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Man Gets Windows Vista to Work with Printer

blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com — This headline looks like it came from The Onion, but it didn't. It's the real headline of an article posted on SeattlePI.com in the blogs section. The core of the story is that a man couldn't get his printer to work with Windows Vista, and ultimately, with the help of a Microsoft test manager, solved the problem warranting an article about it.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 19, 2008

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452 Comments

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  • inactive, on 06/18/2008, -17/+651He's only 20 years old.Problems with your computer really can stress you out and put years on you.
  • estvir, on 06/19/2008, -81/+580So.. people are Digging up a story about a printer that wasn't working 'cause someone installed the XP versions of the drivers?

    Wow, I mean, slow news day and the incessant, stupid hate many of you have for Microsoft but even for you fellows this is a bit pathetic.
  • elvis699, on 06/19/2008, -43/+319Dugg for the title... I haven't and won't even read the article...
  • MasterThief117, on 06/19/2008, -7/+277I was hoping he got his printer to run Vista. That would have been impressive.
  • Mudcrutch, on 06/19/2008, -8/+133I thought this was going to be an Onion article.
  • Cryptocracy, on 08/17/2008, -11/+128it wasn't a wireless network printer, however...
  • Disease, on 06/19/2008, -0/+77This is why we can't have nice things.
  • dragonmantank, on 06/19/2008, -8/+72But wait, why is it Microsoft's fault that you don't have drivers for your printer? Microsoft gave hardware manufacturers plenty of time to come up with Vista-compatible drivers, and one of two things happened:

    1) The hardware manufacturer dropped the ball, plain and simple. They screwed up, but who cares since MS will be the one that gets blamed or

    2) It wasn't profitable to update the drivers. Why update drivers for free (which will net a negative profit by the time you pay a driver developer, have the website guys add it, and then pay bandwidth to serve it) when you can 'upsell' the customer to a better, newer printer with Vista drivers?

    I'm not one to go around touting Microsoft for how great they are, but in this case, they went above and beyond to help a customer because Dell/Lexmark screwed up.
  • smacksaw, on 06/19/2008, -8/+70I want to know what his Crysis settings are.
  • inactive, on 06/19/2008, -5/+65Holy *****. People work at Microsoft Tech Support!?
  • jonnyuoit, on 06/19/2008, -11/+69slow news day(s)?

    from the same people who published "I Really Suck at Rockband Drums"
  • inajeep, on 06/19/2008, -3/+45Yes, my MacBook Pro doesn't work with my wireless network printer.
  • intekra, on 06/19/2008, -1/+41Chicks that claim to be "cuties" are usually gross. Linux user or not, be careful out there!
  • meltingrobot, on 06/19/2008, -4/+43So... want to get together sometime and trade pubkeys? Seriously, girls that run Linux are too rare.
  • HCviolence, on 06/19/2008, -10/+49That old man fixed his printer on Vista. He must be a l33t H@x3r
  • quomen, on 06/19/2008, -15/+52lol. Every time I see a Windows Vista topic there is always an estvir comment that defends it. And I always digg him up. I also like Vista.
  • francis7, on 06/19/2008, -3/+37priceless nerd line... can use it sometime? :-)
  • kmotiv1, on 06/19/2008, -14/+47Please share you secrets with the rest of the world!
  • bigkeeperrabbit, on 06/19/2008, -1/+32Hi Norm!
  • pixelatedsoul, on 06/19/2008, -1/+31The headline should actually read "Man Gets Printer to Work With Vista" ...for a second I thought he installed the OS onto his printer.
  • tobikow, on 06/19/2008, -5/+34Shocking headline!
    In other news: Man finds printer that dosesnt work with Ubuntu!
  • fani, on 06/19/2008, -0/+28320x240, 8bit on 14" CRT. Looks awesome !
  • Murdats, on 06/19/2008, -2/+29I also share this appreciation for rationality.
  • 4d669, on 06/19/2008, -1/+27It's amazing how hard it is for average people to install a ***** driver.
  • inactive, on 06/19/2008, -2/+27Well, according to the RIAA they can download music, why not run xp.
  • ender7074, on 06/19/2008, -14/+38Funny, every piece of PC equipment that I had on XP works no problem on Vista. And Im not the exception, Im the norm.
  • JayG25, on 06/19/2008, -18/+40Why in the hell do people think that Microsoft should support every piece of hardware that was ever made. That is what I dont understand. I really cant feel sorry for someone when their 12 year old webcam wont work with Vista. The company who sold it isnt going to make money by giving you drivers for and they never get blamed when it dosnt work on a new OS.

