Thread: Install a generic printer in Windows Vista

Although it is becoming quite normal and less practically all printers have their corresponding drivers for Windows Vista, it is always good to know how we can install a generic printer / text only.

But first let's see which is a type of printer Generic / Text Only.

As everyone knows, most printers today work in graphical mode. This, to understand, which means that print is printed on a picture (when printing a text in Word, for example, which is printing a series of pictures (graphics), where even the lyrics are images of Hence, they can print thousands of different types of letters). This is fine, but assumed that the printing speed is affected, especially in printers that already have a few years, and not all printers (particularly older dot matrix printers and printer special) will support this mode of printing.

A printer Generic / Text only print what is a plain text, with the basic font for the printer (does not support different fonts, only a few very basic, and that those printers that can change the type font to use) and plain. This increases the speed (though at the expense of quality) and is widely used in printers in which then goes to a format the text programmatically (as, for example, ticket printers in supermarkets).

It should be clarified that Generic / Text Only is not a particular type of printer, in theory any printer market could work as Generic / text only, but in practice this is not true, because there are many printers (most of the current ) that only work with specific drivers.

But this may serve mainly to those who need to install a specific printer, working or need to work with this driver.

Furthermore, the steps are the same for installing other printers on the list, it will also serve to install a printer without having it connected at that time, provided, of course, it is in this list.

Well, let's see the steps to follow:

First we are going to Start -> Control Panel and within the Control Panel go to Hardware and Sound, where we find the Printers section.


Within Printers let's add a printer.

In the next window select Add a local printer.



We turn next to the window, where we choose which port we are going to install this printer. From this window we can add a new port if necessary.

The next window is very important because it is where we choose the printer you are installing. We see that this window has two list boxes. On the left we have a list of manufacturers. In this list we choose Generic.

We see in the box to the right show the manufacturer chosen for the printer. In this case we choose Generic / Text Only. We must make a point in this regard. Both this and the previous dialogue in English (we will be savings in the translations). Windows Vista, although we have the Spanish version, remains too many dialog boxes and folder names of texts in English, which is not liked by many. Not that it's biggest problem, but the price has already might have made more of an effort in the translations.

The next window is to designate a name to this printer (which we must have, or want to make) and to determine if this is our default printer. These data can change later if you wish. We also informed the driver that will be used for this printer.

Clicking Next is the installation process and shows the next window, where we are told that the printer is already installed and two gives the possibility to print a test page.

With that now complete the installation. En esta imagen vemos la ventana de Impresoras , en la que ya aparece nuestra impresora Generic / Text only correctamente instalada. In this picture we see the Printers window, which is already our printer Generic / Text Only properly installed.

Well, there is only one comment to make. In the section on Generic see that there are two printers that are very important. This is IBM printers grafics Generic Generic 9 pin and 9 pin IBM grafics wide. The importance of these two printers is that if you're installing in graphical mode is a former impact printer 9 needles and do not have the driver on the manufacturer can install this driver, since the vast majority of printers are needle compatible with it. Of the two, wide carriage printer is wide and the other is normal printer carriage (80 characters).