Windows 11 Printer Drivers

mgsullivan4

Has anyone found a workaround for the Fact that W11 will not support some very functional printers? Specifically, I have an HP Photosmart 8450 printer that runs great on W7, but my HP Envy Laptop with Windows 11 can see the 8450, but will not support it with any drivers....earlier this year Microsoft support helped me place a generic driver on the computer and that worked for a while and now with current Windows updates, even that no longer works...so I have to email items to print, to myself, open them on the other computer which still has W7 and then print.

And Microsoft won't help me unless I pay them $89 or as they suggested...trash my perfectly good photo printer and buy a new one...which I cannot afford.

So any help with a driver or way to get the W11 computer to do more than "see" the HP8450 and actually print to it via a USB connection would be most appreciated!!!

Ian

Hello,

It doesn't look like HP offers any recent drivers for it, as the information I can see about this model shows the printer being nearly 20 years old at this point. Any drivers would be offered from HP's website directly: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-photosmart-8400-printer-series/402149/model/402151

You can try the HP Print & Scan Doctor and see if it's able to pick up on the printer but its very possible it won't be able to. https://support.hp.com/us-en/help/printscandoctor

mgsullivan4

Thank you so much for your reply! I have run the scan doctor and searched in vain on the HP site....I may have to breakdown and buy a new printer even though this one is still in perfect shape. It is older, but it still does a great job...so I'll just keep it as a back up. Thanks, Again.

mgsullivan4

With the web "storing" so much pure junk...it seems very sad that companies can't just leave their drivers up on the web...they actually had to put in effort to take all the dedicated drivers and generic drivers down, when all they had to do was leave everything as it was. I'm sure this is one key way to make people buy more stuff and dump into the landfills tons of equipment that works just fine, all to make a few more dollars.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@mgsullivan4

If it's USB try the DOT4 driver: https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software13/COL44939/fp-148007-1/Dot4x64.msi

mgsullivan4

Thank you! I will try that!

DBragg5

mgsullivan4,

I have the same situation with Windows 11 on an HP Envy computer trying to get an older HP USB printer to work. Were you able to get it to work with the Dot4X64.msi file? Thanks.