Windows printer installation nightmare

Hi all

I just HAVE to tell you Mac users about this horrible experience. You
will no doubt find this article to be great fodder for you anti-
Windows jihad.

I finally decided to replace my 12 year old Okidata laser with
something a bit faster and with better graphics resolution. A 100
page paper tray, 300 dpi and 6 ppm was pretty good for a low end
printer when I bought it in 1995, but just does not get the job done
any more.

So, I go into the local office supply store this morning and find a
new laser on sale at 50% off MSRP - $120 on sale for $59.95. It does
20 ppm at 1200 dpi max resolution and holds 250 pages.

I happily take this bargain home, and then the problems started.

First, I had to get open the box and take it out. You have to be an
absolute genius to figure out how to get that tape on the box cut and
those Styrofoam packing pieces removed!

Next came the toner cartridge installation. Unwrap that too, open a
door on the front of the printer, and slide it in until it clicks.
Just like the directions and pretty pictures showed.

Then, it came time to hook it up to my trusty Dell desktop running
XP. Oh my God, I actually had to decide between USB 2.0, Ethernet and
parallel! Oh no, which am I going to use? I have all 3 cables here
and all three possibilities on the Dell, so what do I do? Panic,
gnashing of teeth, tears welling up...then I remembered that the
Okidata was already connected by parallel. So, I just reused the old
cable, and the tears dried up right away.

Then it was time to load up the paper. Oh my God. You see, there was
this little piece of tape holding the paper tray closed. Is this like
those labels on mattresses that tell you not to remove, and if you do
you go to jail? Will it void my warranty if I take that tape off.
Will I go to San Quentin? No, my manual shows you just how to do it,
pictures and all. My oh my, that was exciting, and was I ever glad
for those pictures...don't read too well, as you know.

But then there was more. According to the manual I had to insert a CD
to install the printer driver and some extra software that does not
come with something called "XP Plug and Play". So, I VERY carefully
followed the manual. I pressed the itty bitty button on the CD
player, carefully loaded the CD, and very gently pushed on the tray.
It retracted, whirred for a moment, and up came the first installation
screen. Wow, was that ever a relief. Carefully following the on-
screen instructions, with very pretty pictures, I had all the software
installed, and golly, it only took about a minute. But nothing
happens (except that the CD tray opens for me to remove the CD - very
neat, who thought that one up?).

So I study the manual, then the printer, for a while, and figure out
that a power cord has to be plugged into the back of the thing. Gee,
it even uses the same cord as the old Okidata! After it powers up I
go into the Printers panel off the Start menu, and MIRACLE, my new
printer is there. I right click (a neat trick fellow computer users,
you need to learn how to do that!) and select Properties. From there
I print a test page and turn printer sharing on. Just like the manual
and the pretty pictures show you.

Now I have actually printed about a dozen pages, including a few extra
copies of the Christmas letter. Wow, I cannot believe that the ordeal
is over. Now life can get back to normal.

For my next challenge with Windows I plan to put together a picture
album of birthday and Christmas pictures of the first 10 years with
kids. I already have about a hundred old photos from the 70s and 80s
scanned in and sorted by year, and within year by occasion. This
project will likely take at least an hour to finish. Oh well, nobody
ever promised that Windows was easy to use.

.

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