How to add a new printer to windows 8. How to make a network printer. How to connect a network printer, Windows setup. Why the system does not see the printer
Nowadays, you can often observe such a situation when some of the computers in the office are still running Windows XP (since their hardware is not powerful enough to install later OS), and some are already more recent computers running Windows 7 or Windows 8 Just imagine: we have 2 computers - one on Windows XP and one on Windows 7. A printer is connected to each computer via USB. And we need to be able to print from every computer to any printer. If both computers were running the same OS, then connecting the printer would be more than simple. But when the OS is different, just "Connect" the printer will not always succeed.
In this article, I will teach you how to properly connect a printer over a network when the local computer and the remote computer with the desired printer are working under different OS.
So, we have 2 computers: one with Windows XP (comp1), the second with Windows 7 (comp2).
One printer is connected to each computer via USB and drivers for local printing are installed. Those. so far every computer can print to your printer, but can't print to someone else's printer over the network.
Step 1. Setting up computer # 1. As always, the first step is to share the printer on the network, i.e. Sharing the printer.
For Windows XP: click Start -\u003e Control Panel -> Printers and faxes -\u003e right-click on the desired printer -\u003e select Sharing -\u003e ... and set the network name for our printer.
(For Windows 7 (8), in this case, you need to do the following: click Start -\u003e Control Panel -> Devices and Printers -\u003e right-click on the desired printer -\u003e select Printer properties -\u003e Access tab -\u003e set a network name for our printer.)
Also, for Windows 7 and 8, you need to check if sharing is enabled on your computer.
Step 2. Go to computer # 2. We go from it to computer number 1 over the network and check whether the printer opened for the network is visible. To do this, type \\\\ comp1 in the explorer and press Enter.
We see that the desired printer on computer # 1 is open to the network. But since our computers are running different operating systems, we will not click Connect, because we will most likely get the print service (spooler.exe) crashing as a result:
We'll just leave this window open to see the network name of the printer.
Step 3.Download the driver for the computer OS # 2 from the official website of the printer manufacturer. In our case, this is the Windows 7 driver for the HP LaserJet 1020 printer.
We step on the downloaded file with the right button and select Extract to the hp-lj-1020-xp folder.
The trick is that instead of an exe file, we now have a folder with unpacked drivers, which can be pointed to the installation wizard so that it can take the drivers for the OS we need from there.
Step 4. Manually add a network printer to computer # 2... For this in the window Printers and faxes for (Windows XP) or Devices and Printers (for Windows 7 (8)) click:
Setting up the printer -> Local printer (in XP, immediately remove the checkbox PnP Printer Auto Detection) -\u003e set the selector to position Create a new port -\u003e in the drop-down menu, select Local Port -\u003e in the window Enter the port name manually enter the full address of the printer we need from computer # 1:
\\\\ comp1 \\ HP1020 (letter for letter including spaces, if any!)
and press OK
The system creates a new local port.
-\u003e click OK -\u003e select the driver we need from the list -\u003e Next -\u003e select a name for the network printer, under which it will be displayed on computer # 2 (for example HP1020 ) -> Next -\u003e select No printer sharing (for Windows 7,8)... -\u003e Next -\u003e if necessary, set or uncheck the box ... By default -\u003e Done.
The printer has been added!
Similarly, you can add a printer from PC # 2 to PC # 1. In this case, we need to download the driver for the HP LaserJet 1005 MFP under Windows XP and add the printer to computer # 1 via the Local Port.
Hello.
I think that the advantages of a configured printer on a local network are obvious to everyone. Simple example:
If access to the printer is not configured, then you first need to upload files to the PC to which the printer is connected (using a flash drive, disk, over a network, etc.) and only then print them (in fact, to print 1 file, you need to make a dozen " unnecessary "actions);
If the network and the printer are configured, then on any PC in the network in any of the editors you can press one button "Print" and the file will be sent to the printer!
Conveniently? Conveniently! Here's how to set up a printer for a network in Windows 7, 8 and will be discussed in this article ...
STEP 1 - Setting up the computer to which the printer is connected (or how to "share" the printer for all PCs on the network).
In order to be able to use the printer with any PC on the network, you must correctly configure the computer to which it is connected.
To do this, go to the Windows control panel, in the section: Control Panel \\ Network and Internet \\ Network and Sharing Center.
In the window that opens, you need to alternately open three tabs (Fig. 2, 3, 4). In each of them, you need to tick the boxes next to the items: enable file and printer sharing, disable password protection.
