HP printer now asking to create an Account and register...

[king1]

Just had one of these dumbass printers to connect up today, the HP smart software eventually (after about 3 goes at printing) popped a message saying that this printer cannot print without an HP account being created and linked. 

and then it did the, we're signing you up to a six month trial of our subscription instant ink service, which was iirc about $8/month for 100 pages... Declined...

HP just seems to go out of their way to find new ways for consumers to hate them...

Funny you say that.
Turns out in my instance that they had actually created an account and the printer had disconnected from it for some reason, I ended up performing a factory reset and reconnected back to the account and it seemed to be working, but 2 weeks later the same thing happened and it dropped off and came up with the message that there was a "problem" with the account. I told them to take the piece of crap back to Noel Leeming for a refund and they happily did so, even 6 months after purchase.
I got them a brother instead and no problems.

that sounds like a prediction of my next appointment with him...  I'll let you know when it eventuates...