Yamaha Home Theater
Peripherals: Install JUST a printer driver?
Install JUST a printer driver?
by Ck87.JF - 10/31/09 3:59 PMHello. It is my understanding that drivers are generally very small files. However, it seems the trend these days, especially with printers, to bundle applications with the drivers. However, I don't mind the built-in Windows printer management, so why do I have to put up with HP/Lexmark/etc printer monitors, etc?
My question: is there a way to download only the drivers without the extra application?
The specific printer in question is a Lexmark 4300 series, which is at church, though at home I have an HP Deskjet F2100. The Windows drivers for the HP work, while Windows didn't have anything for the Lexmark.
I'm currently running Windows 7 RC, soon to make the jump to the RTM.
if there are such.
by R. Proffitt
- 10/31/09 6:17 PM
In reply to: Install JUST a printer driver? by Ck87.JF
You get them from lexmark.com, hp.com etc. That is unless you are asking members to do a check for you?
no, but...
by Ck87.JF - 10/31/09 7:05 PM In reply to: if there are such. by R. Proffitt
When I go to the manufacturer's site, they don't offer JUST the drivers, they only offer the application which installs the drivers as well as monitoring software and whatever else they feel like adding. I'm just saying it'd be nice if I could at least figure out how to extract the driver from the application to use it by itself.
Hp for example.
by R. Proffitt - 11/1/09 5:57 AM
In reply to: no, but... by Ck87.JF
On some models DO offer just the drivers. If this is an issue pick the printer after you do this research.
And drivers exploded in size for a reason. Ready?
1. The devices are dumbed down to cut costs.
Example: Postscript printers had as much CPU and more ram than PCs of that day. Today, we want cheap. We got it. This means all the work and code is back on the driver.
2. Users demanded friendly interfaces with checks on print progress, ink levels and mroe.
Fact: That's the market. You find the makers will follow the market.
Bob
Can you look at the driver disk?
by Steven Haninger - 11/1/09 4:00 AM In reply to: Install JUST a printer driver? by Ck87.JFSearch for folders on the disk and, often, you'll find one that's just for drivers and will come in different language formats. I install printers like this all the time using the "have disk" option. I know that some executable files from web sites are self extracting zips. They create a folder on your drive with all the necessary software and driver files. The "have disk" option works with these as well.
There is one more, but very tricky, way this can be done with some devices though I've not done this with printers. It involves installing it under it's own terms, finding and pulling the driver files, .inf, etc. from the machine and then un-installing the device. If you've captured all the necessary files from that installation, you've a good chance of using the "have disk" option this way as well.
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