    Same thing goes with people who want M$ to support XP for free, for ever.
  • theandy1, on 06/19/2008, -8/+29So should I feel lucky because my wireless network printer works with my vista machine?
  • Rizzler, on 06/19/2008, -1/+22Usually gross, or a dude.

    I'm a cutie, tbh
  • telepheedian, on 06/19/2008, -2/+23Mine installed without and additional drivers, I just gave it the printer's network name, it found and installed it. Much better than XP, which required HP's bloatware drivers to make it work.
  • bdbr, on 06/19/2008, -2/+23Give me a break. I've been using Linux for about a decade now, and while its stable and free, ease of use and peripheral compatibility are NOT its strong suits.

    (and no, I'm not using the same version I installed a decade ago)
  • telepheedian, on 06/19/2008, -0/+19http://digg.com/users/dynacrylic/gallery/7105586 decide for yourself on that one...
  • GuyHersh, on 06/19/2008, -21/+40Stupid! Terrible article and only submitted to start a flame war against MS. So an old guy has problems with XP drivers that are incompatible with Vista. SO F'ING WHAT! With every OS advancement some old ***** wont work. Jesus, get off your high horses already.

    I'm gonna get dugg down, but I don't care. Buried.
  • JayG25, on 06/19/2008, -6/+24Wouldnt that be your hardware makers fault and not M$ for not giving you drivers?
  • Todash19, on 06/19/2008, -7/+25Dugg for the title :)
  • MadOgre, on 06/19/2008, -0/+17Hey, I had BOB.
    Wait, that sounded gay...
  • boerema, on 06/19/2008, -9/+25hahaha. I am working on a software bug right now where our software can't print in Vista. I'm currently befuddled.
  • humperdeath, on 06/19/2008, -0/+16I think he connected to MY printer, as I had recently been getting some strange prints coming out of my printer.
  • estvir, on 06/19/2008, -1/+16It's not so much that I 'defend' Vista and am a incredibly 'M$' fanboy it's just that I dislike the hypocritical nonsense here and throughout all the anti-MS camps. If I'm wrong, succinctly correct me and I most likely will not mind, I actually prefer people to correct mistakes I mistake.

    Like, the FSF will pull off shady, FUD filled campaigns like the BadVista one and the same people who clamor about how Microsoft using FUD is bad will lap it up.

    I use what I like the most and what is the best solution for me. At the moment, that's Vista though I boot in Ubuntu at least once daily, for my browser it's now Opera 9.5, it used to be FF3, for my server OS, it's Linux or OpenBSD if I'm feeling dangerous.. and so on.

    But I appreciate you Digging me up. ;)
  • Hase0, on 06/19/2008, -4/+19@telepheediantelepheedian DO NOT WANT
  • VoxRatio, on 06/19/2008, -4/+18In other news... still no cure for stupid.
  • dood, on 06/19/2008, -5/+19I'm surprised this is something that wasn't caught in Vista testing. Surely they had to know that someone's going to use the CD they have on hand to install the drivers for their printer, once they switch to Vista.

    The problem, as I understand it, was that the driver files were redirected somewhere else, and the installer had no way to know where they went, and then the uninstaller couldn't uninstall 'em. The real WTF (to borrow a phrase) is that the user, apparently, is not notified about this redirection, and uninstaller wasn't also redirected the same way as the installer.

    And the double-real WTF is that it took onsite technicians to resolve this.
  • theberlindoctor, on 06/19/2008, -2/+16Linux.. really?

    I'd love to see someone's grandpa try to connect to a WPA wireless network..

    and by your standards, any OS where you have to command line install a wireless handler is *****. give me a break
  • Dalrek, on 06/19/2008, -2/+16False dichotomies are awesome.
  • Slovenian6474, on 06/19/2008, -6/+19Now try sharing the printer without some sort of spooling error.
  • inactive, on 06/19/2008, -33/+46Which is why a cutie like me uses Mac 10.5 and Ubuntu. I only age when I'm at work using XP; I stop "aging" when I get home.
  • angusm, on 06/19/2008, -7/+18Reported as implausible.
  • NuclearTomorrow, on 06/19/2008, -17/+28Most of the complaining I hear about vista is from people who didn't take the time to check compatibility with their programs/electronics. They jumped right into Vista and joined the FUD wagon when they couldn't figure anything out. Because, you know, I've never had a problem with a Linux driver? And oh, I've never had a compatibility problem with OSX, even though Mac makes both the hardware and software?
  • kinghajj, on 06/19/2008, -8/+19Not really related, but I recently installed CUPS on my Arch Linux installation, and it auto-detected a network printer shared by my Mac, so it shows up in the printer list. I was happily surprised.
  • staplez, on 06/19/2008, -0/+11Did you RTFA? A test manager != Tech Support. It's clear no one works at Microsoft's Tech Support.
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