Bloated HP Printer Drivers and how I got around them...

I bought a HP DeskJet 6980 today, and I was impressed with the hardware side of it. Networkable and noted for good ink mileage I thought I did well until I went to install the printer driver. The minimum install was over 250mb with no choice in the matter. It installed a bunch of apps I didn't want, kept attempting to phone home, enroll me in marketing feedback schemes and insisted on starting a bunch of things on windows startup that I couldn't turn off. I was peeved about this, and upon checking HP's website discovered they had a minimal driver package for this model but it only supported the USB connection not networking which is what I wanted to use. I uninstalled everything and reinstalled the driver for it manually of course as HP's install cd wouldn't cooperate with me. Here is how I did it under WinXP: Going into add remove printers in control panel and attempting to install the printer from the network telling the wizard it was a network printer proved fruitless. This printer although networkable is not engineered properly and does not broadcast itself on the network as a printer device. I confirmed the printer had the proper network connectivity, its name would resolve and that no relevant port was blocked and then re ran the add printer wizard and instead selected local printer, unchecked automatically detect and install my plug and play printer, clicked next and selected create new port and chose "standard TCP/IP port" then clicked past the warning about making sure the printer was properly networked and turned on (it was) and then on the next dialog entered the ip address I had already statically assigned to the printer (through its http interface) gave the port a relevant name (I used the network name I had assigned to the printer however you can use whatever you want. I left the always print to this device even if the ip changes unchecked as I am using a static ip for this printer (printers on a network should always be assigned static ips and properly reserved in whatever DHCP or name service scheme you use (router, firewall etc). On the next screen I clicked finish and windows proceeded to install the new port wherein afterwards presented me with a dialog asking to install the printer software. I clicked on have disk, inserted the HP setup disk that came with the printer (cancelled its autorun attempt) and then clicked next. Windows searched the dick and found the raw driver files it needed and after presenting me with another dialog confirming which printer driver I wanted to use (therewas 4 separate instances of the same driver scattered on the cd, I chose the first one in the list and completed the wizard. It installed the printer software, asked me if I wanted to print a test page which I did and wouldn't you know the printer works perfectly and without all the unwanted bloat. I hope this will help others out there who have bought a new printer and then are dismayed at what is claimed you have to install to make it work. The truth is you don't. I'm sure the above procedure will work with other types of modern printers, even multifunction printers, although some of their functionality could be reduced without at least some of the manufacturers extra software. Your mileage may vary, but even with a local printer ie: usb you can get around the bloat with a similar procedure as above.
Like most annoyances in life if you sit down and think about it there is usually always a way around them.