Figure: 2. sharing options - expanded "private (current profile)" tab
Figure: 3. open tab "guest or public"
Figure: 4. opened tab "all networks"
Here, select your printer, right-click on it (right mouse button) and select the “ Printer properties". In the properties, go to the "Access" section and put a tick in front of the item " Sharing this printer"(See fig. 5).
If access to this printer is open, then any user of your local network can print on it. The printer will be unavailable only in certain cases: if the PC is turned off, in sleep mode, etc.
Figure: 5. Sharing the printer for general access over the network.
You also need to go to the "Security" tab, then select the "Everyone" user group and allow printing (see Fig. 6).
Figure: 6. Now printing on a printer is available to everyone!
STEP 2 - How to connect a printer over a network and print to it
Now you can proceed to setting up computers that are on the same local network as the PC to which the printer is connected.
The first step is to launch a regular explorer. At the very bottom left, all PCs connected to your local network should be displayed (relevant for Windows 7, 8).
In general, you click on the PC to which the printer is connected and if in step 1 (see above) the PC was configured correctly, you will see the shared printer. Actually - right-click on it and select the connection function in the pop-up context menu. Usually, connection takes no more than 30-60 seconds. (there is an automatic connection and configuration of drivers).
Then select the connected printer, right-click on it and enable the option “ Use as default«.
Figure: 8.use the default network printer
Now in whatever editor you are (Word, notepad and others) when you press the "Print" button, the network printer will be automatically selected and you will only need to confirm the print. The setup is complete!
If when connecting printeran error appears over the network
For example, a common error when connecting a printer is the standard “Windows cannot connect to the printer…. "And some error code is issued (like 0x00000002) - see fig. nine.
It is impossible to consider all the variety of errors in one article - but I will give one simple advice that often helps me get rid of such errors.
That's all. By the way, if the printer does not print, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with this article:
As always, thanks in advance for any addition to the article! Happy work!
Windows 8.1 works very neatly with printers (and other network devices), as no other version of Windows has worked so far. If these devices exist and Windows 8.1 sees them on the network, the installation will happen automatically.
This means that the first time you try to print a document, you will most likely see that your network printer is already on the list. Windows 8.1 uses Windows Update to search for necessary drivers and install devices in the background. Usually, you just plug in your printer and Windows 8.1 takes care of the installation.
However, Windows 8.1 will not be able to install the printer if the drivers for it are not included in Windows 8.1 or are not available on Windows Update. In this case, you need to uninstall and reinstall the printer. There are two main ways to install printers and other devices in Windows 8.1, the simplest of which is using PC settings. Open the PC Settings panel and go to PC & Devices, then Devices. Here you will see a list of all installed devices, but at the top of the window there is an "Add device" button. Clicking or tapping this button starts Windows 8.1 automatically detecting new hardware.
Installing new printers in PC settings.
If you want more control over the printer setup, or if the printer is not found in PC Settings, you can open the Devices and Printers panel. Enter "devices" on the start screen, and view, in the search results, all devices and printers found.
Devices and Printers window.
Attention... To remove a printer or other device in the Devices and Printers pane (possibly because the driver did not install properly), right-click on the desired device and select the option “Remove device”.
There are two ways to add printers in Windows 8.1 in the "Devices and Printers" pane. Click on the "Add device" link in the toolbar at the top of the window, or select "Add a printer", both methods work.
Initially, these options work the same, although they look slightly different. Both search options for network printers and other devices will show them. The main difference is in installing the driver for the hardware.
Dialog box for adding devices and printers in Windows 8.1.
Adding a printer using "Add Printer".
In the Add Devices dialog box, Windows 8.1 installs what it thinks is the best driver available for that hardware.
Attention... If Windows 8.1 previously found your printer on its own and installed it with the wrong driver, it will reinstall the same wrong driver.
If the printer is not automatically found, click on the link "What to do if Windows has not found the device", a help window will open in which you will be prompted how to solve this problem.
Option two, the Add Printer dialog box, is perhaps the most useful method for installing all but the most difficult printers.
If the printer is not automatically found, you can click on "My printer is not listed" and activate additional options for installing the device.
Manually adding a printer.
The Add Printer window has the following options:
- You can add a printer by its network name (usually provided by your IT department).
- You can add a printer by its IP address (discovered after a minute).
- You can add a printer via Bluetooth.
- You can manually configure the printer based on the port location.
Attention... If you need to find the IP address of a wireless printer, you can do this in the settings of the printer itself, on its display. For the exact method to obtain the IP address, see the printer's user manual.
