Review/Note about the HP Officejet Pro 8610 inkject multifunction printer.

This printer is currently on sale for $60 off (at Staples in Canada), which is a great deal. It's a good printer for a small home business. ... with 2 caveats:

It is not great at picking up any cardstock you put in it.
- To get the cardstock to feed properly you have to remove the regular paper from the tray and place about a quarter inch of cardstock in the tray.
I found this was the only reliable method of getting the cardstock to feed. (In other words, if you need to print a couple of sheets, you can't just place them on top of the regular paper in the tray as you could with most printers that can handle cardstock).

The other issue was in relation to installing the software/connecting the printer when Windows 8.1 was involved with connecting to the printer via a wireless network connection.
I found by trial and error, that the Windows firewall was blocking something in the setup that was necessary, even though the firewall settings showed that everything was being allowed that should have been allowed.
- To properly install the software and connect the printer and scanner I had to temporarily disable the firewall during the initial installation and connection process. Once it was done and both the scanner and printer components were tested to work, the firewall could be re-enabled and everything continued to work. This is not a normal issue when installing a network printer.

Knowing these 2 issues and their solutions in advance would have made things a lot less frustrating. HP seemed to be aware of these issues but did not offer these solutions (just solutions that did not work for these cases).

Would I recommend this printer? For this price? Yes. With knowing the above 2 solutions? Yes. Otherwise no.

HP generally makes good quality inkjet printers. But it was frustrating to have to figure out these issues. I'm glad it is finally working.

Update:
2 other things I found that I like:
Compared to my old Officejet Pro 8500A, with the 8610 the automatic duplexer is faster, and the print job is better aligned (straight) on the sheet.

Update 2:
After using it for a while, I found that I could just put a sheet or 2 of cardstock on top of the regular paper that was in the tray to print on cardstock. It was just really finicky when I first started using it.
Also, when installing the printer software in Windows 10, I didn't find I had any of the problems with the firewall settings as I did when I first set it up in Windows 8.1. 

New Computer? Strip out the Gunk first.

I just read a posting about all the mess you have to deal with on a new computer. The mess being all the advertising and trial-ware that comes with many new computers. Sony, Dell, HP and pretty much the biggest culprits in loading up their computers with junk.

When you first boot this machine up, you should go to Add/Remove Programs and strip out all the junk, including trial-ware for security programs, as what usually comes with the computer, programs like Symantec, are not worth the hassle. The big-name computer companies get paid by these other companies to include their trial-ware software on the new computer. It's too bad they don't come with the type of trial-ware that is free all the time - basic versions - that give you the choice of continuing to use it, or upgrade to a more advanced paid version.

When I deal with setting up a new computer for a client, I strip out all this gunk and install free, and easy to use security software programs that give you good security. I also remove a lot of unnecessary programs and services from starting up with Windows so the computer boots up nice and fast and runs fast, as it should.

If you know that you need to expect that you will have to clean out this stuff when you get a computer, it's not so much of a hassle. Don't check it out, just clean it out and be done with it. Every computer needs to be customized when you first get it. ALL PCs, including Macs come set up in a way that may not be how you like it set up. Brand-name computer and software manufacturers like to assume that they know how you want your computer to be set up (with influence from the trial-ware software companies). But, they way they set things up is often not the way you need or want it to be set up.

Once you clean up the mess they put on your computer, it will boot up fast and run fast. Think of the mess as just extra packaging. Yes, it would be great to not have this mess to deal with, but it often results in your computer costing less, and the odd time, you will actually like a piece of the trial-ware and want to use it.