The old saying goes “if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it”. This is a good approach to existing, functional device drivers on your system. However, if you are installing a new device going with the most recent stable driver is probably the best bet.

Whenever you purchase a retail device, it almost always comes with a driver CD. Instead of using this CD, download the latest release from the manufacture’s site instead. More times than not, you will find your CD has an older version because it was packaged and shipped X months ago.

Of course, once you have it installed and working, leave it be!

Situation: You’re going to install a Canon printer on a computer but you don’t have the driver CD for it. So, like anyone else, you go to Canon’s web site to download them. This should be an easy painless process, right?

Wrong.

Here’s what you have to do to download drivers for a consumer-grade Canon printer:

1. Go to www.canon.com
2. Click "Support" on the left (in the gray)
3. Choose your region from the map
4. Choose your landing site (e.g. Canon U.S.A.).
5. Another window or tab will open at this point.
6. Choose "Drivers & Downloads" from the left gray area.
7. Select your category as "Consumer Products".
8. Another window or tab will open at this point.
9. Next to 1, select category as "Printers".
10. Next to 2, select your series of printer.
11. Next to 3, select your model of printer.
12. Then click the almost unreadable gray "GO" button below that. AND FINALLY.. you’ll get to the drivers you need to download.

This is absolutely ridiculous I have to jump thru this many hoops just to get a STUPID DRIVER SET.

How easy are the others?

For HP printers:

1. Go to www.hp.com
2. Click "Support & Drivers" from the top.
3. Choose "Download drivers and software (and firmware)"
4. Enter the model of your HP printer and click "Go"
5. Download drivers

And that’s it.

For Lexmark printers:

1. Go to www.lexmark.com
2. Hover over "DRIVERS & DOWNLOADS" from the top and click "Driver Finder"
3. Type in the model of your printer
4. Click "SEARCH"
5. Select your operating system.
6. Click red "DOWNLOAD NOW" button.

And that’s it.

My personal score for each

HP
Score: Good

If you own an HP printer, the drivers are easy to get, the text they use on their support site is readable and easy to understand and you don’t feel like you’re getting lost at any time.

Lexmark
Score: Somewhat crappy

Light gray tiny text on white background = HARD TO READ. In fact, almost the whole site is in itty-bitty text with not enough contrast. Is this a nit-pick? Hardly. A support site should NOT have hard-to-read text anywhere.

Tip: When using Lexmark’s support site, increase the size in your browser by using Control-Plus. When done, reset back to normal with Control-0 (that’s a zero).

Canon
Score: Satan-spawned crappiness of doom

It is so easy to get lost in their support site it’s not even funny. Tiny text is everywhere and it’s not obvious where to click to get what you’re looking for (whereas it should be).

Case in point: After you selected your landing page, did you know you could also click on "Product Search"? Of course you didn’t. Want to know why? It’s not underlined or even a color that even remotely resembles a link.

Canon’s support site is a big steaming pile of you-know-what. To navigate it is a nightmare.

If you have a Canon printer and need drivers.. or heck.. even if you don’t need drivers I’d go get them now while it’s fresh in your mind from reading this article – because I guarantee you’ll forget how to do it later. Who could remember all that crap?

My suggestion for all printer manufacturers

There should be a big obvious search box right on the home page that says "Enter your model here to search for drivers". It should be that obvious because I can guarantee the vast majority of your web traffic is for driver downloads.