All other things being equal, most likely you do not know the IP address or network name of the printer. The fastest way to solve this problem is to view the printer configuration on another computer. This can be done in Devices and Printers (in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1). Right click on the desired printer and select "Printer Properties". Under the Ports tab, you will see the printer's address.
Changing the printer's address.
Attention... For example, you want to add an older device in parallel. By selecting "Add a local printer or a network printer with manual settings" you can select an LPT port for it.
On a home or small business network, finding the IP printer is easier, although the actual method depends on your router. The following steps describe the general approach:
- Open Internet Explorer.
- Access your router login by entering 192.168.0.1 (sometimes 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1) and pressing Enter.
- Log in to your router with your username and password (if they are still factory defaults, they should be changed!).
- Find LAN settings.
- Open Ethernet settings.
- Find the name of your network printer; its IP address is displayed as shown in the figure.
View the IP address of the printer on the network.
Attention... Let's say you need to reset your router settings. In this case, uninstall and reinstall the printer on all of your computers again, as Windows binds the driver to a specific IP address. To work around this problem, you can set the printer with a static IP address in the router settings.
For full operation of the printer, you need to install additional software - drivers. Usually, they come with the device, on a special boot disk. Without them, the computer will not detect the connected device. Of course, we are not talking about devices that are automatically recognized by the system. I would like to note right away that you need to read the entire article, since there are complex and simpler ways to install drivers and therefore you need to read the article to the end. Almost at the very end of the article there is information on how to install a driver for a printer automatically, keep that in mind. When the question arises of how to install a printer without a disk, inexperienced users think that it is very difficult. But in fact, this procedure can be mastered in 15-30 minutes. Let's check if this is so.
There are two main ways to install a printer without a boot disk, namely, download the necessary drivers from the Internet
- Using basic Windows Update tools;
- By yourself, knowing the identification code of the device or using the printer model.
The first method is perfect for simple printer models (only printing and scanning documents, without additional tweaking), because Windows Update installs a basic driver package.
The second method allows you to download the latest software version, so after installing them, the user will have access to absolutely all printer functions, including more "advanced" ones.
In addition, the reason for installing drivers may be not only their complete absence, but also a malfunction of the device itself. Sometimes, using one or another driver, the printer refuses to print documents, and all because the driver you installed was not suitable for your device. This, of course, is one of the reasons why the printer may not work correctly, but as you understand, we are not talking about this in vain right now. After all, below we will tell you how to download your driver to your computer, but if you are in a hurry, then you may have difficulties. Therefore, proceed in stages.
If you have previously studied this issue somewhere and not one of the methods has been successful, then you can try to reload the driver. This article is universal - here we will tell you how to do it in different versions of Windows.
Therefore, before installing the printer without a disk, you must:
1. Disconnect the device connected to the computer;
2. Go to the "Start" - "Control Panel" - "Devices and Printers" or "View devices and printers";
3. Here you will need to find the line "Add printer" or "Add printer" in the top panel;
4. The Add Printer Wizard will open, select "Add a local printer" from the offered options and click "Next" (for Windows 7). If you have Windows 8 or 10, then at the bottom click "The required printer is not in the list" - and then select "Add a local or network printer with manual parameters" and click "Next".
5. The Add Printer and Other Hardware Wizard will prompt you to select a port, leave the default parameters (LPT1, but in some cases you must select DOT4_001) and go to the next step;
6. Click on the "Windows Update" button and wait until the available drivers are updated;
7. The list of printer companies and major models will be loaded. It may take 5 to 30 minutes. Find the manufacturer on the left and the printer model on the right. Then click "Next". In this case, we chose the HP brand and the LaserJet 1022 model.
8. The installation wizard will ask you to come up with a name for the device (leave the default name or come up with your own), click "Next";
9. Wait for the installation to complete;
10. The "Using General Settings" window will open, here you must select the "No sharing to this printer" option and click "Next" (the window will appear if Windows 7 is installed). If you have Windows 10, then you will see a window where you need to click "Finish" (the same window will appear later in Windows 7).
The next thing to do is to remove the newly installed device. To do this, right-click on the icon that appears for the printer and select “Remove device” from the context menu (this will keep the installed drivers).
After the steps taken, you can connect the printer to the computer. When you connect the printer, you need to wait a bit for the computer to automatically recognize the printer and install it. Then you can print any document to make sure the driver is installed.
