Need Printer Driver for Dell Photo 966

Did you have Windows 7 when you had the printer installed before?

From what I could see, Dell itself doesn't have Windows 7 drivers, which is why the Dell forum expert suggested installing Vista drivers in "compatibility mode."

Windows Update indicates that the drivers that it has are good for Windows 7 (and 8 / 8.1), but if you just connect the printer and try to let Windows Update itself look for drivers, it may not find them.  At least, when I ran Windows Update from the normal "Add printer wizard," the closest thing that was downloaded was a driver for the Dell 968 (see below).

Good luck, and if you have difficulty later, feel free to ask a new question.

LemP,

Thanks for the details and quick response. Geek Squad had to do a reinstall of my OS and I have been busy myself re-installing files and software. Along the way my printer would not cooperate and a message "driver is not installed..." kept appearing. Anyway I may have the printer install disc somewhere in my archives which may solve the issue ( I hope). If not I will try your  suggestion. I do remember awhile back my IT guy downloading a driver for this printer however the end result came in in a foreign language. I really did not want to do that again. Thanks

You have some options.

1.  Download Vista drivers from Dell:

Step 1:  See the post from "Pudgy One" here: https://www.dell.com/community/Printers/Need-Dell-AIO-966-printer-driver/td-p/4779441

Step 2:  The link to the Dell forum thread in the post in Step 1 is no longer valid.  Instead, go to https://www.dell.com/community/Printers/Dell-966-Photo-All-In-One-Printer-owners-thread-W7/m-p/3395452

2.  Use the driver from the Microsoft Update Catalog

Step 1:  Go here:  https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=dell%20966

Step 2:  You should be at a page with 11 possible downloads.  Five of the hits are described as good for Windows 7. 

Three of the hits indicate that they are for both Windows 7 and Windows XP 64-bit edition (among other versions of Windows).  These downloads are for a 64-bit version of Windows.  The other two hits are for a 32-bit version of Windows.  I don't know the differences between the different downloads. 

If I were in your position, I would use the download that includes Windows 8.1 in the list as well as Windows XP 64-Bit Edition (if you have 64-bit Windows 7) or the download that includes Windows 8.1 in the list as well as Windows XP (if you have 32-bit Windows 7).

Step 3:  Whichever file you download will be a *.cab file.  Extract the contents.  The easiest way to deal with this is to install free 7-zip (https://www.7-zip.org/).  If you would rather use native Windows command line commands, see https://www.thewindowsclub.com/extract-cab-file-using-command-line (use "expand" rather than "extrac32").

Step 4:  Open Devices and Printers. 

• Select any icon in the "Printers and Faxes" section.
• Click "Print Server Properties" in the tool bar at the top of the Devices and Printers window.
• Select the "Drivers" tab and then the "Add" button.  This will open the "Add Printer Driver Wizard."  Click "Next"
• Select your system architecture and click Next
• Click the "Have Disk" button
• Use the "Browse" button to open the folder into which you had extracted the contents of the *.cab file you downloaded.  This will be easy to find if you had saved the downloaded file on your Desktop and extracted the contents into a folder on your Desktop.  Click "Open"
• Select the *.inf file, click "Open" and then click "OK"
• Complete the Wizard.

Step 5:  Connect the printer and turn it on.  It should now install automatically.