Old printer drivers that crash Windows while installing a new Printer

Installing new printers can be quite a hassle, especially when installing a multi-function printer. Everything seems perfect, except for XP, since it now always crashes whenever you try to print or just keeps printing.

The drivers of the old printer are the main cause of this misery. You will need to uninstall them to fi x this problem. But this is easier said than done since Windows displays on ly the current drivers that are connected in the Device Manager. Windows displays device drivers from old printers in the device manager only when an environment variable is modifi ed. To make obsolete drivers visible, press [Win] + [Pause] to open the ‘System Properties’. In the ‘Advanced’ tab click on ‘Environment Variables’. Click on ‘New’ under ‘System Variables’. In the ‘Variable Name’ fi eld enter ‘devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices’ and enter the digit ‘1’ as the ‘Variable Value’. Click on ‘OK’ and restart the PC. Now press [Win] + [Pause] again to bring up the ‘System Properties’ menu. Go to ‘Hardware’ and select ‘Device Manager’. Click 'View | Show Hidden Devices’, which will allow you to view the old driver. Right-click on the it and select ‘Uninstall’, once you have uninstalled it, restart your PC. You can now print to your heart’s content without worrying about Windows crashing anymore.