How to update the latest printer drivers after installing Windows 7

Are you getting “Driver not installed” errors when you try to print after upgrading to Windows 7 when your printer was working fine while you had Windows Vista? The cause of this problem is that your drivers are not up to date and it is easily fixed by downloading and installing the latest printer drivers. In this article, we’ll explain these drivers, and then walk you through the process of downloading and installing new ones.

Printer drivers 101

Windows needs a specific type of software to communicate with your printer; this software is your drivers. Without the correct ones, Windows cannot communicate with your printer. Sometimes when you have a lot of updates or have upgraded to a newer version of Windows, you may need to update to a newer version of printer drivers for your printer to work properly.

How to download and install the latest printer drivers

The first thing you should do is take a good look at your printer and write down the make and model of the printer. Some printer manufacturers: Canon, HP, Lexmark, Epson and Samsung. Model examples: HP Deskjet D2660, Canon Pixma MP560 and Lexmark Interact S605. The make and model will be somewhere on the printer.

1. Once you have the make and model, do a web search and find the manufacturer’s website.
2. On the manufacturer’s website, you need to choose where to go. For example, on the Canon site you would have to choose “Consumer and Home Office”, while on the Epson site you would have to choose “Printers and All-in-Ones”.
3. From here you should see Drivers and Support or some similar menu option, click on the menu and choose your option.
4. Now you are going to choose your model. Is your printer all-in-one? A laser printer? These are all things you may need to know as they are ways that manufacturers can categorize their printers.
5. Once you locate your driver, you’ll want to save it to a location you’ll remember. Also, before you hit save, take a look at the file type. Does it end in exe?
6. If the file you saved is an exe file, just double click the file and it will update to the latest printer drivers. If the file ended up in something else, you still have several steps to go.
7. Go to Home.
8.Choose Control Panel.
9. Devices and Printers.
10. Right click on the printer and open the properties.
11. Select the hardware tab.
12. Click the Properties button.
13. Click on the Advanced tab.
14.Click New Driver.
15. Complete the steps in the Add Printer Driver Wizard.

An easier way to update the latest printer drivers

Technology is always finding ways to make our lives easier. Today we have software that will go through the process of finding, downloading, and installing the latest printer drivers for us. Either way, it’s a good idea to learn about the safest and most effective ways to update your computer.