Remember the case when HP Smart was automatically installed on Windows devices, even without a printer?
Almost all versions of Windows are affected
As Neowin summed it up correctly: “Does Microsoft really think that pinning TikTok to the Start menu improves productivity?” That's the simple way it can be summed up. It is also strange, as we have pointed out several times, that the operating system boasts such applications and serves ads in a product that is not free after all. Every time you buy a device, there is a very high probability that it will come with Windows 11 and then the license will already be paid for. Even if you upgrade from Windows 7 “For Windows 11, you've already paid for Windows,” we wrote about this back in December.
Now the case has taken two turns: Microsoft maintains that it was not an HP update that caused the installations, and that Microsoft launched software to resolve the error that was initially unsafe to use.
By all means do not use the first edition
The Microsoft Printer Metadata Troubleshooter was first launched in December. And now, incredibly, Microsoft confirms that users should download a new version of the software, which was released on January 5, because this version fixes a bug that allowed hackers to engineer dangerous code using the original version.
“If you downloaded before January 5, 2024, you must delete the previous version. If you are already running a version of this tool, no further action is needed,” Microsoft writes, so let's hope it's finally done
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