How to stop Windows 7 automatically installing printer drivers

Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer -- they
say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in win
7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maurice Helwig
~~~~~~~~~~~~

In message , Maurice Helwig
writes:
Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer --
they say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in win
7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process

What make and model?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

science is not intended to be foolproof. Science is about crawling toward the
truth over time. - Scott Adams, 2015-2-2

Maurice Helwig wrote:
Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer -- they
say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in win
7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process

The driver install upon connecting a device only occurs once for that
device on the same usb port. If already completed it won't appear again
on the same usb port for the same device. - i.e. there is nothing more
to stop.

Use Device Manager to install a different driver.


--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On 1/03/2015 7:21 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Maurice Helwig
writes:
Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer --
they say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in
win 7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process

What make and model?
The printer is an Epson LX300+II 9 pin Dot matrix tractor feed label printer


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maurice Helwig
~~~~~~~~~~~~

On 01/03/2015 04:32, Maurice Helwig wrote:
On 1/03/2015 7:21 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Maurice Helwig
writes:
Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer --
they say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in
win 7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process

What make and model?
The printer is an Epson LX300+II 9 pin Dot matrix tractor feed label
printer



So, if Epson don't provide a driver for this printer, and the one
installed automatically by windows doesn't work, what driver are you
proposing to install manually?
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

On 3/1/2015 6:56 AM, Roger Mills wrote:
On 01/03/2015 04:32, Maurice Helwig wrote:
On 1/03/2015 7:21 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Maurice Helwig
writes:
Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer --
they say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in
win 7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process

What make and model?
The printer is an Epson LX300+II 9 pin Dot matrix tractor feed label
printer



So, if Epson don't provide a driver for this printer, and the one
installed automatically by windows doesn't work, what driver are you
proposing to install manually?

The needed Windows driver is a generic ESC P driver. The printer has a
dip switch that must be in the ESC P position. It's been more than a few
years since I had to deal with Epson 9 pin printers. One of the key
problems with the later windows versions - The printer must have enough
buffering to contain a whole line of what is printed, be it text or dots
that are part of an image. Otherwise, "slop" in the head movement
mechanics can cause some odd issues. The last battle I had was with a
wide carriage Epson 9 pin that used a three color ribbon cassette.
The other problem we had, now that I think about it, had to do with
Sprocket feed. Our stock labels had extra space between pages around the
tear line. There was a one line uncertainty (one up or one down)
that complicated things even more.

On 2/28/2015 10:32 PM, Maurice Helwig wrote:
On 1/03/2015 7:21 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Maurice Helwig
writes:
Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer --
they say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in
win 7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process

What make and model?
The printer is an Epson LX300+II 9 pin Dot matrix tractor feed label
printer


EPSON LX-300+ /II is available to install in Win 7 as a Printer Server
driver. Perhaps install it and share the printer.

On 2/28/2015 4:16 PM, Maurice Helwig wrote:
Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer -- they
say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in win
7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process

Why is it not the correct driver?
Anyway - - -

Use Devices - printers to manually install a printer, and select from a
list. WITH THE PRINTER NOT CONNECTED! It may be useful to
use the windows update selection to update the drivers before you
actually select the printer and driver.
Why? This install the hopefully correct information to properly identify
the printer, and load the correct driver. When the printer is actually
connected, It will likely work properly.
Since it's a USB printer, use a USB 2 port, not USB 3.
Further, some systems benefit by having it manually installed first as a
network printer. (Long story behind that one!)

On 1/03/2015 9:56 PM, Roger Mills wrote:
On 01/03/2015 04:32, Maurice Helwig wrote:
On 1/03/2015 7:21 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Maurice Helwig
writes:
Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer --
they say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in
win 7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process

What make and model?
The printer is an Epson LX300+II 9 pin Dot matrix tractor feed label
printer



So, if Epson don't provide a driver for this printer, and the one
installed automatically by windows doesn't work, what driver are you
proposing to install manually?

Having connected the printer and got the incorrect driver one has to
uninstall that driver and then do a manual install in Win7 and select
"Epson LX Series 1 (80)" printer driver which is the correct one for the
printer and allows the label size to be set up properly.

