Microsoft acknowledges it's not HP who's auto-installing printer Smart app on your Windows

Towards the end of last month, users online started complaining about how their system was automatically installing HP's Smart app for printers, even when there was no printer on their PC. As the issue was fairly widespread, soon after Microsoft acknowledged it too, confirming that almost all versions of Windows were affected.

Since it is HP's app that is being installed, the initial impression from many people would likely be that somehow the company may be responsible for this bug. However, after further investigation, Microsoft has confirmed that such is not the case.

While the initial post about the issue on the Windows health dashboard only stated that printing processes and jobs shouldn't be affected, the tech giant has now edited that part to add that HP is not responsible for the mishap, along with additional information regarding printer functionality.

Here's what the initial post stated:

Note: Printing processes are not expected to be affected by this issue. It should be possible to queue printing jobs as usual, as well as other features such as copying or scanning. Printers on the device will continue to use the expected drivers for printer operations.

As the symptoms are related to the automatic installation of the HP Smart app, Windows devices which do not have access to the Microsoft Store are not expected to be affected by this issue.

And here's what the updated version of it is now:

Note: Our investigations indicate that this issue is not caused by an HP update. In most cases, it should be possible to use the printer as expected, including queueing printing jobs, as well as other features such as copy, scan, or fax. Printers on the device will continue to use the expected drivers for printer operations.
However, this issue might affect associations with other manufacturer-supplied printer apps used to extend basic printer capabilities. If this is the case, some or all of those extended functions might not work.

As the symptoms are related to the automatic installation of the HP Smart app, Windows devices which do not have access to the Microsoft Store are not expected to be affected by this issue.

You can view the issue on this page on Microsoft's official health dashboard website.

On a somewhat related note, in case it isn't HP but you instead find Canon driver installed on your PC even if you don't have one, do leave your comment on this thread started by Neowin forum member cosrocket. We are trying to understand if this is an isolated case or more widespread.