useful find for people who hate bloat

Hello,
I was looking for updated drivers for my HP all in one printer/scanner.
I have always hated the fact five HP processes start when i turn on the computer. and the possible phoning home.
so i found the basic scanner and printer driver.
I uninstalled all the bloated HP stuff rebooted and installed the basic scanner and printer driver.
I connected the device when told to.
now it only has one HP process called HPZipm12.exe
now why doesnt Hp ship this driver on the disc that comes with the product?
i hate bloat and which i had known about this driver before.
lodore

 

Good find lodore.

I have something similar (2610).
What can I say, you're absolutely right. Hp's hardware is excellent, but they just write HORRIBLE software. The installation package (drivers & useless software) that came shipped with 2610 is 200-300 mb in size, and when installed it takes 700-800 mb on a HD! WTF Besides, it's a resource hog.

Could you provide a link for the specific driver you found? I'd like to try it out...
Thanks,

 

I have Photosmart 2710.

When I hit CTRL/ALT/DEL I can see this HPZipm12.exe running. After a reinstall of XP a while ago I think I downloaded the drivers from HP, not install from disc.

I have more than HPZipm12.exe:

hpwuSchd2.exe (HP software Update)
hpqtra08.exe (HP Digital Imaging Monitor.Ink)
hpqthb08.exe (HP Image Zone)

I have these stopped with Autoruns.

But I also find this one listed in Autoruns, not stopped:

hpzipm12.exe (PML driver) What is this?

And I also find these listed in Autoruns:

hptcpmon.dll (Standard TCP/IP Port Monitor DLL) What is it? Need it?
hpzlnt12.dll What is it? Need it?


Do I need all this stuff?

I also do believe I have something for scanning a document, dont remember the name, maybe OCR Iris or something. I have used it a couple of times, long time ago and it worked. Any other free tool I can use for scanning?

 

Hello tepe2.

That's a bidirectional printer driver. It could be helpful, though not necessary for printing. It is used for scanning and other stuff (card reader) apparently, so I would leave it alone. Pay attention to post #8 in this thread.

That would be for networked printers, I presume. When a printer is networked, it is assigned an IP address. That service (port Monitor) listens on your network for a printer (on some port, presumably random). If your printer is directly hooked to your PC, disable this service, as it may pose some secutiy risk (some network comms may be opened without obvious purpose)

This one is related to previous dll, Port Monitor. Can be disabled if printer is not on a network. I am not sure what it actually does.

Good. These can be disabled without any ill effects, especially the last one. But then again, some may find them useful if the whole suite of HP software is being used.

I just use "Technology Without An Interesting Name", from Photoshop.

Cheers.

 

Thank you so much Seer, for helpful info

 

You're welcome tepe2.

I'm still waiting for lodore's link, though. I know how to tweak HP drivers & software, I have this printer for a couple of years, so I had to learn.

I would like that I don't have to do tweaks by installing a simplest driver possible. lodore's uses one process only, so... that could be it.

Cheers again.

 

Seer - you can just search the HP site for the driver...

Well whatever: heres the basic driver page for the PSC 2610 (XP)

 

Yeah, I could/should have bothered to do a search...

Thanks WSFuser.

lodore, is this the same you found? Or similar (for similar printer)

 

Hi seer,
yes it it basically the same driver but for your model of printer.
do you have a screen on your printer showing ink levels?

now i need to take my all in one printer scanner unit back to the shop since it wont scan. not even as stand alone.
lodore

 

You mean on a small LCD display? No, 2610 doesn't have such feature...

 

If I remember correctly, my computer doesn't even have HPZipm12.exe running, but still prints. I'm not sure what I did. I could double check for you all if you want. The thing about that process is that you can't turn it off...so I can't be sure why that is happening on my comp.

 

I have an HP printer and it uses the XP generic driver. Why not just use that? My printer works fine. It doesn't have all the "extras" that it had with the HP software for 98SE (this printer is over eight years old now) but I seldom print anything so it is fine. I went nuts, like most do, when I got my first computer with a lot of printing but gradually grew out of that silly habit. The only reason I will be replacing this printer within the next year is because ink is too expensive for it. Otherwise, its outstanding still after all these years. (But it requires one color cartridge and that makes the ink extremely expensive. I want a printer with three separate color cartridges).

 

I did likewise, have an old HP 1125 Deskjet, which runs just fine on the windows drivers, no HP software installed.

