Old Printers and New Operating Systems

With Windows 8 almost upon us in terms of full public release and sale it’s worth giving a thought to printer compatibility. Simple tethered printers will usually be less susceptible to being left behind when operating systems are updated however multi-function and networked printers may not fare so well.

For instance, I have an aging HP Officejet 7410 at home which has done a remarkable job since it was purchased perhaps six or seven years ago apart from its Wi-Fi adapter fizzling out (requiring manual disconnection in order to keep the printer working). However, with the upgrade to Windows 8 I have not been able to get the printer to install properly. The printer is detected successfully however no matter how many times I retry the installation it refuses to work.

Things I have tried so far are:

  • Running the installation in compatibility mode (Windows 7),
  • Running the installation as administrator,
  • Uninstalling the software and reinstalling from scratch.

I’ll keep plugging away at this problem but it seems like there isn’t much out on the web to help resolve this issue for the time being.

Anyway, this is a timely reminder to work out if you might run into problems with major peripherals such as printers before you upgrade or being in new computers just so you don’t run into any unexpected surprises.

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