Installing an HP Wireless Printer

Connect to your HP wireless printer wirelessly

With everything being wireless these days it only makes sense that we should be able to print wirelessly as well. Back in the old days we had to use parallel printer cables to connect to printers and computers to get the job done. Then we advanced to USB connections and those are still the most common today for home users. Office users most likely use network attached printers.

But if you have multiple computers that need to print to the same printer you can’t be unplugging and plugging in USB cables to different computers each time you need to print. Or if you have a laptop, tablet or smartphone then you may want to print from the comfort of your couch. This is where wireless printers come into play.

With wireless printers you can print from any device that supports wireless printers and also the particular printer you want to print to. This way you can use one printer for all the computers in your house without having to reconfigure things each time. In this article we are going to talk about connecting to an HP wireless printer because they are one of the most commonly used printers in use in homes today.

There are a couple of ways to do this and one involves downloading the software and drivers from the HP website or inserting the setup disk that came with your printer into your computer. Then you can install the drivers and all the additional software for scanning and faxing etc. This method takes longer since there is more software being installed on your computer and since you may be downloading the software from the HP site.

If you just need basic print capabilities and want to do a quick installation you can install the printer from the Windows Devices and Printers manager that you can get to by clicking on Start and going to Devices and Printers or for Windows 10 you can go to your settings and then to Devices. You also have the Devices and Printers option in Windows 10 if needed.

In either the Devices and Printers are or the Windows 10 settings simply click on Add a printer and it will start the same wizard regardless of which interface you use.

Windows 10 settings

Windows 10 printers and scanners

 

Once you click on add a printer Windows will search for available printers that are either connected to your computer or that are available wirelessly assuming your computer has a wireless adapter and that the printer is turned on and already connected to your wireless router. If you haven’t done this step then you will need to go to the printers touch screen and find the wireless settings, have it search for wireless connections and then choose your wireless connection and put in your password.

After that part is configured you should see your printer show up in the list of devices that Windows finds during its scan. Then you can click on it and choose Next.

Windows add a device

 

If it doesn’t find it you will have the option to find the printer by other methods as seen in the image below. If you get here there is a good chance that something is wrong with either your printer configuration or your Windows settings but it’s still possible that it will find your printer with one of the other options, most likely the one that says Add a Bluetooth, wireless or network discoverable printer.

Windows add a printer

 

If you are lucky and your printer is found then after you click on next you may get a window asking for the WPS PIN for your printer. This number will be shown on your printer’s screen and you will need to enter in the box before clicking next. The WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) PIN is used to connect 2 wireless devices to each other to make sure the right devices are talking to each other.

HP WPS PIN

 

After you put in the WPS PIN Windows will start to install the driver software for your printer which will take a few minutes. Just make sure you are logged in with an account that has local administrator rights when doing this to avoid any permission issues.

Windows add a device

 

Then you will see your printer in Devices and printers and if it has a clock icon by it that means it’s still being configured in Windows and once the clock icon is gone your printer should be ready for use.

Windows Devices and Printers

 

Now keep in mind that these instructions will vary depending on your version of Windows and the model of your printer. They will also vary depending on if you are just installing drivers to get your computer to print or are trying to add the full feature software for faxing and scanning etc.

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