Updating HP Printer Drivers

I had a computer running WIN XP Home which crashed. It was setup to use a network HP Printer and everything worked fine.
When I reloaded a new operating system, WIN XP Pro, I had to load the drivers for the network hp printer. I used the CD that came with the printer, but they are very old drivers. Before the crash I had the updated drivers which had many more features than the old ones.
I found the updated drivers on an HP website, but it is set up to install the printer as well as the updated drivers. How can I use that setup file to load the newer drivers on my computer?

 

You can use the "Remove printer" feature in Control Panel>Printers, then install the download file or you can just install the downloaded file over top of what you've already got installed.

The second option will either prompt you to remove the previous installation or go ahead and remove it automatically before installing or just overwrite the older files, replacing them with the new.

I've installed newer drivers over old for several printers...never an HP, though...without any problems. They've all done one of the three choices above.

 

I would expect that you could install from the CD, then open the HP software (Start -> All Programs) and there should be an option to check for and install driver updates (but, if you have extra "features ", they could well be software updates rather than driver updates).

If you do that, it should get the latest updates (and it will be a smaller download/s than the full installation from the website). If you still can't see the extra features, you might need to enable them or get them from the website separately.

Watch when you run the installation from the CD, I think it will say
"Install the following:

• Standard installation (recommended)
• Minimal installation
• Full installation "

You probably want the full installation.

Matt