Using a USB or Plug and Play Printer with EASYLABEL

Quite Often customers use EASYLABEL’s internal drivers exclusively and do not need or want the Windows drivers that are shipped with the printer. This can pose a problem with the new Plug and Play capable printers that are being released since the customer is often bothered by messages prompting for the install of Windows drivers for the printer.

In most cases, the simplest solution would be to allow Windows to install the driver. Then give the driver a name such as “Do Not Use” which should help prevent end users from using it to design labels.

If a more definitive solution is desired, it is possible to prevent Windows from installing driver for Plug and Play printers.

To prevent the installation of Windows drivers: connect the printer to the LPT port, or USB port, turn it on, boot the PC, and then follow the steps outlined below.

For Windows XP:

Windows XP will detect the printer at startup and run the ‘Add New Hardware Wizard’

Select ‘No not this time’ --Click ‘Next’

Select ‘Install software automatically’ --Click ‘Next’

Make sure that ‘Don’t prompt me again to install this software’ is checked

Click ‘Finish’.

No Windows driver will be installed but the printer will still be useable through EASYLABEL. Windows will not prompt again to install a driver.

Note: If the driver has already been installed, this procedure does not work. See “Steps to Disable Prompting to Install Printer Drivers When Using a Plug and Play Printer that was previously installed in Windows XP“ on page 2 of this document.

For Windows 2000:

Windows 2000 will detect the printer at startup and run the ‘Add New Hardware Wizard’

Click ‘Next’

Select ‘Search for a suitable driver for my device (recommended)’

Click ‘Next’

Select ‘Disable the device’

Click ‘Finish’

No Windows driver will be installed but the printer will still be useable through EASYLABEL. Windows will not prompt again to install a driver.

For Windows ME:

Windows will detect the printer at startup

Select Search for software -- Click ‘Next’

A message will come up saying that software was not found

Select do not install software now

Click ‘Finish’

No Windows driver will be installed but the printer will still be useable through EASYLABEL. Windows will not prompt again to install a driver.

For Windows 98:

Windows will detect the printer at startup

Click ‘Next’

Select that the computer will search for a driver and click ‘Next’

A message will appear saying it was unable to locate a driver –click ‘Next’

A message stating ‘Windows has not installed a driver for this device’ will appear

Click ‘Finish’

No Windows driver will be installed but the printer will still be useable through EASYLABEL. Windows will not prompt again to install a driver.

If you would like to be reminded in the future, the printer is installed in the Device Manager as an “Other Device”. Remove the printer from Device Manager and restart your computer.

Steps to Disable Prompting to Install Printer Drivers When Using a Plug and Play Printer that was previously installed in Windows XP.

Problem: I want to remove the Windows drivers for my Plug and Play printer because the end users are using it to design labels in EASYLABEL but every time I restart the PC or plug in the printer the drivers are found and installed.

Cause: When you install an printer driver, the Windows installer program copies the printer installation file (Oemsetup.inf) to the %Systemroot%\Inf folder, and then renames the Oemsetup.inf file to Oem#.inf, where # is an incremental number for each printer driver that is installed.

Solution: To identify the printer-specific Oem#.inf file, pay attention in the ‘Found New Hardware Wizard’:

Now we can open the location shown and search for the specified files. After the match is found, move that specific Oem#.inf and Oem#.pnf file to an another directory. This allows the files to be restored at a later date if necessary.

Once you have moved the appropriate files, you can then ensure the printer drivers have been deleted from ‘Printers and Faxes’.

With the ‘Printer and Faxes’ window still open right-click anywhere under the list of installed printers and select ‘Server properties’ from the pop-up menu. Click the ‘Drivers’ tab on the window that appears. Click the name of the driver you are removing and then click ‘Remove’. Click ‘OK’ to close this window.

If this was a USB device you will also have to uninstall the USB device. A utility like USBDeview.exe makes this a lot easier than editing the registry. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

After the uninstall, restart your computer. When you log on, you should receive a New Hardware Found dialog for the device.

Select ‘No not this time’ --Click ‘Next’

Select ‘Install software automatically’ --Click ‘Next’

Make sure that ‘Don’t prompt me again to install this software’ is checked

Click ‘Finish’.

No Windows driver will be installed but the printer will still be useable through EASYLABEL. Windows will install the printer under ‘Other Devices’ in Device Manager and will not prompt you to install a driver again.

NOTE: To use the OEM driver again, move the OEM#.inf and OEM#.pnf file(s) to the %Systemroot%\Inf folder, uninstall the device using Device Manager, and restart your computer.

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