Windows 10 is a pretty solid operating system, especailly when many of
us upgraded to it for free during the first year. But of course, nothing
is perfect.
One common problem with such upgrades, however, is printer support.
Windows 10 should have warned you if it wasn’t going to support your
printer before you installed it, but even supported models may not work
smoothly after an upgrade. New operating systems don’t always include
drivers for old printers and manufacturers don’t always provide updated
drivers in a timely fashion.
So if your printer suddenly stopped working after the switch to Windows 10, here are some tips to get it working again.
For more information check out our dedicated
Windows 10 section which is packed with useful guides.
Check out the video above to discover how to fix common
Windows 10 problems.
Step 1: Open the Printers control panel
The first step in troubleshooting a printer problem is to use Windows
10’s own troubleshooting tools. Search for printers in the Windows 10
Search box and select
Devices and Printers from the list of results. This will open the Devices and Printers Control Panel pane.
Step 2: Troubleshoot a connected printer
Look in the window for your printer — it might be listed under
Printers or
Unspecified, If it’s there, right-click it and choose
Troubleshoot
from the menu that appears. Follow the on-screen instructions for
troubleshooting the printer, but be prepared for this to not work — it
won’t always.
Step 3: Check if your printer is installed
If Windows 10 troubleshooting doesn’t work, or if
Windows 10 hasn’t detected your printer, the next step is to check whether or not it’s been installed. Click
Start and go to
Settings - Devices - Printers & scanners.
If you don’t see your printer listed in the main window, click the
Add a printer or scanner option and wait while Windows tries to detect your printer — make sure it’s connected to your PC and switched on.
Step 4: Tell Windows 10 to search for an older printer
If your printer is detected, just follow any on-screen instructions to
install it — Windows will download and install any necessary drivers
automatically. If it isn’t listed, click the
The printer I that I want isn’t listed option.
You’ll then see five different options, four of which are four adding a
printer that’s shared over a network. If you need to do this, we’ll
assume you know how to continue from this point, since setting up
network sharing in the first place is the trickiest part of this
process.
So instead we’ll focus on adding a ‘local’ printer — one that’s directly
connected to the computer you’re using. Select the first
My printer is a little older. Help me find it. option and click
Next. Windows 10 will search your PC again for connected printers and, hopefully, detect yours and install it.
Step 5: Install the printer manually
If you still have no success, you’ll need to install the printer
manually and you’ll need the appropriate driver for this. Here are some
links to driver download pages for most common makes of printer:
Printer drivers tend to be an .exe file. To install the driver, just download and run the file.
Step 6: Try the Windows 8 driver
Not all manufacturers will offer a Windows 10 driver for a particular
printer, either because they don’t have one yet or because they’ve
dropped support for it in this new version of Windows. In either case,
try the Windows 8 driver instead — you should find it at the same links
give in
Step 5.
Step 7: Try the last resort — remove Windows 10
If you’ve reached this far and still don’t have a working printer, the
chances are that your printer has reached the end of its useful life
— with Windows 10, anyway. There’s not much you can do about this, other
than contact the manufacturer to plead for a driver update and search
user forums to see if anyone else has found a fix — use search terms
like
<printer model> windows 10 driver problem to find a solution.
If you can’t upgrade your printer and you need to print something,
however, your only immediate solution is to uninstall Windows 10 (if you
can) and revert to whatever version you were using previously.
Other problems with Windows 10?
If you are looking for a printer for your computer, decide first what type suits you best:
Inkjet printer: Inkjets are fairly cheap and suitable for printing documents and photos. Colour inkjets start from about £40 at
John Lewis.
Laser printer: A good choice for a home office or small
business, laser printers are a bit pricier and often bigger, but faster
and work out cheaper than an inkjet over time.
Amazon has a good selection starting from under £50 – make sure you check out the customer reviews.
Photo printer: If you are an avid photographer, a
dedicated photo printer is worth considering. Many let you print
directly from memory cards or wirelessly from a camera or phone over
wi-fi.
Canon, Epson and
HP are some of the most well-known manufacturers.
All-in-one printer: A multifunction printer will scan (and sometimes fax), as well as printing. Prices start at around £30 at
PC World.
Want to know more about Windows 10? From privacy to Edge and apps, check out our guides.
Did you have any hardware problems after upgrading to Windows 10
and, if so, did you find a solution? Let us know in the Comments section
below.
