{"id":3832,"date":"2017-04-24T15:15:58","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T14:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog2.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3832"},"modified":"2021-09-28T11:43:02","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T10:43:02","slug":"how-to-update-a-printer-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-update-a-printer-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Update a Printer Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What is a printer driver?<\/h2>\n<p>A printer driver is a computer program than enables software to communicate with a printer. Every brand of printer has specific software that it uses, based on its operating system, that converts data to be printed to a form specific to the printer.<\/p>\n<p>If printer drivers are outdated, your printer might not work as intended until you download and install the most recent update.<\/p>\n<h2>How to update printer drivers<\/h2>\n<p>The method for updating your printer drivers will depend on the operating system you have, so the best thing to do is check your manual or the printer manufacturer\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<h3>Windows 10<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>1. Go to Control Panel<\/li>\n<li>2. Click on \u2018Hardware and Sound\u2019<\/li>\n<li>3. Click on \u2018Device Manager\u2019 to show all of the connected hardware on your machine \u2013 look for the \u2018Printers\u2019 drop-down which will contain any relevant printers<\/li>\n<li>4. Right click the printer you want to update the drivers on and click \u2018Update driver\u2019<\/li>\n<li>5. Choose whether to search for drivers automatically or manually \u2013 choose automatically unless you have already downloaded the latest drivers or have them on external storage<\/li>\n<li>6. If Windows doesn\u2019t find a new driver, you can look for one yourself on the manufacturer\u2019s website and download before installing manually<\/li>\n<li>7. Run the installer to complete the set-up.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Windows 7<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>1. Go to Control Panel<\/li>\n<li>2. Search for \u2018Device Manager\u2019 and click it in the results to show all of the connected hardware on your machine<\/li>\n<li>3. Find your connected printer in the list of devices \u2013 it\u2019ll usually be under \u2018Ports (COM and LPT)\u2019 or \u2018Universal Serial Bus\u2019<\/li>\n<li>4. Right click the printer and open up \u2018Properties\u2019<\/li>\n<li>5. Choose the \u2018Driver\u2019 tab and click \u2018Update Driver\u2019 \u2013 choosing to find new drivers automatically or locally on your computer<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>macOS<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Choose Apple menu<\/li>\n<li>Select System Preferences<\/li>\n<li>Click Printers &amp; Scanners<\/li>\n<li>Select your printer from the list then click the Remove button (-)<\/li>\n<li>Click the Add button (+) and if a pop up menu appears, choose Add Printer or Scanner<\/li>\n<li>Select your printer when it appears on the list, then do one of the following:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Use AirPrint: <\/em>If you connected an AirPrint-enabled printer using a USB cable, click the Use pop-up menu then AirPrint. If AirPrint isn\u2019t on the menu your printer doesn\u2019t support it.<\/li>\n<li><em>Use printer software installed on your Mac or downloaded from Apple:<\/em> Click the Use pop-up menu then choose Select Software\n<ul>\n<li><em>Use printer software from a file on your Mac:<\/em> Click the Use pop-up menu, then choose Other. Select the file then click Add.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Checking your printer\u2019s manufacturer website for printer driver updates is simple. For example, if you have a Lexmark printer, you can\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/support.lexmark.com\/index?page=driverSupport&amp;locale=en&amp;userlocale=EN_UK\">find your recommended driver<\/a>\u00a0on the support page, as you can with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.support.xerox.com\/support\/engb.html\">Xerox<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.samsung.com\/us\/support\/downloads\/\">Samsung<\/a> printers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3846 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blog2.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Image-12.jpg\" alt=\"installing printer drivers\" width=\"971\" height=\"540\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Why learn how to update a printer driver?<\/h2>\n<p>If you want to run a new version of an operating system or are experiencing problems with your printer, you\u2019ll need to know how to update your printer driver.<\/p>\n<p>This is something that printer manufacturers do from time to time, as just like computer programs, drivers have to be updated to fix bugs and add additional features.<\/p>\n<p>Drivers help the computer and the operating system communicate, so it is essential that their software is kept up-to-date. If the driver becomes corrupted, the computer may crash.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3848 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blog2.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Image-21.jpg\" alt=\"updating laptop printer drivers\" width=\"920\" height=\"613\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>How is a universal printer driver useful?<\/h2>\n<p>Universal printer drivers are useful if a business has many computers of different ages, especially if they use different operating systems, as print drivers are often operating system-specific.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth noting that some of the most modern machines are not compatible with operating systems as young as three years old.<\/p>\n<p>If you need any advice on printer software or are still struggling to update your printer driver,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/\">contact our experts<\/a>\u00a0on 0800 840 1992 or visit our website today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a printer driver? A printer driver is a computer program than enables software to communicate with a printer. Every brand of printer has specific software that it uses, based on its operating system, that converts data to be printed to a form specific to the printer. If printer &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1469],"tags":[1685,1686],"class_list":["post-3832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","tag-printer-driver","tag-update","has-thumbnail"],"modified_by":"Christian Ralph","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6712,"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions\/6712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.printerland.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}