How to do it in Windows 7:
Official sites
If you do not have a disc with drivers for the printer, you can download them from the manufacturer's official website. To do this, it is enough to know the brand and model of the printer. You can find them in the documentation, on the case or on the back of the device. If you do not understand the instructions below, you can download the required driver on our website without any fear (all drivers without viruses).
Open any browser and in the search bar enter: "HP LaserJet p1102 printer driver download". In this article I will be looking for drivers for the above device, but you need to specify your model.
As a rule, the link to the developer's official website will be on the first search page, at the very top. But it does not always happen and therefore you need to be careful. In order not to download malware instead of drivers, make sure that you actually went to the developer's official website. To do this, pay attention to the site link in the search engine. There should be nothing "superfluous" (the address will be something like this: "hp.com" or "samsung.com", etc.)
If you doubt the authenticity of the site you have found, you can enter only the name of the printer company without the model and other information. And from the main page, go to the "drivers and other software" section.
Benefits of downloading drivers from the official website:
- Security (digital signature of drivers, absence of embedded malicious code);
- The developer places on the site only the latest, "fresh" versions of drivers.
As soon as you get to the required page (“Drivers and other files”, “Software”, “Software”, “Download”, as well as “drivers” on the English-language version of the site), you will need to enter your printer model and search.
In addition, some sites allow you to automatically determine the device model and the required drivers, for example, there may be a button "Define a product". So, if we are on the HP website, we click "Search for a product" and in our case, variations of this model appear. We need to select the desired model by clicking the left mouse button.
After the necessary drivers are found, you will need to specify information about the version of your operating system, the bitness of the system. If this window does not appear, then just click on the link or button to download the drivers.
A situation may arise that the site will offer to download the driver version of your choice:
- Basic - to access the basic features of the device;
- Extended - for access to additional functions.
You do not need to worry about which version you are downloading, the main thing is to indicate the correct bit depth of your system (discussed above).
Upon completion of the download, you need to run the downloaded file and follow the instructions of the installation wizard.
Windows Update
The Windows operating system contains by default all the basic drivers for the most popular peripherals. Including for printers and scanners. To do this, connect your device to your computer and wait a few minutes. If the attempt to automatically install the printer is not successful, you must do the following:
1. Open the "Control Panel";
2. Find "Hardware and Sound";
3. Click the left mouse button on "Devices and Printers";
4. A new window will appear with icons of the connected devices. Find an image of a computer or laptop (in my case it is a laptop) and right-click on it. In the context menu that opens, click on the line "Windows Update".
5. After that, a window will open where in the menu on the right you need to click "Check for updates". It should start automatically searching for available updates for all your devices. I must tell you that it is desirable to have a fast Internet connection, as this procedure can take 10-30 minutes.
6. Now you need to wait for Windows to download the found updates in automatic mode;
7. After the search is completed and all found updates are downloaded and installed on your computer or laptop, you need to restart the device.
After restarting the computer, the printer should work. If, after restarting, the computer still does not see the device, the root of the problem may not be in the drivers. Try connecting the printer to a different USB input.
Finding the printer ID
Each device that connects to a computer has a unique identification code. If you know the hardware ID, then you can easily download the driver you need. If the above instructions did not help you, and you did not understand, how to install a printer without disk, you need to find out its identification code. I recommend using this option in the most extreme cases, and if you downloaded the drivers from the official site, then you can skip this option.
So, to find out the ID:
1. Right-click on the computer and select "Properties", then on the left click "Device Manager";
2. In the window that opens, find your printer. Right-click on the required line and in the menu that appears, click on "Properties";
3. A dialog box will open where you need to go to the "Details" tab. Next, in the "Property" line, select "Equipment ID".
4. A value will appear in the window below, which will be the identification code of the printer (if there are several values, then the first must be selected);
5. Copy the identifier. Go to the official website of your printer manufacturer and search for the copied identification number. You can also use search engines to find the driver you want using the hardware ID. But do not forget that our site has all the drivers for existing printers. It remains only to load the found driver.
Remember that you need to download drivers only from official resources. It's completely free and as secure as possible.
Installing drivers in automatic mode
So that this problem never bothers you and the drivers for any external devices are installed automatically, it is enough to change the basic Windows settings. For this:
1. Go to the "Devices and Printers" menu again (we told you how to enter here above) through the control panel. Right-click on the "Computer" icon and select "Device installation settings" in the context menu that appears;
2. A dialog box will open where you need to select "Yes (recommended)" (recommended default settings) and click "Save";
Now, after connecting a new device, Windows will automatically search and install the necessary drivers from its own database or using an Internet connection.
User question
Good afternoon.
