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HP LaserJet 1012

HP LaserJet 1012

I wrote a post a while back about getting the HP LaserJet 1012 installed on Windows 8.1 and a bunch of people asked if it was also possible to install it on Windows 10.  Sure enough, it is!  The instructions almost identical to installing on windows 8.1, but I’ve noted a few changes for Windows 10.

Here’s how to install the HP LaserJet 1012 on Windows 10

  1. Plug in the HP LaserJet 1012 via USB cable. Windows will try to install it and it will look like it’s installed but it wont actually work.  You’ll be able to see it in the device manager as an “unspecified device”, but you wont be able to print.
  2. Download the Microsoft Windows Vista (64-bit) driver for the HP LaserJet 1012.  We’ll use the Vista 64-bit version on Windows 10 with no issues.
  3. Extract the ZIP archive and make a note of the location on your hard drive.
  4. Hit Windows-Q to launch the search charm and type in “Devices and Printers”
  5. Click on the “Add a printer” button
  6. Click on “The printer that I want isn’t listed”.  Skip the option for “My printer is a little older…help me find it” as that wont work.
  7. Select the radio button for “Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings”
  8. Select the radio button for “Use an existing port” and then select “DOT4_001” from the dropdown. Click “Next”.  If you have more than one “DOT4_XXX” option make note that we may have to change something later.
  9. Click “Have Disk”
  10. Browse to the location you noted in Step 2 and click “Ok”
  11. Select “HP LaserJet 1012 HB” and then click “Next”
  12. Give the printer a name, click next, accept any security warnings, etc.
Your printer is installed! So if that didn’t work, you may have to revisit step 8 and change the port.

Changing the Printer Port

  1. Hit Control-Q to launch the search charm and type in “Devices and Printers”
  2. The HP LaserJet 1012 should be listed under printers.   Right click and select “Printer properties”.  Note that this is different from the old “properties” tab that was in previous versions of Windows.
  3. Click on the “ports” tab and scroll to the DOT4_XXX options
  4. Select a new option and save the settings.  You may have to do this a few times until it locks on to the port that the HP is assigned to.
If you had previously elected to have it print a test page, it’ll come flying out automatically when you find the right port. Enjoy your old printer on your new Windows 10 machine!