Two problems with this -- uninstalling the incorrect driver put there by
windows 7 leaves remains of the driver which can interfere with the
correct one, and if I unplug the printer for any reason (to move it) and
then replug it again then the incorrect driver is installed once again
by Win 7.

If the auto driver install function could be turned off then the problem
would be solved as I could install the correct driver and it would
remain there.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maurice Helwig
~~~~~~~~~~~~

In article ,
says...

Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer -- they
say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in win
7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process


In general it's very difficult to selectively disable plug and play. I
had a customer situation once where Windows installed a bad (keyboard
related) driver crippling a certain laptop. I used the procedure
described here successfully.

Remove a Driver Package from the Driver Store
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../cc730875.aspx

On 3/03/2015 3:05 AM, GTS-NJ wrote:
In article ,
says...

Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer -- they
say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in win
7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process


In general it's very difficult to selectively disable plug and play. I
had a customer situation once where Windows installed a bad (keyboard
related) driver crippling a certain laptop. I used the procedure
described here successfully.

Remove a Driver Package from the Driver Store
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../cc730875.aspx

Thanks for the link and the info. It may prove useful.

I asked a tech at a computer store yesterday and he said to Go to
"Device Manager" and Right click on the computer name and select "Add
legacy hardware" and install the printer from their.

I have not attempted this yet but it looks promising -- very like the XP
method of installing. I am going to image the "C" drive first before I
play with this.
I will post my findings in this thread for others who may find it useful.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maurice Helwig
~~~~~~~~~~~~

On 3/2/2015 5:27 PM, Maurice Helwig wrote:
On 3/03/2015 3:05 AM, GTS-NJ wrote:
In article ,
says...

Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer -- they
say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in win
7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process


In general it's very difficult to selectively disable plug and play. I
had a customer situation once where Windows installed a bad (keyboard
related) driver crippling a certain laptop. I used the procedure
described here successfully.

Remove a Driver Package from the Driver Store
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../cc730875.aspx

Thanks for the link and the info. It may prove useful.

I asked a tech at a computer store yesterday and he said to Go to
"Device Manager" and Right click on the computer name and select "Add
legacy hardware" and install the printer from their.

I have not attempted this yet but it looks promising -- very like the XP
method of installing. I am going to image the "C" drive first before I
play with this.
I will post my findings in this thread for others who may find it useful.


What is likely happening is that windows recognizes the printer as a
generic Epson ESC printer of some flavor, and installs a basic driver of
some sort.
The particular printer you mention does show up in the manual install
selections. As to the version and so forth, it's usually better to use
the update the printer drivers via windows update update service before
you actually install. As to uninstalling the unwanted driver before you
start, it's usually good practice, if not always necessary.
The real key is to not connect the printer until the correct driver is
installed.

Some of the Epson and other multifunction printers can benefit from
using a network style install. It's often possible/useful to get more
than just basic printer functionality working over a network, or, such
things as a WiFi interface or Ethernet printer interface.

On 6/03/2015 1:05 AM, Charlie wrote:
On 3/2/2015 5:27 PM, Maurice Helwig wrote:
On 3/03/2015 3:05 AM, GTS-NJ wrote:
In article ,
says...

Windows 7 automatically finds and installs a driver when I plug a
printer into a USB connector.

However it is not the correct driver.

There are no drivers provided by the manufacturer of the printer --
they
say the drivers are provided in Win 7.

How can I turn off the automatic installation of printer drivers in win
7 pro 64bit -- or at the very least get Win 7 to offer me a manual
installation process


In general it's very difficult to selectively disable plug and play. I
had a customer situation once where Windows installed a bad (keyboard
related) driver crippling a certain laptop. I used the procedure
described here successfully.

Remove a Driver Package from the Driver Store
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../cc730875.aspx

Thanks for the link and the info. It may prove useful.

I asked a tech at a computer store yesterday and he said to Go to
"Device Manager" and Right click on the computer name and select "Add
legacy hardware" and install the printer from their.

I have not attempted this yet but it looks promising -- very like the XP
method of installing. I am going to image the "C" drive first before I
play with this.
I will post my findings in this thread for others who may find it useful.


