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I guess they don't have parallel port printers anymore at Microsoft. I was parallel port based up to XP and then all printers were USB.
I guess they don't have parallel port printers anymore at Microsoft. I was parallel port based up to XP and then all printers were USB.
It's a very ancient interface and it's not installed on new MBs any more but there are drivers for them in the windows still.
for those who have a HP (Hewlett Packard) Laserjet 4 or Laserjet 5M I finally found how to connect up the computer to these great printers when OS is Windows 10. Follow step-by-step. This really works!! I love my old printer:
Win 7 with Win 10, and as others have reported the drivers for my older printer did not load.
Although it is a HP Laserjet 4 plus, that appars to be not so important, other than the fact that the original cable has been replaced with one with a USB connector for my more modern laptop.
After struggling and Googling for far too much time, here is what worked very well.
--press teh Windows icon in the lower left corner
--select "settings"
--select "devices"
--select "add printers & scanners"
--select "add a printer"
-- it probably will scan and deliver a message like "printer ----- isn't listed"
--click on that message
--scroll down to "add a local printer"
--accept "use existing port" then scroll down and select USB001(virtual port for USB)
--it is possible that if you are using the original cable that the default LPT1 is the correct choice.
--that will lead to the same list of printer drivers that you would have had with Win 7 (my understanding, or misunderstanding, is that when Win 10 loaded it retained the Win 7 printer drivers, but did not make them particularly accessible.
--select your printer
--print a test page
--all done
--you may need to make that your default printer
That's odd, even my W7 found it that way. I happen to have that bottom one, it works although with reduced options. That's a tank of printers and would be pity not to use it. I also had one in the factory long time ago (1990's) and were printing labels with it, used to spend 2 or more cartridges a week and it survived them all for several years.
I used to run W10 upgraded from W7 for long time but last couple of months I had 2 clean installs of insider builds and every time I did same thing to get the driver. At the beginning, insider builds used to kill printer drivers but this method brought them back although they stayed in the list. Last few builds don't touch printer drivers.