Sometimes happens: your printer has been working fine for years, and then you get a new PC. It’s ok, right? the installation cd made it super easy the first time, so let’s put it into our new device, click accept, accept, and… Oops, the new device has no cd reader. Or you’ve lost it over time.
It’s ok, right? Windows just find the best driver to your driver as soon as it is connected, from the million drivers it already has, or those it can get from the internet.
But sometimes, just sometimes it doesn’t happen at all. A bug? The permission you denied to the operating System time ago when it seemed irrelevant? Aliens?
However, it calls for a manual driver installation of your printer drivers. Should you be worried about it? of course not, you find this page, problem solved.
First, you need to know a few details about your printer (Product Name & Model ID) as well as the version of the Windows operating system you are running (I.E. Windows 10, Windows 8 Windows Vista, etc.).
Most vendors, like HP printers drivers, have the model highly visible in the front of the device, so this should not be a problem.
Let’s search for those drivers now. Just Google the keywords you found in the last step, let’s say, “HP OfficeJet Pro 9020 Windows 10” (no need to use the quotes)
You will usually find the HP printer drivers page in the first results. Once there, you may have to choose between a few options. What is best for you?
These are the most common:
- Firmware: Those are drivers that will update your printer instead of your computer. get away from those if they are not exactly what you were looking for.
- Software-ePrint: They are useful to network printing, and to make some wifi devices like phones interact with printers. Most of the time not what we looking for.
- Utility-Diagnostic Tools: They are good to solve problems when everything seemed ok, and then stop working. But what we really want are…
- Driver packages (Full or Basic): They make printers work seamlessly. Full packages usually include some utilities like image editors, collage makers, and ink savers.
Once you decided what is best for you, download the .exe file and install it into your PC.
Some vendors will require you to reset your PC after the installation to run properly, but most do not.
There you are, you’ve just manually installed HP printer drivers for your printer. It should be printing well right now. Of course, big companies offer extensive support and even specialized software, to keep your drivers up to date,