 

seprate colour cartriges isnt always cheaper.
my old printer used 4 ink cartriges and was an epson.
but my current printer uses one colour and one black cartride and the ink is cheaper.
at least with epson if one of the colour cartriges goes the status manger tells you to replace them all which each cost £10 each.
the Hp one colour cartridge costs me around £10 and i only need one not 3 like in my old epson.
lodore

 

Hello,
for some reason i couldnt scan when i had the basc scan and print driver installed.
I even restored a fresh windows 2000 pro image on my test pc and the basic scan printer driver still didnt scan on that.
it was all detected but it wouldnt let me scan.
so for now ive installed the bloated drivers from the cd.
has anyone tryed scanning to the computer after you have installed the basic driver?
lodore

 

Hi lodore et al:

I hope this is not a HJ post! If it is I hope the moderator will split it off for me!

Yesterday, I just installed a new PC and brought Vista home edition ON MY FRIENDS new 64 bit 2GB RAM HP Pavilion PC. I view it as a chance to learn Vista on someone else's PC

This PC is using the old flat screen monitor, it works and the HP all in one printer/scanner like the one you describe. The old pc died motherboard failed and I took the hard drive out and it is in a casing waiting to move client data over to new machine and become the external drive.

I have never seen so much bloat on 1 PC in my life! 1st the Vista bloat and then this HP software bloat then the installed NIS 2007 60 day bloat.

I have no doubt that over time I can pare this PC down to the essentials for my client. Here are my questions:

1) Is it possible to have Win XP sp2 replace the vista?
2) Can XP support a 64 bit PC?
3) Is there a source for listing all the unneeded/ or dysfunctional HP software?
4) Is the thread here for vista hints on security efficiency improvements

 

Bloat? jv16 Powertools picks up the bitter truth!

See Screen Shot

HP likes it this way!!

 

The Camera and Scanner Wizard was unable to detect my scanner, however using XnView to scan worked fine.

Well you can format and then install Windows XP SP2.

Windows XP will install on a 64-bit PC. There is also a Windows XP Pro x64 if youre interested.

 

I bought similar all-in-one HP device (printer,scanner,copier) as a Christmas present for myself . It looked good but after two or three months of usage , I hated it . So many HP processes because of the extra bundle unnecessary programs and start-ups . I found they "phone home" as you say.

I did the same as you did, installed the basic soft and things got better . But it was still not effective for me - I used to buy new cartiges for this PSC every month and I do print a lot of ads , docs , msgs ...

I got tired of all these things and just gave away this create to relatives + a CD with the basic software/drivers which they can use.

I returned back to my HP Deskjet 920c - ancient printer produced 1999 (AFAIK) but it really works . XP recognises it itself automatically , just one small driver , everything is smooth,fast and well . It is still working and it is cost-effective . As I wrote I do print a lot but with it I change the cartages once in 70-80 days,which I find it very well .

In case my 920c dies , I will never again buy all-in-one PSC device - only printer and I'll be very careful with the extra "free" bundle . I advise you do the same

We all hate it but such a big company earns money because of all these extra software . We have paid them for sure , they are included in the device price . Who knows what info do these send when they "phone home" , they may also use it for advertisement campaign

 

Hi hitech boy,
I think i will buy a seprate printer next time round.
I think ive only replaced the cartriges in this printer once.
my really old epson was plug and play in XP but because my current device is an all in one to use the scanner i have to use HP drivers.
the printer works fine with the basic driver but the scanner doesnt which is really annoying.
i think im gonna face a similar situatuon soon if i decide to get a laptop.
dell laptops may be decent laptops but removing all the crap isnt much fun.if i decide to get a laptop i might try and create a nlited vista without all the crappy software installed.
has anyone tryed that?
lodore

 

lodore - have you heard of PC Decrapifier? It can remove many of the included software on computers and its easy to use.

As for a vLited Vista on a laptop. I dont have my own laptop with which to try but as long as you have the drivers I think it should be ok.

 

yes ive heard of it but cant find the link.....
can you give me the link please?
also does it work on dell laptop's with vista?
lodore

 

Not have used jv16 Powertools is the attached list of HP software all bloat or just a list of HP software?

 

Hi WSFuser:

On this new 64 bit HP PC I need to KNOW (and I'm not trying to parse words here) if the PC will not only install but run properly under windows xp sp2. Has anybody actually run a 64 bit PC under winxp sp2?

The client has a licenses w98 and a licensed winxp upgrade disk so I would go back to the future, install w98 then immediately upgrade to win xp sp2 formating entire HP 64 bit PC?

Thanks a lot I'm trying to avoid problems if possible!

 

@lodore - here is the page. I recently used it on my dads Dell laptop with Vista Basic and it seemed to work fine.

@Escalader - YES it will work. One of my computers has an Athlon 64 <<< 64-bit and Windows XP installs fine.

As for your second question, you can just format the disk and pop in the Win98 CD when Windows XP upgrade asks for it.