I had the exact same problems while printing from Vista:
* Bloated HP drivers that took forever to install
* Magically disappearing drivers
* Unable to print after 2 days of (re)installing the drivers
The most reliable solution is to get rid of Micro$0ft Windows Vista, and install a decent distro of linux that comes with built-in printing support.
My HP Photosmart C6100 works perfectly with
Ubuntu out of the box.
PS. Still wondering whether this is Vista support, or Vista scrap, forum. I'd go for the latter :P
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Dragon