Don't tell me about one problem ... I have 3 computers at home: one PC and 2 laptops. All of them are connected to a Wi-Fi router. A printer is connected to the PC.
How can I set up PCs, laptops and the network so that I can send documents from laptops to the printer? I tried to set it up - still nothing ... Now I write the files to a USB flash drive, and then print them from a PC, it's inconvenient ...
Good day!
In fact, both at home and in small offices, usually one printer is enough for the eyes (of course, if you can print to it from any of the computers on the local network).
In general, setting up Windows itself to make a printer publicly available for a local network is not particularly difficult and any "average" user can handle it. In this article I will show with an example how this is done ...
Opening access to the printer for the local network
Before describing the settings, I consider important to report a few points:
- you must have included the PC, printer, and laptops (other PCs) to be configured;
- on a PC to which a printer is directly connected (to a USB port, for example), drivers must be installed (i.e., printing should work normally on the PC itself). Searching for and installing a printer driver -;
- A local network must be configured: computers have the same workgroups (you can see if you go to properties of my computer ), and different computer names (in general, if your local network works, then this is so ...).
By the way, here is a relatively good (because mine) article on setting up a local network, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with whoever has a problem with the "local area". Link below.
Local network setup -
Note: all settings below are given and are relevant for Windows 7, 8, 10.
Now let's start setting up. The first thing to do is to set up the computer to which the printer is directly connected (ie "share" the printer: give access and permission to use another PC on the local network).
1) First, open control panel / network and internet / network and sharing center ... Next, click on the link on the left - Change advanced sharing options .
2) Next, we will have three tabs: private, guest or public and all networks ... Now they need to be opened one by one and ticked in the right places. More on this below.
Note: in some cases there will be not 3 tabs, but 2. Then open those tabs that you have and do according to the screenshots below.
3) Expand the tab , and set the sliders to the following positions (according to the screenshot below):
- enable network discovery (enable automatic configuration on network devices);
- enable file and printer sharing;
- allow Windows to manage homegroup connections.
4) Then open the next tab - "Guest or public" ... We expose:
- enable network discovery;
- enable file and printer sharing.
5) Last tab , here we expose:
- disable sharing;
- use 128-bit encryption to protect shared connections;
- disable password protected sharing.
Important!
A similar setting in these three tabs (private, guest, all networks) - must be done on all computers in the local network (and not only on the one to which the printer is connected)! Otherwise, you will not be able to connect to the local printer later.
Allowing access to the printer
First you need to go to: control panel / hardware and sound / devices and printers ... If you have installed drivers and everything is OK with the printer - here you should see it in the tab "Printers" .
Right-click on the printer you want to make network (public) and go to it properties ... In properties open the tab "Access" and put a couple of checkboxes:
- Sharing this printer;
- rendering of print jobs on client computers.
Save the settings.
Share the printer (clickable!)
To check if your printer has become local - open a regular explorer (you can open any folder). On the left side of the menu, you should see your computer name ... In my case - the name of the computer is "Desktop-UGHM5R" - we click on it and see that in the window that opens, our "shared" printer.
Now you can start configuring other computers to enable them to print to the printer.
Note: please note that next to the name of your PC, the names of computers that are in the same local network with you will be displayed.
How to connect a network printer and start printing
Important! Before you start connecting the printer, you must configure three network tabs: private, guest, all networks (I wrote about this just above). If you do not give permission to use shared folders, printers, etc. - you will not see the printer and connect it!
1) Turn on the computer from which we want to print (note: the PC is connected to a local network, in which there is a computer, with a printer connected).
Open the explorer and click on the tab "Net" (on the left in the menu). Next, you should see a list of computers that are in the same local network with you: open the one that has a publicly accessible printer (which we made a network one in the previous step).
3) 1-2 minutes (usually) will be required to install and configure the driver. At this time, it is better not to touch the PC or close this window (example in the screenshot below).
4) Next, if everything went well, the printer appears in the tab "Printers" and it can be used. Try to open some Word document, press the Ctrl + P key combination and send the document to print (do not forget to select a printer, by default, usually the printer is not the one you added).
Printer is connected // task completed
Actually, that's the whole Windows setup for creating a public local printer. As you can see, in this regard, in Windows (7, 8, 10) everything is quite simply organized - you can figure it out on your own.
An even more convenient and versatile option would be to connect the printer directly to a Wi-Fi router. Thus, there will be no need to keep the PC to which the printer is connected. In principle, there is also nothing complicated there - usually, a special goes to the router. Software that performs a similar setting in auto-mode.
