HP DESKJET 6980 Vista printer woes

Tonight I tried to install my HP Deskjet 6980 on my Vista Beta 2 machine. After downloading the XP drivers from HP (just the drivers download, not all the extra crap) and running the install I received a message saying that my OS is not supported. I next tried to run the install using compatability mode, but the installer is a smart little bugger and came up with a mesage saying it can't 'run as administrator'.

Feeling quite frustrated I went to online HP tech support to see if they could help. The person I spoke to was quite nice though not very helpful. Basically I was told that there were no drivers available for beta 2 though there might be in a few months. The only recommended option was to install one of the drivers loaded with Vista, but the driver would not support printing over TCP. The whole reason one purchases the 6980 is for its built-in wireless print server. And so that was the end of story....or so I thought.

As I tried to do the install again I realized watching the progress bar as it goes through the initial setup that its most likely extracting all the files in the setup cab and then validating the OS. I guessed that if I could find those files I could directly add the printer and use the INF files and potentially it 'might' work. So after a bit of playing I managed to do just that, I got the driver installed, got the tcp port setup, and voila.....I am able to print now full color from Vista.

Here's the steps for those that are interested. I am guessing similar process will work for many other 'unsupported' drivers as well.

1. Run the setup. If will run for a while then fail and tell you that you have an unsupported os.
2. Go to printers on control panel and add a new printer
3. Add a local printer and select LPT1.
4. Select 'have disk' for the driver.
4. Browse out to 'CUsers/YourName/AppData/Local/Temp/hp_webrelease/autorun.inf'
5. Select HP 6980
6. It will take a few minutes and then will finally complete the install.

The printer is now installed now all you have to do is setup the tcp port.

1. Go to printers and get the properties on your new printer.
2. Go to the ports tab.
3. Press 'Add port'
4. Choose 'Standard TCP/IP Port'
5. Make sure your printer is on.
6. Enter the IP of your HP printer. It should locate your printer. Press OK.
7. On the port page check the new TCP port if it is not checked.
8. Print away!

Cheers
GB