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With Windows 7 officially available, complaints about lack of support for printers likely won't be far behind. But the good news is that you have a much better chance of moving your printer to Windows 7 without serious problems than you had going from XP to Vista. Granted, that's not a particularly high bar to clear, but after all the problems with printers and Vista, both Microsoft and most printer manufacturers have made an effort to make the move to Windows 7 easier. Judging by my tests, they seem to have succeeded. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean there isn't anything left to worry about.

It's important to understand that printers can have different levels of support in Windows 7. For a single-function printer, the first, and most minimal, level is the ability to print. Beyond that, a Windows 7 driver may or may not support such features as duplexing (printing on both sides of a page) or multiple paper trays.

For a multifunction printer (MFP)—also known as an all-in-one, or AIO—support may or may not cover other functions besides printing. HP, for example, says that for its AIOs, the drivers included on the Windows 7 disc and on the Windows Update site allow printing and scanning, but the scan support for network printers in many cases is limited to scanning over a USB connection. Also missing from the Windows 7 disc and Windows Update are things like fax drivers for those HP AIOs that include a fax capability, and bundled software that adds features like optical character recognition (OCR) to let you scan a document and turn the image into editable text.

Missing Pieces and Where to Find Them

Fortunately, you're not limited to the built-in support on the Windows 7 disc and Windows Update. HP also provides (or, depending on the printer, is planning to provide) Windows 7 updates on its own site for many of its printers, with full support—including such things as bundled software with OCR modules. What's true for HP isn't necessarily true for all companies. Microsoft says that the level of support available on the Windows 7 installation disc and on the Windows Update site differs from one manufacturer to another, and even from one model to the next for any given manufacturer.

What all this translates to is that if you want to know if your printer is ready for Windows 7, you have to not only ask if your printer will work with Windows 7 before you make the change, you should also try to find out whether it's fully supported and, if not, what you have to give up. It also helps to know whether you have to download an update to get the most support possible and, if so, from where.

You may not be able to find this additional information, but it's worth making the effort before committing to Windows 7. If you can't find a definitive answer, at least consider whether you're willing to give up some printer features.

Windows 7 Compatibility Center

A good place to start your research is with the Microsoft Windows 7 Compatibility Center. Under the heading Check the compatibility status of your software and devices, you can choose Hardware from the drop-down list, and then enter your printer model. This will either turn up a list of possible matches or show a single exact match. If your printer turns up in the search results, it will most likely have a green checkmark labeled 32-bit next to the name, with the notations Compatible and Learn more. Other possibilities include a big red X paired with the words Not compatible, and a lowercase i in a blue circle, with the words Information coming soon.

Some of the printers labeled as compatible will also include a Compatible with Windows 7 logo, which means they've passed Microsoft's compatibility tests. This doesn't necessarily mean that the driver supports all of the printer's features, but it does mean that the printer has passed Microsoft's tests for reliability and stability. In other words, it won't make Windows 7 crash.

Whatever the list says about your printer, click on the entry to see a page with more details. On the detail page, you can click on the 32-bit or 64-bit tab, depending on which version of Windows 7 that you plan to run. (If you not sure what the difference is, you can also move your mouse cursor over the text What's 64-bit? and click on Learn more in the description that pops up.)

Interpreting Compatibility

In most cases you'll find some additional information on the details page. However, there's one detail you should take with a large grain of salt. For compatible printers, you'll see the green check with the Compatible label again, along with a note saying either No action required or Free download required. If it says the former, ignore it.

The problem is that No action required doesn't necessarily mean that you don't have to take any action to get full support for your printer. It only means that the Windows 7 disc, Windows Update, or both include drivers with minimal support for printing and, for AIOs, scanning. As I've already pointed out, these drivers may not support all of the printer's features. You may still have to go to the manufacturer's Web site to download full support, or at least additional support, if it's available.

The detail page for any given printer typically includes a link to the manufacturer's Web site. Depending on the manufacturer, you may or may not find additional information on the site, but you should follow the link to find out. Whatever you do, if the detail page says No action required, don't take it at face value.

Keep in mind too that the information in the Compatibility Center is not definitive. Microsoft points out that it updates the information every two weeks. The detail pages even ask users to vote Yes or No on whether the information is accurate, and other pages ask users to let Microsoft know if something's missing. One of the printers I installed for my tests, for example, isn't on the list at all, but it worked without problems. And it took me only a few minutes to find three HP printers that are marked as not compatible, even though HP offers Windows 7 drivers on its Web site.

The point here is that if your printer earns a green check in the Compatibility Center, it's probably safe to assume it will work, but not necessarily with all the features you're used to. If it isn't listed, however, or is marked as not compatible, don't stop there, because it may work anyway. Ultimately, you may have to try installing it yourself to find out. For details on how to do that, take a look at 7 Windows 7 Printer Installation Tips.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356157,00.asp

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