Windows did another annoying forced update on me last night and now my printer is not showing up at all even when I go into my network settings. The only option it gives me when I try to print something is FAX and when I tried to add the device, it is giving me random printers from the entire apartment complex except mine. How do I fix this because I need to print something out right this second?

 

If it's an HP printer here is a link that might help.

HP Printers - After Windows 10 Upgrade, Printer Does Not Print | HP® Customer Support

If not try to download the print driver.

 

It would help to know what kind of a printer it is in order to help you.

 

I had a similar problem, check if your printer runs on either Windows 8 or Windows 10.

 

It's an Epson Artisan 710.

I've been using it just fine until Monday's update and now it is just gone. It can't even be found on my g/f's computer which also was updated the same night.

 

Use a cable connection. I always prefer using solid connections over wireless for this reason.

 

Yeah you may have to do a hardwire connection to restore communication. Did you try unplugging the printer for a while?

 

I don't have any ability to use it through a wired connection. Not to mention I don't have a printer cable.

Anyway, I have no idea what happened but it just started printing out several copies of the paper I was trying to print last night.

 

That's not even an option on the Home versions of Windows 10 anymore.

 

You seriously don't have a compatible USB cable to link your printer to the computer? According to the product page for your printer, it does have a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, but they didn't include a cable to actually use it. They're fairly cheap so I highly recommend you get one of suitable length for emergencies like this.

Something was jamming the signal, so your printer must have received the print command several times at once.

Makes me glad I went Win 10 Pro on my heavy tower rig which is mostly gaming and computer coding shit while my trusty laptop runs the Win 7 it came installed with for more casual internet and social use.

 

What makes it all worse is I never wanted to upgrade to Windows 10. I was working on my computer putting a video together, walked away to use the bathroom and when I came out my computer was restarting with the message UPGRADING TO WINDOWS 10 PLEASE DO NOT TURN OFF on the screen.

I was never asked to upgrade to it. I was never informed I would have to upgrade to it. It just did it automatically without my permission.

 

Sounds like if you still have Automatic Updates, they're still forcing Windows 10 on people, didn't think that was supposed to happen anymore, July 29th was the last chance IIRC, etc. etc.

Yeah, guess it's too late now, but I've had mine on manual updates for years.

But it seems you're magically working again, which is good.  

 

Not a bad decision. I'm using a Linux distro for my general use desktop. My gaming/HTPC box was running Windows 7, but I took the free update. Since it's only running Kodi and Steam, I just stripped out Cortana and all the UWP crap and disabled the update service. When I want to update, I just switch the service back on. It's actually really nice like this for how I'm using it. I wouldn't recommend that for normal general use machines though.

 

You can strip out Cortana? Admittedly I never really looked into this as the service wasn't too obnoxious in trying to shove how 'useful' it can be in my face, but knowing how to put her on mute would be excellent. Do you also know if there's a way to disable the Windows 8 app screen they shoved into the start bar because they didn't want to scrap the most significant aspect of the Win 8 changes that universally everybody despised?*

(*fun tidbit - I took a Windows 8 administration class for my Bachelor's in Computer IT and while at the time Win 10 had come out, the book was written at the time Win 8 was the 'latest and greatest' and I will never forget how the introduction was emphasizing how much better the 'app screen' was over the old start bar system. The class was still useful since Win 10 is pretty much Windows 8 with the interface it should have had to begin with and all the admin tricks still apply, but the irony of that statement to reality will always amuse me and I figure it would amuse you, too)

 

To remove Cortana, you basically have to kill the service and then rename or delete the system folder that contains the application. And you need to be fast because the service reenables itself automatically.

You could get a clean start menu by installing an alternate shell like Classic Shell, although I'm not going that route. I used the Powershell terminal to uninstall all of the nonessential UWP apps. I also had to give permanent admin rights to the default user (dangerous!) to get a legacy startup application to work, and doing that prevents UWP from working anyway (no Windows Store access). So most of the tablet style "Metro" apps don't show up in my start menu, but the space where they should be is still there. Again, not recommended for normal use.  

 

Ah, thanks for the know how! Since those things don't bother me in my use of the OS that much, I probably won't bother with trying to get rid of them - sounds like more trouble than its worth to me - but the family desktop also uses Win 10 and I might strip out Cortana because my dad keeps asking me why the search bar is doing internet searches outside of the internet browser.

 

You'll lose the use of the search bar ENTIRELY without Cortana running. Just FYI.

 

Damnit Windows!