Did your printer work?

[Sonic77]

One thing I was looking forward to with Win RT, as opposed to the iPad,
was being able to print to network printers.

After a bit of tinkering I found the printer and but it would not install ... missing drivers.
Think that's the end of RT for me, I'm going to check out the CloverTrail x86 devices instead.

Did your local or network printer work?

 

[srmiller82]

what printer

what printer do you have? I havent tried it yet i just did the trick to get flash on all sites worked perfect works with flash on every site that i use, so far i'm thinking i need x86 less and less, fyi printer drivers should be exactly the same as pro. as far as how many they have i dont think they cut them short could be a windows 8 thing in general.

 

[Tvan15]

Here is a link to the RT compatibility page that shows what works and what doesn't. My printer works but I can't scan.

Windows Compatibility Center: Find Updates, Drivers, & Downloads for Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows 7

 

[reepS]

i think this might be the link people want

Windows Compatibility Center: Find Updates, Drivers, & Downloads for Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows 7

 

[TheArcaneFlame]

Perhaps I'm mistaken but I don't remember them touting network printer compatibility... They seemed more focused on USB connectivity. They always say something along the lines of "Plug it into the USB port and the drivers will be there for X number of today's most popular printers."

How is the network printer set up? Is it direct IP or being hosted through a print server/active directory? In your "tinkering" how were you finding and attempting to install the printer? Through Active Directory, the web interface? Please provide some additional details.

 

[rhalbert10]

Mine worked perfectly first time and it is an old HP all-in-one.

 

[VagrantWade]

My HP All in one wireless printer works across the network and through usb.

 

[brianbrain]

Canon MX880 multifunction worked immediately. Both USB and Wi-Fi (it was detected and installed over Wi-Fi without me even asking).

 

[kittshelby]

what printer do you have? I havent tried it yet i just did the trick to get flash on all sites worked perfect works with flash on every site that i use, so far i'm thinking i need x86 less and less, fyi printer drivers should be exactly the same as pro. as far as how many they have i dont think they cut them short could be a windows 8 thing in general.

How did you get all websites with flash to work? Can you provide a link please. Thanks!

 

[mcheiron]

Here is a link to the RT compatibility page that shows what works and what doesn't. My printer works but I can't scan.

Windows Compatibility Center: Find Updates, Drivers, & Downloads for Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows 7

According to the MS list my Canon Pixma ip4300 is compatible with Win RT, according to Canon's support it is not, like a lot of their older usb printers. They sent me a list of compatible, incompatible printers. I have to say, Canon is correct, my printer does not work at all. So far for simple usb device compatibility...

 

[Sonic77]

Perhaps I'm mistaken but I don't remember them touting network printer compatibility... They seemed more focused on USB connectivity. They always say something along the lines of "Plug it into the USB port and the drivers will be there for X number of today's most popular printers."

How is the network printer set up? Is it direct IP or being hosted through a print server/active directory? In your "tinkering" how were you finding and attempting to install the printer? Through Active Directory, the web interface? Please provide some additional details.

Thanks for offering to help.

Its an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 , its on the list of compatible printers.
It's connected to another PC on the network.

Went to the desktop
Control Panel ... Add a device ... None Found
So I opened Add Printer and added it manually by browsing to the PC and then the printer icon.

Windows Printer Installation pops up, with checking Windows Update then No Driver Found and asked for the location of the inf file ?

Tried pointing it to a inf from the Win 7 driver but then it said printer can not be found.

 

[jhoff80]

My Brother HL-2170W wireless printer is working perfectly.

If the compatibility page mentions a download, then chances are that it's not going to work, since you can't install external drivers on Windows RT. That page hasn't been completely accurate on a lot of devices, from what I've seen around.

 

[stmav]

I got the shared printer on my homegroup working on my surface. Had to add it as a local port. Then when it came to drivers, plugged in a usb I had copied the printers cd to. Didn't like it and said it needed drivers for arm. So I went ahead and looked at the brother drivers in the list on the surface. There was a brother laser 1 generic driver. Clicked that and it's working just fine.

 

[Dos101]

Have a Canon MP150. Works in Windows 8 on my laptop, but not with my Surface (says driver is incompatible). Printer is 6 years old anyways so might be time for a new one on Boxing Day.

 

[docbot]

My brother network printer was found automatically. The only problem is that the driver appears not to allow me to access automatic duplex printing.

Mark

 

[derek533]

My Brother HL-2170W wireless printer is working perfectly.

Same printer here and works flawlessly. The nice surprise was how RT found it and automatically installed it during setup without me having to do anything.

 

[Sonic77]

says it is compatible:

Windows 8 compatibility for Epson Stylus Pro 3800 Inkjet Printer model C635011UCM from Epson

Says a free download is available, but I don't see it.

Wherever this printer is, go to it and plug into it with a USB cable.

Just tried that..
It installed it as a USB Printer (High Speed), then it said its not compatible with this version of windows.

I deleted that printer and tried to install one manaully using the USB port it did not detect it . There are a bunch of Epson drivers in RT but they all have cryptic names.

 

[TheArcaneFlame]

no they bragged about this at the Surface presser that WinRT works with 420k devices.

I'm assuming that was directed at my comment, and yes I know that... (though if you total up the devices on the compatibility page it amounts to just over 40,500) But I digress... Just because WinRT might work when directly connected to a printer through USB doesn't mean that it will work if it's connected through a network connection. That's the point I was getting at.

Also, not all network setups or connections are equal. I'm sure printers are more likely to work when directly connected over a wireless network than they would if shared through another PC or print server. Having additional devices in between can add complexity and sometimes won't allow the computer to "see" or communicated with the printer correctly... hence one reason that it may not find the appropriate driver, even if one is supposed to exist.

Also, just because Microsoft says something is compatible doesn't necessarily make it so... (unfortunately) For instance, they say that the Quadro NVS 110M GPU is compatible with Windows 8 but I haven't for the life of me been able to get it to work in either x64 or x86 environments on a Latitude D820. The website says it's compatible. When I ran the upgrade compatibility scanner from within Win7 x64 it said it was compatible. But when actually installing Win8 on the laptop, it won't install anything more than the generic Windows Driver. So the lists aren't always 100% accurate.

 

[csiguy1]

My HP Officejet Pro 8500A works great with my RT.

 

[texantony]

My Epson 845 works great. Detected right away on my Surface Tablet and my laptop (win7 to win8).