Same printer installing multiple times

Question

I use a laptop and therefore I don't always have my printer plugged in.  Everytime I plug in my printer to use, Vista finds it as a brand  printer and installs it all over again.  I have had several copies of my printer on here at a time.  How can I stop this from happening because it is very annoying.

Thanks!

Answer 1

ehailey said:

I use a laptop and therefore I don't always have my printer plugged in.  Everytime I plug in my printer to use, Vista finds it as a brand  printer and installs it all over again.  I have had several copies of my printer on here at a time.  How can I stop this from happening because it is very annoying.

Thanks!

Hello ehaily,

When a device is connected to a new port for the first time the device driver is retrieved from the system and then installed. It may not make a whole lot of sense but it does occur. However, this should really be a "behind the scenes" process, and you should not see multiple entries when you go to Control Panel > Printers.

Thus, I'd like to point you to information I provided on another post found here: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistahardware/thread/e796c318-86fe-4a3e-8fff-a736334166b5. If you are comfortable with the troubleshooting it will walk you through manually removing the printer from the system. Once complete you could then download the "current" software package from your printer manufactures support website.

ßsod

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If it matters... back it up.

Answer 2

disclaimer:  i am not a microsoft employee.  also, i use linux (debian, ubuntu, etc.) so i'm speaking from experience.  here goes:

you may not be happy with linux.  it's a difficult operating system.

unless:

the printer model you own is supported by the linux version you wish to switch to.

be very careful with this.  don't get into a situation where you're looking for support for a printer that's not on your linux versions compatibility list.

Answer 3

I am finding this same issue with a win7 based desktop, in which the usb port is NOT changed. Win 7 always adds a second copy of my Konica-Minolta 2430DL...which is listed as offline. Sometimes, inexplicably, this copy becomes the default printer driver, which of course won't print, because it is "offline." None of my three Linux  based laptops suffer this problem, no matter which usb port I plug into!!