On 1/8/2016 1:05 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Micky wrote on 2016/01/08:

This is probably a hypothetical question, because the expected order
of events in my computer setup probably won't give me an incentive to
do this. But it's a question nevertheless. Please don't argue with
me that even though I can do it, it's a waste of my time. As I said,
it's a hypothetical question.

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

I figured the Win7 drivers might work, but the Brother page says 7 has
the drivers in it. "The built-in driver is already included with
Windows® Operating System or is available through Windows® update."

Does that mean I could install 7 on another computer, install the
printer, go to Device Manager (or maybe it's the Printer properties)
and display a list of the installed drivers, copy all of them to the
appropriate directories in Vista, and then install the printer in
Vista?

To make this non-hypothetical: I have a win7 installation disk, which
I presume has a lot of .cab files etc. Any chance I can somewhere
get a list of the drivers needed, or maybe I can tell them by the use
of "br" in their names, copy them all to Vista, and install the
printer that way?

The "Add Printer" wizard includes several Brother MFC models. Pick one
with a similar feature set as yours.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqen... 00002643_001

Yep, that's what they suggest, too.

I have BITS and WU services disabled and only enable them when *I* want
to get updates - and then review each one because Microsoft has turned
some of them into adware for Win10 or want to install updates for
software that is NOT installed and will NOT be used. The Windows Update
in the printer wizard uses WU; however, I'm pretty sure I have
previously used this method to enlarge the list of embedded drivers in
Windows 7.

If that doesn't find a printer driver for your model then you use one
listed that is close to your model. Alas, Brother and almost all
(perhaps all) never list the family of printers supported by a
particular driver and version.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqen... 00002644_000

That lists the MFC-6800 at the bottom of the article. They expect you
to get their driver that they gave Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't write
those drivers. They get them from the hardware vendors who want their
drivers available within a Windows distribution or via the WU source.

You sure the Windows XP printer driver won't work?


I agree that the installers can be a major issue when you try to use an
older driver. In a few instances, with older windows versions and even
older printer drivers, we were able to grab an installed printer driver
package that worked, manually add it, including registry entries, and
get it to work. Haven't had to do that in quite a few years.

Microsoft's "universal" driver scheme is told what to do by/with several
other modules, (dlls, etc) that are usually supplied by the printer mfr
when the printer is a "windows printer". This reduced the cost of the
printer hardware and firmware. The downside is additional loading of the
PC. The scheme has been around since the 90's. The 6800 is referred to
as a "GDL" printer.

When this became more popular, it was almost the death of consumer ASCII
capable printers. The business printers commonly have postscript
or similar capabilities. A "postscript" printer may be capable of
graphics postscript, and have limited capability in other postscript
areas. (Think bitmapped graphics with a postscript wrapper)

Micky wrote:

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

Did you check here for a work-around?
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardwa...00-driver.html

In message , posterboy
writes:
[]
But I will disagree with Mayayana - that it is Brothers fault for not
supporting a perfectly good machine; it shouldn't be that difficult to
write the software for these machines to keep all their functionality
when a new operating system comes out, even if it takes them a while to
do it.

John.

I think the problem has become that we now accept the situation as
standard, that printing and scanning _need_ drivers at all, at least for
the basic functions. For scanning, especially, it is surely not rocket
science this far into the 21st century to scan lines of pixels into a
raster; even for printing, at a basic level, I don't comprehend why the
conversion into a raster image that the printer can handle should be
that difficult either. FGS, we almost had it with "EPSON-compatible"
printing in impact ("dot matrix") days; I never understood why we just
accepted a reversion to lots of proprietary schemes. AFAICS, the OS
should be able to produce a raster image from your text, image, or
whatever, at assorted resolutions, which the printer _firmware_ should
accept. (Any refinements such as "droplet enhancement technology" should
be transparent - perhaps presenting as a higher nominal resolution, or
whatever, since that's their purpose.)

For scanning, at the switch from XP to 7, there was (is?) some small
(Australian I think?) company that implemented this, more or less: they
made it possible to use a scanner that "wouldn't work in 7" by (AFAICS)
some sort of generic driver. (Unfortunately, they had to charge for
their software a sum similar - here in UK, at least - to the price of a
second-hand scanner that _would_ work with 7, so many people opted to
just do that rather than buy the software.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

.... the pleasure of the mind is an amazing thing. My life has been driven by
the satisfaction of curiosity. - Jeremy Paxman (being interviewed by Anne
Widdecombe), Radio Times, 2-8 July 2011.

On 1/8/2016 5:03 AM, Micky wrote:
This is probably a hypothetical question, because the expected order
of events in my computer setup probably won't give me an incentive to
do this. But it's a question nevertheless. Please don't argue with
me that even though I can do it, it's a waste of my time. As I said,
it's a hypothetical question.

