Marcus felt a spark of hope. He checked his "Devices and Printers" panel. Sure enough, the icon simply said "HP LaserJet MFP." It looked generic. It didn’t have the specific branding or the custom iconography he usually saw with HP software.
If you only need basic printing (no scan, no advanced settings): hp laserjet mfp 178nw driver
The wizard scanned the local subnet. A small icon of his printer appeared. "HP LaserJet MFP 178nw [DA253F]." The bracketed code was its unique identifier. Marcus felt a spark of hope
The progress bar crept across the screen. 20%... 45%... 80%. The clock on the wall ticked toward 11:45 PM. It didn’t have the specific branding or the
“Connecté?" Marcus muttered to the empty room. "We are connected! I just printed to you!”
He hadn't installed the driver. He had assumed the operating system knew best. He had assumed the "plug and play" era meant he didn't need to hunt down files.