I have printers setup that list when I print, but do not show up in the Printer Settings dialog.

Question

First of all, why is that? I have multiple instances of printers setup because Microsoft won't allow access to print dialogs through a Word object (another argument for another day). So I set up different printers (essentially print queues), one that duplexs automatically and one that does not. But I can't seem to access the driver necessary to change the settings. What's worse, is that the printer setting dialog lists one printer:

And yet when I click the printer in question (HP Color LaserJet M255dw (standard), I get the other (duplex) printer I set up:

(Notice the title difference at the top of the second screen shot. Clearly this is a bug somewhere in Windows that it can't keep the printers straight and give access to them. When I try to print though:

You can see both printers are listed. How do I access the printer properties of each instance of the M255 to get the settings correct?

***moved from Windows / Windows 11 / Devices and drivers***

Answer 1

Hello,

It seems like you are experiencing an issue with accessing the printer properties of each instance of the HP Color LaserJet M255dw printer. This issue could be caused by a driver conflict or a bug in the Windows operating system.

To resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Open the Control Panel and navigate to Devices and Printers.
2. Right-click on the printer in question and select Printer Properties.
3. In the Printer Properties dialog box, click on the Advanced tab.
4. Select the printer driver you want to use from the Driver drop-down list.
5. Click on the Printing Defaults button and set the printer settings as desired.
6. Click on the OK button to save the changes.

If the above steps do not resolve the issue, you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the printer driver.

Regards,

Zunhui

Answer 2

It IS definitely a bug in Windows. And if you look at the second screen shot I provided, there are two tabs under the printer name. One tab is for one driver (standard) and the other tab is for the other (duplex). Now, I'm quite sure that not too many people do what I have done, so there probably is not a lot of testing on this. But it is DEFINITELY a Windows problem.

What should be done (if anyone from Microsoft is listening), is fix the tab so it reflects the printer's name that is displayed in the printer list (say of Word, third screen shot). Secondly in the second screen shot you see the bold printer name "... (standard)" but right under it is the other printer name "... (duplex)".

Whoever programmed this never did the proper Q&A tests because this is glaring problem.

And as for why this is being done, I have documents that I want to print out that need to be duplexed. Some are on the long edge, some on the short edge and some not at all. But I don't want to open Word to print them out one at a time. I have a VB.net program that goes through and prints the documents out to the correct printer, with the correct duplexing, since I cannot address print options though the Word.Application object in VB.net (another issues that Microsoft needs to address).

So, what I have created does work. There is no driver conflict. But there most certainly an issue on how Windows is displaying and accessing each instance of the printer driver/properties.

If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.

Answer 3

In December of 2024 this is still a problem. if i try to print a Word Document. it goes to queue it does not print.

if i go to settings, the printer is not listed. I cannot delete the printer and reinstall because i get an error message telling me i have documents in queue

this is a new problem for me which started when i had to install an update to Windows 11.