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Fix for HP Setup Assistant on Mac OS X starts on every login.

So, you bought a new HP All-In-One printer for you shiny new new MacBook Pro and you somehow never finished running the Setup Assistant and now you can’t get rid of it and it runs every time you login right? Happened to me and here is how to stop it from running on every login.

  1. Quit the setup assistant if it is running.
  2. Open /Library/Preferences/Hewlett-Packard Preferences/
  3. Drag the com.hp.setupassistant preference to the trash.
  4. Restart

I’m interested to see how many people find this post. This happened to me because I choose to hit the “Skip” button when the Setup Assistant ran because I was running short on time and didn’t want to setup the printer right then and there. Bad idea. The installer also doesn’t place the the installer in StartupItems or LoginItems which made it even harder to track down.

6 Responses to “Fix for HP Setup Assistant on Mac OS X starts on every login.”

  1. Thank for the tip. It seems to work for me!

  2. Wes-

    Thanks for posting this. Yes, I also had this problem. My problem started because I was installing the printer as a network printer, as my flatmate had his printer shared via his desktop. I had manually set up the printer using the Add Printer Mac OS X interface, installing using the CD only to get the drivers installed. The printer was successfully added, working, and online for me. Next time I rebooted this “assistant” came up and it was too stupid to know I had the printer added already via the share. After a few weeks of the thing driving me crazy, I tried to get it to go away by simply plugging the printer directly into my laptop… nothing.

    Thanks Again! j-

  3. I followed your directions. After trashing the assistant, I restarted my computer. The assistant STILL opened up!!!!!!!! I opened the HP folder and it is no longer there. So, why and HOW is it still opening?????

  4. Thanks for this. I expect that many will find this useful even if they don’t comment. And, it was the top listing in my Google search!

  5. Me too! I tried it, and when I restart we’ll see if it works. Thank you!

  6. thanks, worked!

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