Printer "Driver is Unavailable" or listed in "Other devices" / "Software devices" in Device Manager

Hi Justin. I'm Greg, an installation specialist, 10 year Windows MVP, and Volunteer Moderator here to help you.

Those older versions of Windows 10 may have made the old printer with ancient serial port run awhile longer, but to continue with Windows 10 on a printer that has no driver software to even try to install in Compatibility Mode is not worth the trouble.

New wireless All-in-One printers that print wirelessly from every device in the house and even Alexa are $50 on Amazon. They install themselves. No need to suffer any longer.

I hope this helps.

Hi Greg,

Thank you for you reply, I really appreciate it. However, I am fully aware of the newer and much better printers available at low costs. In fact, I myself own much better printers. The whole point of creating this thread was to seek a solution to get my old one to work. Regardless, thank you for your response.

After countless hours of fiddling, I have finally figured out a solution, and hopefully it will benefit others as Im aware of the countless other threads on forums on the same issue.

As of right now, I will assume it is because of the 1809 update, where Microsoft stopped including old printer drivers automatically in its feature update packages. I will test whether it actually also works on 1809 and 1903 through printer migration tomorrow.

Steps:

• Add Printer in Control Panel
• Click "The printer I want isn't listed"
• Select "Add a local printer" (last option)
• Choose a Virtual USB Port (I chose the one with the largest number, though it really doesn't matter)
• Click "Windows Update" on bottom right of window. This will ask Windows Update to fetch built-in drivers from all manufacturers
• Find your manufacturer and printer model that matches the closest to your printer
• Click "Next" and wait for Windows to install the driver. *This is where I ran into problems on 1809. It would always give me an error that says "The printer was not installed." However, on 1703 it added the driver successfully.
• Open Device Manager
• Find your printer (Mine was listed under "Other devices", however Ive seen it under "Unknown devices" and "Software devices" as well)
• Right click it and select Update Drivers
• Click the 2nd Option (Something along the lines of installing a driver manually and NOT online)
• Click "Let me choose a driver from a list of available drivers on my computer"
• Choose "All Devices" and let it load a list of all installed drivers on your system
• Find the one you installed earlier by matching your manufacturer and model to the list
• Click "Next" and let it install the driver. If a message pops up warning about compatibility or digital signing, just click OK and let it install.
• If it successfully installs you should see your printer under a "Printer" menu in Device Manager. The IEEE-1284 should subsequently disappear and you should have a working printer.

Good Luck.

Hey Greg,

Yes, the fix works on 1703, and should also work on 1709. The printer isn't ancient so I'm actually surprised it's not letting me install it on 1809.

I will have to respectfully disagree with your best practice statement. While I no doubt believe that Microsoft continues to develop better and safe features in the newer versions, more often than not new upgrades break features and cause compatibility issues to users of all kind. I understand that Microsoft may not be able to provide support given that 1703 is over a year old, but numerous businesses, and for a variety of other reasons, 1703 is still widely popular. It isn't "worst practice" if one chooses to stay on an older version, especially if the newer one doesn't work like you wish for it to. What if I had not the capability to purchase newer printers?

Thank you taking the time to respond though. I know you're just trying to help and I appreciate it.

Well I certainly understand the problem with later versions breaking things because we deal with this every day here. But that may be changing with some executive shuffling recently. The 1909 was so lean it only added all Updates to date and the ability to set appointments from the task bar Calendar.

I was also speaking from personal experience with friends and family who gave up their serial devices some years back due to failing compatibility.

But from all you've described if anyone can get it to work going forward, I will bet on you. I wish I had more to offer to help.

Hi Justin. I'm Greg, an installation specialist, 10 year Windows MVP, and Volunteer Moderator here to help you.

Those older versions of Windows 10 may have made the old printer with ancient serial port run awhile longer, but to continue with Windows 10 on a printer that has no driver software to even try to install in Compatibility Mode is not worth the trouble.

New wireless All-in-One printers that print wirelessly from every device in the house and even Alexa are $50 on Amazon. They install themselves. No need to suffer any longer.

I hope this helps.

Justin, are you saying that the fix above works on the old version which you rolled back to? That version 1703 from early 2017 is so out of date I'm surprised it even lets you run it.

Let us know if you find a way to install the driver in the latest version 1909 which is the media presently loaded into Media Creation Tool and latest if you want up to date security and quality fixes.

Respectfully, we like to support Best Practices here and running a version that old in Windows 10 is a worst practice.