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I just bought a brand new HP Smart and was only able to user the scanner if I do the following:
# Install HP Smart (which I hate since it is always buggy as hell and whenever they have a new update it is pushed on your computer whether you want it or not)
# Create an HP account (required only to use the fucking app the force upon you)
# Provide personal details including mobile phone number
# Register my printer with HP
# And each time I login HP Smart now asks me to to a fucking verification as a human and select fucking rabbits, sharks or other icons - it is fucking annoying and its a waste of time
>> Then I would have to do the same thing for each of my colleague and whenever one leaves it would create a mess
So me being furious as hell tried to return the printer since this fucking HP Smart app was the reason for me in the first place to get rid of the old printer but the HP licensed vendor refused.
I then spent about 5 hours crawling through endless online forums and posts trying to find an easy workaround but did not find anything that worked easily.
HP support staff was not available, I spent endless time talking to a fucking chatbot.
MY SOLUTION:
# DONT BUY HP AN HP PRINTER since those fuckers don't want to make their products more user friendly but instead
a/ steal as much of your personal data as possible
b/ use their software updates to make the use of your fully functional old printer so cumbersome (even if hardware-wise it still works fine) that eventually you give up and resort to buying a new one
# Install the FREE OPEN SOURCE scanning software NAPS2 which does have about 90% of the HP scanning functionality and is away superior to the scanning software that comes with MS Windows
I just installed it and tested back and forth and so far it works like a charm.
I found this software here: https://wethegeek.com/best-scanning-software-for-windows/
Or if you want the direct download https://www.naps2.com/
I wish I had found it earlier -would have saved me many hours of valuable time dealing with this shit. Hope my experience helps some other users facing the same problem.