How to Backup Printer Drivers and Restore Them on Another Computer
Posted on May 15, 2009
Filed Under Flash Drive, How To, Microsoft, Software, Tools, Windows | 10 Comments
Back when I had a forum on this site someone posted a utility that allows you to back up printer drivers on one computer and restore them on another. This utility has saved me countless amounts of time, especially when setting up new computers. And since I don’t have the forum anymore, I felt like I needed to re-share it. So in the following article I would like to show you how to use this great tool.
The first step is to download the Microsoft Print Migrator utility. This utility was actually designed to backup printers on print servers but also works on desktops. It’s also a stand-alone app so it can be ran from anywhere including your flash drive.
Once you open the Print Migrator, click on the “File” menu and select “Backup.” You will now choose a name and a location where you will backup your printers to. Click the “Open” button to begin the backup.
Once the printers are done backing up, you will see a message in the bottom window that says “Backup Complete.”
Now you are ready to restore the printers on another computer.
To restore them, just transfer the backup file and the Print Migrator utility to the other computer and open the Print Migrator. Then click the “File” menu and select “Restore.” Select the backup file that you created and click “Open.”
Once the printers have been restored you will see a message at the bottom that says “Restore Complete.”
You are now ready to use your printers. Thanks again to the user TheKoz who originally shared this utility.
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10 Responses to “How to Backup Printer Drivers and Restore Them on Another Computer”
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super, works , its simple, cant get any better. thank you so much…
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This is a good tool. It seems like it carried all of the drivers to the other computer. When I plug in the printer, I see the “Add Hardware Wizard” window comes up. So i just click Next to let windows install it but it cannot find the drivers. I looked under Device Manager and it has a section called “Other Devices” and under that “Hewlett Packard. But I was able to communicate with the printer and print a test page. Do you know how to fix the Add Hardware Wizard from popping up?
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Casey Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Hi Binh,
I’ve never run into that problem when using this utility before. Does the printer have a card reader? If so, that’s probably why you are being prompted because this utility won’t copy over that driver. You would have to go to HP’s website and download the full driver to fix it.
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Binh Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Hi Casey
I have a HP Deskjet 3820 which does not have a card reader. Looking at the properties of the “Hewlett Packard” under “Other Devices” in Device Manager it says something like “on HP USB Printing Support” or something similar to it. This is also doing it to other standard printers as well. No extra features on the printers, just printing.
TIA
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Casey Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Okay, try downloading the drivers from HP’s website and see if that fixes the problem. There must have been something with the USB support that it couldn’t copy over for some reason. Let me know what happens.
Binh Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Downloading and installing the drivers for the HP printers worked. This fix is fine if i were trying to migrate just 1 printer but i’m working on a project that is re-imaging all their computers in the company (3000 PCs) where there are many different printer models and manufacture. So this would be a pain to try to re-install all the drivers again. Do you know what could migrate this particular USB printing driver support?
Casey Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Hi Binh,
Unfortunately, I don’t know why it’s doing this. Like I said, I’ve never run into this problem before as long as I have been using this utility. Hopefully this will work on the rest of your drivers and save you the trouble from at least having to reinstall all the others.
Will Reply:
May 25th, 2010 at 9:02 am
This works great for the printers, which won’t show up on a normal driver backup utility like WinDriversBackup.
Use the above in tandem and you should be able to restore everything, though if you are re-imaging that many computers I’d hope you would have better imaging solutions.
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Hi Casey
I have a HP Deskjet 3820 which does not have a card reader. Looking at the properties of the “Hewlett Packard” under “Other Devices” in Device Manager it says something like “on HP USB Printing Support” or something similar to it. This is also doing it to other standard printers as well. No extra features on the printers, just printing.
TIA
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Windows 7 no trae el controlador de la impresora Epson FX 1170, lo hice con esta aplicacion y funciona perfecto
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