HP Printers, Scanners, and MFP's That Don't Require HP Smart

[HumbleSage]

Anyone know where I can find a list of what printers, scanners, and MFP's made by HP that *don't* require the HP Smart App?

TL;DR
Being an enterprise level administrator I need some guidance on being able to buy HP printers without this Apps interference (or I guess I'll find another vendor). I won't digress into the insanity that HP has introduced with it's requirement of connecting to their cloud for printing and scanning, you can find plenty of that with a Google search. I will share a recent support experience with a client that has fueled my request.

I have a client that owns a HP OfficeJet 8035e. They tried to set it up themselves and ended up tying it to an HP Smart account they made. We use Remote Desktop Services and have other Enterprise and security concerns to maintain our printing environment (especially locking out the Windows Store entirely), especially after the PrintNightmare exploit came out. We have developed a solid installation process that requires using Full and/or Basic drivers depending on the home office printer our remote workforce uses. Most of the time they are HP OfficeJets and up until now it's been a breeze to manage and maintain. Circling back to the troubleshooting, we tried everything to get this printer to break away from HP Smart and this account but in the end we couldn't do it. HP clearly locks the firmware in the printer to require HP Smart/Cloud login. No reset, reset to factory defaults or driver workaround installations would get the printer connected for printing and scanning. All we would get is the standard HP Cloud problems of it not being able to connect to the account to print or scan (which is absolutely unacceptable).

We ended up bagging it with no resolution in the end and the costs involved with troubleshooting were over 3 hours with salaries tied up for my team and the executive involved. That's a lot of money because for a printer issue that should be simply solved with a print driver.

HP, if you're going to force people to use your Cloud and HP Smart App just to print and scan and lock them out of the ability when something goes wrong just to further fuel what is clearly datamining and analytics for your own ends at the expense of your customers who have *already paid* for your product that's just all sorts of wrong. Count on IT professionals finding a new solution with a new vendor. If you decide that you will make it easier for IT Professionals to steer clear of these products and give them products they can use then you just may save some face, but you have to be full-disclosure on what these printers are AND make it easy to identify. Even if that means putting a big badge on the HP Store pages that say: REQUIRES HP SMART CLOUD blah, blah, blah...

[Valsimot]

The HP 8035e is an HP+ printer. https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/hp-plus-printing-solution 

For your ( your customer) needs HP+ is not the right choice, you should go for a standard printer.

[Repairatrooper]

If you have enterprise concerns about security, then you should be directing your clients to enterprise level products such as the HP E45728 for lower volume users and any of their other enterprise products for higher end models. Many of their other models can scan and print local when you download and install the offline Webpack drivers but in some cases printers are designed to be used with an account to fulfil instant ink requirements.

The HP + setup on this model is optional but the client will forgo free 2 year warranty and free instant ink offer had they chosen that. Not sure if you can cancel the + or not but you would need to contact Instant Ink support with that question.

[HumbleSage]

I appreciate the insight provided but none of it is really helpful. As I said in my original post, we performed all the troubleshooting, including what you've pointed out @repairatrooper. If HP+ is merely an add-on then HP needs to make it easier for IT Professionals to break away from that service. The fact that they do not proves they care little about the resolution of problems and instead would rather make it an overly time consuming process to basically get their analytics and tie up a device that requires their intervention.

I too thought it would be as easy as logging into the Smart App and remove the product, but even that page forces you to call support. Unacceptable. After 20+ years of loyal HP recommendations I'm going to have to find another vendor that makes this easier.

[timbos]

I found a solution that works for me.  I download the software I need for my printer using my old windows 8.1 pc.  Copy that downloaded software onto a USB stick.  Stick that USB stick into the new PC with windows 11.  Disconnect new PC from internet (might not be needed, but I did anyway).  Install printer software from USB stick.  Voila...no need for the cloud or some stupid app.

I only downloaded the scanning software by the way.  During the setup process, I selected the option "connect printer at a later time" or something like that, only because I did not want to connect my new pc to the internet before the installation was finished.

Now I can scan without having to login to the HP cloud.  I now have the same scanning desktop icon on my windows 11 PC as I have on my windows 8.1 PC.