up ink levels and displaying a menu of functions) and just runs slow in general, pretty poorly coded if you ask me.

B) As it was originally installed it seemed to constantly peg the CPU util on that old system I mentioned to 100%... It'd back down if another program needed resources but that was still really odd. Once I set a particular process to manual start and gave the AIO printer a static IP the problem seems to have been resolved on that front.

So yea, I'll probably go back to Epson or I'll try Canon the next time I'm getting an AIO for the household. I was talking about an HP C7250 btw... And other than my bitching about the software I'm pretty happy with it. The duplex printing is quite handy, the scanner and it's ADF is pretty nice, and the print quality is generally pretty good, the few photos I've printed at home (usually I send 'em to Costco) have looked pretty nice.

The extra tray for photo paper is a nice convenience too. If it weren't for the sluggish interface the printer would be really really user friendly with advanced features even a noobie can take advantage of.