My b.i.l. asked me for advice, and I know no better group to ask: he has an HP laptop, running Windows 98, and wants to get a printer to print from it. But he’s a Luddite and has no internet connection. So the printer has to be “stand alone,” connected directly to the laptop, without any online setup. Is this possible? What is a decent printer for a purpose like this? Cheap is good… Thank you kindly for advice!
Many printers come with CDs with the drivers on it. But Windows 98 is pretty old, so I don’t know if the drivers would be on it. If not, he would have to have someone download the drivers and either burn to a CD or a thumb drive so he could install.
He would probably have to buy a USB cable as most printers don’t come with them included.
I am on a Mac and my printers have always been plugged in via USB. My new one (Epson) I am doing it wirelessly, but it did come with a CD for those without internet access.
If the laptop is from the Win 98 era, it may not have USB ports, which are not natively supported by the OS. Best option would probably be to find a printer with a parallel port connection. They’re rare, but out there. Alternately, you may check your local thrift store for an old printer that someone is unable to use because of the last of a USB connection.