Trying to locate my HP printer to be able to scan

I looked at the tutorials posted and tried but it only gives me the print que and not the printer settings itself. I've been trying to scan something that is asking for a wet signature and get sent off for a few days now. What has happened? Can I return to an older version of windows? I just do not have the time nor the patience for this new version....

Militarylady88 said:

wet signature

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I have no information about that. For the scanner, if the drivers for it are installed might look in Start, All Apps, W, WIndows Tools for Windows Fax and Scan, see it it works there by doing a new scan.

As for an older version of Windows, is your current Win11 an Upgrade over Win10? Might be able to go back to/reinstall Win10.

Maybe I'm not fully understanding your issue. I have a HP Envy Pro 6400 that is only accessed via WiFi. To access it from my W11 HP laptop, HP Pavilion desktop, or cell phone , I use the "HP Smart" utility. It allows me to do anything my printer is capable of.

Welcome to the forum. A little more info would be helpful. What is model of printer? Is this a new Winows 11 machine or did you upgrade from Windows 10? If a new system, how, exactly did you install the printer?

I have an older HP OJ printer that stiIl uses the full printer installation package from HP and the scan function still works in it. New printers these days do use the HP Smart App to install and operate as @K7MEM stated. HP doesn't even offer the full installation package for many printers anymore. You might look at the documentation relating to your specific printer on HP support site.

Militarylady88 said:

I looked at the tutorials posted and tried but it only gives me the print que and not the printer settings itself. I've been trying to scan something that is asking for a wet signature and get sent off for a few days now. What has happened? Can I return to an older version of windows? I just do not have the time nor the patience for this new version....

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Try these steps :

1) Uninstall your printer
2) Restart the computer
3) Install printer's drivers from HP's site

If the problem not solved , download and run "HP Print and scan doctor".

K7MEM said:

Maybe I'm not fully understanding your issue. I have a HP Envy Pro 6400 that is only accessed via WiFi. To access it from my W11 HP laptop, HP Pavilion desktop, or cell phone , I use the "HP Smart" utility. It allows me to do anything my printer is capable of.

Click to expand...

I don't know anything about the HP Smart utility. Prior to Windows 11 automatically updating on my computer (I had said no to it multiple times but logged in one day and it was uploaded) I had a shortcut in my task bar to my printer and now it is no longer there. I was able to print a test page but I cannot find my functions such as print, scan or fax as I can't find it. The drivers are still on the computer but I can't get to the HP utility screen to be able to use the printer from my laptop. I hope this helps.

I have 2 HP printers attached to my Router via Ethernet cable, can print from any computer I install them on.

Bug locker said:

Try these steps :

1) Uninstall your printer
2) Restart the computer
3) Install printer's drivers from HP's site

If the problem not solved , download and run "HP Print and scan doctor".

Click to expand...

Thank you. I had a computer person take control of my computer to assist me. He stated that with the new Windows 11 most have issues with their printers. I can now see my HP Smart utility to be able to do all it is capable of. I don't think I am going to stay with Windows 11, it changed too many things for me. Again, appreciate the quick responses.

IF you had the full featured software in Windows 10, see if it still exists in 11 from Start/All apps/HP/your printer model name. If it's not in your start menu see if it exists in C:\Program Files\HP

I have an OJ Pro 8600 like this screenshot. The shortcut path to mine is "C:\Program Files\HP\HP Officejet Pro 8600\Bin\HP Officejet Pro 8600.exe" -Start UDCDevicePage

If you no longer see it in 11 in C:\Program Files\HP, whatever version you had when you upgraded to 11 may not have been compatible with 11.
You're still not telling us the model of your printer.

The choice is yours whether you keep 11 but keep in mind Windows 10 will no longer receive security updates after 10/14/25. 11 was a learning curve for all of us until we got accustomed to it. Now, most here like it. To extend the security benefits and longevity of your machine, it will benefit you to learn it now rather than later. One can fight change but it is always inevitable.

I really didn't like Windows 11 either but have determined to accept it and learn to use it.

What made it more tolerable was to move the Start button to the left side. You can do that easily by

• Right-click on taskbar
• Select Taskbar settings
• Scroll down and expand Taskbar behavior
• Change Taskbar alignment from the default Center to Left.

Militarylady88 said:

Thank you. I had a computer person take control of my computer to assist me. He stated that with the new Windows 11 most have issues with their printers. I can now see my HP Smart utility to be able to do all it is capable of. I don't think I am going to stay with Windows 11, it changed too many things for me. Again, appreciate the quick responses.

Click to expand...

Have a nice day !

Click on the Start button > All Apps.

Find all the HP Printer related Icons of stuff you need.
Right click on each of the Icons > More > Pin to Taskbar.

If you want the items on Start then Pin to Start. Right click > Move to front if required. That is almost the only organisational function.
Putting Shortcuts on the Desktop is the same as in previous versions of Windows.

Some recent Windows 11 update removed support for LOTs of older printers, including my 2012-14 vintage Dell 2155cn networked color laser printer. I had to visit the vendor site and download a driver to get it working on a new machine that just joined the network recently. I ran into the same problem, but didn't really figure out what was going on until Monday (and blogged about it Tuesday).

Here are links to those blog posts:
Tuesday, January 23 Adding Ancient Dell Printer Gets Interesting
January 17 Dell Printer MIA [This showed up on my wife's desktop when Word defaulted to "Print to PDF" and the Dell disappeared.]

HTH,
--Ed--

You haven't said what model HP printer you have.

Over the last few years I have updates for Windows 10 or 11 break the driver for my HP printer. Usually the solution was to install a new printer driver. One time I to wait several weeks until HP released a new driver that fixed the problem.