Devices
Most printer setups fail for one of two reasons: the computer cannot see the printer, or it sees it and installs a driver that leaves half the features missing. This guide covers both, plus adding an office printer by IP address. Allow about eight minutes.
How Printers Connect
A USB printer belongs to one computer. A network printer belongs to everyone. Knowing which one you have decides every step that follows.
USB is the simple case. The printer plugs into one PC, that PC installs a driver, and only that PC can print. Windows normally detects it the moment you connect the cable and power. If you have a home printer beside a single desk, this is fine and there is nothing to configure on the network at all.
A network printer sits on your Wi-Fi or on an Ethernet cable and every computer talks to it directly. This is what an office wants, because it means no computer has to be switched on for someone else to print. It also introduces the one thing that causes most office printer complaints: the printer’s address on the network changes, every PC that was set up by address loses it, and the printer shows as offline on half the desks at once.
The other half of printer trouble is drivers. Windows carries generic drivers that will print a page from almost anything, which is genuinely useful. What they often will not do is duplex, stapling, tray selection, secure release printing or accurate color. If the printer is doing less than it should, the driver is usually why. For an office with several machines, getting all of this consistent across every desk is part of ordinary managed services work rather than something each person should be solving alone.
Reserve its address in the router or set a static address at the printer’s own control panel before you add it to any computer. If it keeps a leased address, it will change eventually, and every PC added by IP will report the printer offline on the same morning.
Step by Step
Seven steps. Steps three and four are the ones people skip and then repeat later.
For USB, plug the cable into the PC and power the printer on. For a network printer, use the printer’s own control panel to join your Wi-Fi, or connect it to the network with an Ethernet cable. Confirm on the printer’s screen that it shows as connected before you touch the computer.
Press the Windows key and I, then go to Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners. Click Add device at the top. Windows scans for a few seconds and lists what it finds on USB and on the local network.
When your printer appears in the list, click Add device next to it. Windows installs a driver and the printer appears on the Printers & scanners page. For most home printers and many modern office printers, this is the whole job.
If the scan does not find it, click “The printer that I want isn’t listed”, then choose “Add a printer using an IP address or hostname” and click Next. Set Device type to Autodetect or TCP/IP Device, type the printer’s address in the Hostname or IP address field, and click Next. Print a configuration page from the printer’s own menu if you do not know its address.
If Windows installed a generic driver and you cannot select trays, duplex or stapling, go to the printer maker’s support site, find your exact model, and install their full driver package. Then remove the generic entry from Printers & scanners so nobody prints to the wrong one by accident.
On the Printers & scanners page, scroll to Printer preferences and turn off “Let Windows manage my default printer”. Left on, Windows sets the default to whatever you printed to last, which is why the default keeps changing on laptops that move between home and the office.
Click your printer, then click “Set as default”. On the same page open Printer properties, stay on the General tab and click Print Test Page. A page with the printer name and driver details confirms the whole path is working.
When It Goes Wrong
What each symptom normally means, and where to look first.
Check that the printer is awake and on the network first. Then open the printer’s queue from Printers & scanners, click the three dots or the Printer menu, and make sure “Use Printer Offline” is not ticked. If several computers show offline together, the printer’s address has changed.
That is the print spooler. Right-click Start, choose Task Manager, find Print Spooler on the Services tab, right-click it and choose Restart. Clear the stuck job, then print one page to test. If it happens weekly, the driver is usually the cause and a clean reinstall fixes it.
They are separate functions on an all-in-one. Scanning either needs the manufacturer software or works through Windows Fax and Scan, and network scanning has its own setup at the printer. Adding the printer does not automatically give you the scanner.
A printer shared from a colleague’s computer only works when that computer is on and awake. A printer with its own network connection does not care. If people complain that printing only works in the afternoon, someone’s desktop is the print server.
A printer on a weak signal drops in and out the same way a laptop does. Ethernet solves it permanently for a printer that sits in one place. If the whole network is unstable, start with our guide to Wi-Fi that drops instead of blaming the printer.
Some printers more than about a decade old have no driver for current Windows. Windows may still print to them using a generic driver, with reduced features. When there is no path at all, replacement is the honest answer, and our help desk can confirm before you spend time on it.
Print a configuration or network settings page from the printer’s own control panel. Nearly every network printer has this under a setup, reports or information menu. The page lists the address, and often the hostname as well, which is more reliable to use if your network supports it.
No, and most computers no longer have a drive to read it. Anything on that disc is available and newer on the manufacturer’s support site. Download the driver for your exact model and your version of Windows rather than using an old disc.
Because “Let Windows manage my default printer” is switched on. It sets the default to the last printer you used at your current location, which makes sense for a laptop that travels and is maddening on a desktop. Turn it off in Printers & scanners under Printer preferences, then set the default yourself.
Yes, and it works well as long as the printer’s address never changes. Reserve the address on the router or set it statically at the printer first. Otherwise the day it renews, every computer you set up this way stops printing at once.
You have a generic driver. It prints, but it does not expose trays, duplex, finishing or color controls. Install the manufacturer’s full driver package for your model, then delete the generic printer entry so people do not pick it from the list by mistake.
We set up network printers, drivers and defaults across every machine so they stay set up.
Talk to Your Pod
That is nearly always an address that moves. Call or text (602) 677-0779 and we will fix it at the printer and the network rather than on every desk.
(602) 677-0779Family owned in Gilbert, AZ since 2015 · onsite across the Phoenix metro · remote support nationwide · never outsourced
A few details and your pod gets right back to you, usually the same business day.
