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Install Virtual Printer on Windows 7

By Codrut Nistor

Posted in How-to, Windows-7

In many cases text editors require printers to be installed on the computer systems so that they can provide appropriate print preview to the users. Moreover many text editors also provide several page sizes only when printers are installed on the computers. In legacy versions of Microsoft operating systems installing Virtual printers was an easy task and even home users were able to do so within no time. In Microsoft Windows 7 however things are a bit complicated and users need to go through a few extra steps in order to install Virtual printers so that they can get the same ambience while working with text editors. Virtual printers are usually installed when no physical printers are available and users still need to customize the settings of the text editors. As a Windows 7 administrator if you want to install Virtual printers you are required to follow the steps given as below:

  1. Logon to Windows 7 computer with administrator account.

  2. From start menu right click on Computer and from the context menu click on Manage.

  3. On Computer Management snap-in from the left pane click on Device Manager.

  4. From the right pane right click on the name of the computer that is displayed at the top of the list and from the available menu click on Add legacy hardware.

  5. On the appeared screen click on Next button and on the next window choose Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced) radio button and click on Next button.

  6. From the available list of hardware devices on the next window click on Printers and click on Next button.

  7. On Choose a printer port page click on Next button and on Install the printer driverwindow choose the appropriate vendor of the printer from the left pane and from the right pane choose the desired model of the printer.

  8. Click on Next button and on the next page click on Next button as well to start the installation process.

  9. On Printer Sharing page choose the appropriate radio button as required and click on Next button.

  10. On final page click on Finish button to complete the installation process.