What is likely happening is that windows recognizes the printer as a
generic Epson ESC printer of some flavor, and installs a basic driver of
some sort.
The particular printer you mention does show up in the manual install
selections. As to the version and so forth, it's usually better to use
the update the printer drivers via windows update update service before
you actually install. As to uninstalling the unwanted driver before you
start, it's usually good practice, if not always necessary.
The real key is to not connect the printer until the correct driver is
installed.

Some of the Epson and other multifunction printers can benefit from
using a network style install. It's often possible/useful to get more
than just basic printer functionality working over a network, or, such
things as a WiFi interface or Ethernet printer interface.



The printer is an Epson LX300+II dot matrix printer.

No drivers are available from Epson. They say the drivers are available
from within Win 7.
Om plugging in the printer to a USB port, win 7 automatically installs
an Epson Driver which does not work ie I cannot set up a custom label
size. The installed printer driver wants to print each label on an A4
sheet of paper.

After much experimenting with installing various printer drivers from
within Win 7 using the control panel "Add Printer" we found that the
Epson LX Series 1 (80) driver works and sets up and functions nicely.
This is a generic printer driver.
The incorrect driver is then uninstalled from the Computer.

One problem remains -- If the printer is disconnected from the computer
for whatever reason (ie cleaning maintenance) and then reconnected, Win
7 proceeds to install the incorrect driver and the process of adding and
setting up the correct driver has to be done all over again.

This is why I want to turn off the Auto Printer driver installation
function in Win 7

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maurice Helwig
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maurice Helwig wrote:

This is why I want to turn off the Auto Printer driver installation
function in Win 7

Part of what prevents the Windows OS from "reinstalling" all the
time, is positive device identification. For example, if the
device has an electronic serial number, Windows will check that,
see that the serial number is already recorded, then no driver
re-installation need be triggered.

Some old, or some "cheap" devices, lack sufficient identification
to meet this requirement. Some chip makers consider adding
custom serial numbers to be painful and expensive (it can be
done with a laser scribe at the fab, like laser burned fuses).
I have a device here, where they have a scheme to record a very
short serial number, sufficient for the hardware to tell
multiple instances apart. And those ones don't reinstall themselves.
For those chips, during the first installation, a serial
number is "assigned" to the chip, and that makes it unique
from then on. No fuses have to be burned at the factory.
Everyone wins.

One way to stop the issue, might be to place an
intervening hardware device, between the computer
and printer.

Computer --- print_spooler --- old_old_tech_printer

Then, the Plug and Play info of the print_spooler is
what the OS sees...

Smashing the hardware detection on the OS is not a good
idea. If you check the setupapi logs on some older
computers, you will find that occasionally the OS goes
nuts, dumps all the hardware detection, and starts
detecting the hardware over again. If you had turned
off the hardware detection and driver installation
logic, your computer would be "bricked" with no
working keyboard or mouse. I wouldn't set it up
for a fall like that... If you could find a
registry entry suited to just preventing the
printer from doing that, that would be OK.
Leave the generic detection running, so the
PC can recover from any little "burps" it
encounters.

Paul

On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 08:48:52 +1000, Maurice Helwig
wrote:

The printer is an Epson LX300+II dot matrix printer.

No drivers are available from Epson. They say the drivers are available
from within Win 7.
Om plugging in the printer to a USB port, win 7 automatically installs
an Epson Driver which does not work ie I cannot set up a custom label
size. The installed printer driver wants to print each label on an A4
sheet of paper.

The part that surprises me is that this doesn't sound like a driver issue at
all. It sounds like an application issue to me, but you indicated below that
using a different driver somehow works as desired. Strange.


After much experimenting with installing various printer drivers from
within Win 7 using the control panel "Add Printer" we found that the
Epson LX Series 1 (80) driver works and sets up and functions nicely.
This is a generic printer driver.
The incorrect driver is then uninstalled from the Computer.

One problem remains -- If the printer is disconnected from the computer
for whatever reason (ie cleaning maintenance) and then reconnected, Win
7 proceeds to install the incorrect driver and the process of adding and
setting up the correct driver has to be done all over again.

This is why I want to turn off the Auto Printer driver installation
function in Win 7

--

Char Jackson