HM2k, THANK YOU, I had thought I tried EVERYTHING same scenario,
and was starting to want to go into destroy everything mode…because I’m just completly baffled and ofcourse HP customer support is really good at wasting time and being unproductive in finding a useful solution…

followed your instructions to the T
(except at the very end I figure you had a flatbed scanner, instead I got the correct driver for my HP all in one)
had the following happen when I ran setup:
was told “a newer version has been found on your computer, setup will now exit”
sighs…went back to the drawing board:

had to do a little bit more homework, first thing was doublechecked the steps, ran the Windows installer clean up (after installing it) removed ALL HP stuff, then did a search on my laptop for ‘HP’ and deleted EVERYTHING, then installed, it had me restart a few times still gave me the message at the end but this time before I hit ok to let it uninstall itself I decided to see if I could print, opened a document and sure enough the printer showed up so i exited the install (which was now trying to uninstall itself) and now everything works, even got a second printer connected. whew what a mission, thanks hp *shakes head*

@Ken you can get Windows Installer CleanUp Utility here:
http://www.letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=Windows+Installer+CleanUp+Utility
(and for anyone else that realizes it – hope you can appreciate, yes the link works)

The, “Windows Installer Cleanup”, (http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5) link is incorrectly formatted and DOES NOT WORK.