With every new generation of inkjet or laser printers, there comes new software. Gone are the days when you just installed a simple driver on to your computer and never noticed anything different. First came software to better control your printer, including the ability to run cleaning cycles and check ink levels. That was ok, and also pretty useful. It was nice not having to wait until you got streaky prints missing one color to know that it was time to get a new ink cartridge.

But then with the popularity of home photo printers came photo software. Printers started coming with CDs filled with all sorts of photo editing and management software - all of which was pretty useless. As photo printers got more popular and more fancy, the software that came with them got more bloated.

Unfortunately most people are stuck with all this software because it just installs itself along with the other software that is necessary to run your printer. After it’s already on the computer, most people either are comfortable or technically inclined enough to remove the unnecessary software while keeping the important stuff. Because every printer manufacturer has their own software that differs from printer to printer, there is no easy way for everyone to get rid of software that might be clogging their system. But, if you know for sure that you never ever use any of the photo software that came with your printer, then you can delete it by going to:

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs

There you should be able to find the software that you aren’t using. For instance, you might see something like HP Memories Disc Creator which you have maybe never ever heard of and therefore can delete.

For information about this problem as it applies to HP printers, check out this article.