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How to add a generic printer in Windows 10

Dave Farquhar Windows November 25, 2015March 11, 2024Click Next, hp, IBM, laserjet, UNC, Windows 10

Sometimes you need to add a generic printer in Windows 10.

Windows 10 makes the setup of newer hardware pretty automatic, but if you have a legacy or specialized printer that has to be set up as a generic printer in Windows, the process isn’t intuitive. Here’s how to set it up.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Add a TCP/IP printer in Windows 10

Dave Farquhar Windows January 27, 2015November 16, 2021Click Finish, Click Next, hp, jetdirect card, laserjet, optimizing windows, Technical Preview, Universal Plug and Play, Windows 10

Sometimes you have to manually add a TCP/IP printer in Windows 10. For example, I have an older HP Laserjet 4100 with a Jetdirect network card in it that I use to print from all of my PCs over my local area network (LAN). Getting Windows 10 to print to it isn’t difficult but it’s hardly intuitive.

If you have your network printer already set up but just need to change its IP address, I covered that here. If you want to share a locally attached printer with other computers on your network, you can do that too.

Printing straight to the TCP/IP address of the printer is convenient. It means you don’t have to have another computer powered up when you want to print.

Dave Farquhar

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An easy way to change your power plans in Vista and Windows 7

Dave Farquhar Saving money, Windows November 11, 2011December 5, 2015Click Finish, Click Next, keyboard shortcuts, vista, windows 7

If you need to change power plans to manage your computer’s power usage, here’s the easiest way to do it without fumbling around in control panel. This works in either Windows 7 or Vista.
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Dave Farquhar

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Windows shutdown command

Dave Farquhar Windows September 26, 2011September 26, 2017Click Finish, Click Next, command prompt, Windows XP

Let’s say you need to shut down or reboot your computer from a command line, a batch file, or a desktop shortcut. Maybe you want to shut it down right now, or in an hour. You can do all of that and more with the Windows shutdown command, shutdown.exe.
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Dave Farquhar

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Fix weird Internet connection problems with ipconfig

Dave Farquhar Windows August 30, 2011August 21, 2016Click Finish, Click Next, command prompt

One of the most maddening things that can happen when you’re using a computer is that a web site you visit routinely quits working. Your Internet connection appears to be fine, but suddenly, for some reason, you can’t go to the site you were just using. Try to go to another site you haven’t visited in a while, and it’s fine. But whatever site you were using a minute ago doesn’t work anymore. The site becomes accessible again immediately after you reboot, but that’s a really big hassle.

There’s a much less drastic fix. It’s easy too, but non-obvious.

Dave Farquhar

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Can’t get system restore to run? Force it.

Dave Farquhar Windows June 16, 2011December 4, 2015Click Next, command prompt, old school, Task Manager

If your computer brings up a window every time you click on a program’s icon asking what you want to open it with, there’s a not-so-obvious way out.

Ve hev vays to get a command prompt when executable files won’t run normally. And from there, you can run anything you want, old school DOS-style.

Dave Farquhar

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Unlocking the Malicious Software Removal Tool

Dave Farquhar security January 4, 2011September 7, 2016antimalware, antivirus, Click Next, malware, McAfee

When Microsoft’s monthly security patches come down, if you’ve ever clicked on the button to see what it’s installing, you may have noticed the Malicious Software Removal Tool.

If you’re wondering, it’s a rudimentary antimalware tool that removes selected vermin from your system. It doesn’t remove all known malware. And I don’t know exactly how Microsoft decides what to remove and when. But given the number of people who don’t run any kind of antimalware software, it probably seemed like a good idea when they rolled it out in 2005. And in the first 15 months they pushed the tool out with the monthly patches, it removed 16 million instances of malicious software. Not bad.

The tool has some power that you can unlock that normally isn’t exercised when you do your monthly updates.

Note: In a corporate environment, you may not get the Malicious Software Tool automatically if you’re managing Windows updates yourself. Microsoft has instructions for deploying it to your enterprise.

Dave Farquhar

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Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 with USB media

Dave Farquhar Windows December 26, 2010December 27, 2010building a pc, Click Next, command prompt, firefox, recovery tools, USB flash drive, vista, windows 7, Windows Explorer, Windows XP

I wasn’t in any hurry to switch to Windows 7, but when several places put the Windows 7 family pack on sale for $125 or thereabouts, I figured I’d better get it. The normal price on three upgrades is $100-$110 a pop. And you know how it goes. Once you get something, you really don’t want it to just sit on the shelf. Why let the software collect dust while I wait for 64-bit Firefox to arrive?

So I want to install it off USB. It’s easy, right? Well, it’s easy if you’re running Vista. But the instructions floating around for making bootable Windows 7 installation USB media don’t work if you’re running XP. At least they didn’t work from any of my XP machines. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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