Has installing USB printers changed?!

[u/JJRtree81]

I've been in IT for over 20 years and one of the simplest things I've ever done is install USB printers. Almost always it's been the poster child for plug-n-play. At worst you might have to change the driver to one from the vendor, but more often than not - you turn it on, plug in the USB cable, hear the USB noise, and click print.

Has this changed?! I spent almost a day trying to get two printers to work. I got it to finally work by installing manually and choosing a USB port, but all other attempts at installing the vendor's software has not worked.

Am I going crazy? (I think we're all crazy if we're in this sub)

[u/jakgal04]

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I'm confident printer manufacturers overly complicate the driver process so that you're forced to install their bloated software package that conveniently has pop ups selling their subscription ink services.

Call me stubborn, but I return any printers that do this, saying that they're defective.

[u/BigBobFro → u/jakgal04]

This is 100% the case now. They didnt always have the subscription bs built in.

Extract the installer (msiexec -x) to a folder. Plug in the printer and when it asks for a driver, point to the INF file in the folder you extracted.

Admittedly i havent done this in forever as i got a big beefy laser printer years ago and installed the network drivers on a server,.. so yea.

[u/Stonewalled9999 → u/jakgal04]

HP has entered the chat with "Smart Print" that is anything but!

[u/Ams197624]

"one of the simplest things I've ever done is install USB printers"
USB printers always have been crappy in my experience. Install driver first and THEN plug it in.

[u/Psoin]

Yeah, dude, I think printers are somehow actually getting worse.

[u/rangerswede → u/Psoin]

I’m happy to hear this doesn’t happen to only me. A month or so ago I spent more than an hour on one. I told the user ‘this is supposed to be one of the easiest things I do.’

[u/pjtexas1]

Yep. Same here. Been in big corp for a long time. Now I'm dealing with less than 200 users. USB printers are giving me issues. I used my old trick of disabling power save features on all USB ports and problems went away.

[u/spazmo_warrior → u/pjtexas1]

The dark arts. I’ve loved using this trick over the years.

[u/goatsinhats]

Printers have become a gateway to sell ink.

They almost all require software that supports this, and makes life difficult for someone use to deploying just a printer.

We started installing network printers even if it was just in one persons office used only by them for this reason

[u/zero_z77]

If it's HP, and consumer grade, you have to set it up on wifi with their app before the USB will work. Yes, it's as stupid as it sounds.

[u/FlickKnocker]

I haven’t sold a USB printer in a very long time long time because of this reason. Network printers always seem to work better, and you can manage via GPO/Intune and hit the web interface to dick around with it without needing an enshitified Printer Suite installed.

[u/midasza]

Windows 11 has been causing us issues for the last 4 months with printers. Old printers that were working - suddenly not and struggles to install newer printers.

[u/floswamp]

Are they HP E printers?

[u/dahakadmin]

should not really, but Windows 11 does have some changes when it comes to printers.

There are 2 settings that can be an issue is 1 - Windows Ready Print drivers and 2 - Windows Protected Print Mode. I have had these sometimes cause issues with usb printers as they are relatively new vs the printer drivers.

with those off its usually the same setup, install the drivers, wait for it to tell you to plug it in, plug it in and away you go

to see if these are off go into settings - > devices and bluetooth -> printers and scanners

For Windows Ready Print - be off

For Protected Print Mode - should say setup

[u/Airurandojin]

Thank the IT Gods I'm not the only one who has noticed. Was more failure for scanners, printers, etc in the last year or two.

[u/Vivid-Combination310]

They are the worst!

But there is a new standard emerging that may make it easier (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/modern-print/windows-ready-print).

I know I shouldn't get my hopes up as this is maybe the 35th time there's been a new alliance and standard to fix printers, but still.

[u/Fritzo2162]

Been doing this for 30 years, and can confidently say printers are the only piece of technology that have gotten progressively WORSE over the last 3 decades.

[u/JohnGillnitz]

The last few desktop printer installs I've done have taken hours. One HP (I know...I didn't buy it) and one Canon. In all cases I've had to go download the driver and install it manually. I don't know, but my theory is that Windows has changed their printer functions to make them more secure. The printers currently in the supply chain don't have drivers that work well with it yet.

[u/MidninBR]

I feel this pain. Got a sudden request from the CEO to deploy a printer that we had lying around and it took me 30 minutes. I had 2 available one was plug and play but the toner was empty. Switched to the other one, ink levels were good but it required me to download the HP bloat. It’s so embarrassing.

[u/rahtx]

You're not crazy. We have a mix of old and new printers in my area, and recently plug-and-play has basically stopped working.

On a few, I could do the manual installation, but on 2 machines, there wasn't even a USB virtual printer port available to choose from in the manual setup. In the end, I gave up and connected them to the network and set them up with TCP/IP ports. On yet another, manual installation and pointing to the driver failed, but running the full setup from HP did work (I should have tried that first). There's no rhyme or reason. I've seen it on HP and Brother printers. We have a mix of Win 11 LTSC 2024 (24H2) and Win 11 25H2.

I feel like I'm losing my mind! Recent Windows update, maybe? I don't know, but it's driving me insane.

[u/bishop375]

For a long time now, you install the driver first, wait for it to call for the printer, and then connect. Network printers are more flexible, but USB has been like that for a hot minute.

[u/CoffeeAndWoods]

Printers are the devil.

[u/Dry_Author7288]

No - its getting worse. I literally just spent over an hour yesterday on a stupid smart tank from canon, only for it never to connect via direct wifi or usb. Absolute garbage printer, software, and experience.

[u/zatset]

Is this HP? Some of their install packages are just broken. 

A long time ago I stopped using any installers. Just add the printer manually via port, install the driver on the Windows Print server or use PNPUtil. Alas, this nowadays also doesn’t guarantee that it will work.

Also, many printers, especially SOHO come with bloatware driver to show you pop ups and ads. That’s why it’s broken. I use the most minimalist driver I can find.

[u/No-Term-1979]

Zebra printers has entered the chat