what does computer culture say about when to uninstqall-and-reinst

[Guest]

my printer's driver, originally installed april 2007, was auto-updating
repeatedly through september, and was functioning magnificently; the printer
manufacturer had worked out all the kinks of vista compatibility. then, on
sept. 13, vista auto-updated (like the printer manufacturer, ms is always
improving its software, despite the banshee screams of ms-bashers); the ms
auto-update allowed an 'optional' update for my printer. naturally i
approved. turns out that the update was dated november 200*6*(!! - i can't
even figure out where this "update" came from!) my printer driver is now
manifesting the vista-incompatibility symptoms that it had several months
ago.

no big deal.

but, as an academic question, as a general rule, what is the accepted,
corrective strategy in these cases: should i uninstall and reinstall the
drivers (downloading the latest version from the printer manufacturer's
website)? should i resort to a vista restore point? it may be possible to
induce the outdated driver to once again auto-update - any ideas on how to
stimualte this behavior?

 

[Guest]

My personal opinion is to never let Windows update, update any hardware
drivers. Always get them from the manufacturer.

 

[Guest]

In order to resolve this issue, please let me know the make and the model
number of the printer. You can try to disconnect the Printer from the
computer and then uninstall all the Printer related Information like Drivers
and Software. Make sure that there is nothing related to the printer and then
restart the computer. After restarting, connect the printer back to the
computer. If Vista has generic Drivers of this printer, it should install
them by default and the printer should work fine, if not disconnect the
printer again and update the Drivers from the Manufacturer's site and then
while installation of the Drivers connect the printer and it should work
well. If you still have any issues, please let me know the make of the
printer and also let me know if you upgraded your computer Operating System
from XP to Vista or did it come Pre installed with Vista?

 

[Richard Urban]

Roll back the driver. It is a neat function and it seems to work more
reliably than in Windows XP. Then, hide that defective update from Windows
update so you are not tempted to install it - yet again.

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Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)