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

I figured the Win7 drivers might work, but the Brother page says 7 has
the drivers in it. "The built-in driver is already included with
Windows® Operating System or is available through Windows® update."

Does that mean I could install 7 on another computer, install the
printer, go to Device Manager (or maybe it's the Printer properties)
and display a list of the installed drivers, copy all of them to the
appropriate directories in Vista, and then install the printer in
Vista?


To make this non-hypothetical: I have a win7 installation disk, which
I presume has a lot of .cab files etc. Any chance I can somewhere
get a list of the drivers needed, or maybe I can tell them by the use
of "br" in their names, copy them all to Vista, and install the
printer that way?

Look he
http://www.driverscape.com/download/brother-mfc-6800

On 1/8/2016 9:26 PM, Zaidy036 wrote:
On 1/8/2016 5:03 AM, Micky wrote:
This is probably a hypothetical question, because the expected order
of events in my computer setup probably won't give me an incentive to
do this. But it's a question nevertheless. Please don't argue with
me that even though I can do it, it's a waste of my time. As I said,
it's a hypothetical question.

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

I figured the Win7 drivers might work, but the Brother page says 7 has
the drivers in it. "The built-in driver is already included with
Windows® Operating System or is available through Windows® update."

Does that mean I could install 7 on another computer, install the
printer, go to Device Manager (or maybe it's the Printer properties)
and display a list of the installed drivers, copy all of them to the
appropriate directories in Vista, and then install the printer in
Vista?


To make this non-hypothetical: I have a win7 installation disk, which
I presume has a lot of .cab files etc. Any chance I can somewhere
get a list of the drivers needed, or maybe I can tell them by the use
of "br" in their names, copy them all to Vista, and install the
printer that way?

Look he
http://www.driverscape.com/download/brother-mfc-6800
and he
http://xpdrivers.com/printer/brother...00/_5_3426.cfm
http://www.driverslib.com/Multifunct.../MFC-6800.html
http://www.solvusoft.com/en/update/d...00/sub-models/

On Fri, 8 Jan 2016 04:33:39 -0600, philo wrote:

On 01/08/2016 04:03 AM, Micky wrote:
This is probably a hypothetical question, because the expected order
of events in my computer setup probably won't give me an incentive to
do this. But it's a question nevertheless. Please don't argue with
me that even though I can do it, it's a waste of my time. As I said,
it's a hypothetical question.

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

I figured the Win7 drivers might work, but the Brother page says 7 has
the drivers in it. "The built-in driver is already included with
Windows® Operating System or is available through Windows® update."




I still do a lot of computer repair work and do sometimes have to use
drivers from another version of Windows.

They work fine but there are a few things you need to know:


1) You need to be aware that a 64 bit driver must be used with a 64bit
OS and of course 32 bit driver for 32 bit OS

Okay.

2) A driver that is a self-extracting executable may need to be run in
the "compatibility" mode ...or...the files may need to be extracted first.

But doesn't number 2 assume there actually is a driver for Vista or
even for 7, when in this case, the last driver on the Brother support
page is for XP?

On Fri, 8 Jan 2016 09:50:13 -0900, "Bill Bradshaw"
wrote:

You might find something useful he

http://support.brother.com/g/b/oslis...rod=mfc6800_us

Thanks. I've been to a page almost just like this one. It says Vista
is supported, but they are kidding.

This is all it has for Vista:

Scanner Resolution Improvement Tool (WIA)
This tool will expand the maximum scanning resolution capability and
allow you to scan legal size documents. 12/03/2009
(1.13.0.0) 0.17 MB

On Fri, 08 Jan 2016 18:09:49 -0600, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:

Micky wrote:

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

Did you check here for a work-around?
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardwa...00-driver.html

Thanks. This is certainly right on topic and I didn't find it when I
looked.

They're all having trouble but one guy got the scanner to work!!! but
not the printer.

I'll try their suggestions, even if they didnt' work for them!

If I don't say it elsewhere, thank you all. It's not like I didnt'
know about the stories that Vista didnt' have enough drivers for it.
I'm only using because a friend gave me the computer. Of course this
printer will apparently give me trouble with win7 too!

On Fri, 8 Jan 2016 12:05:31 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Micky wrote on 2016/01/08:

This is probably a hypothetical question, because the expected order
of events in my computer setup probably won't give me an incentive to
do this. But it's a question nevertheless. Please don't argue with
me that even though I can do it, it's a waste of my time. As I said,
it's a hypothetical question.

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

I figured the Win7 drivers might work, but the Brother page says 7 has
the drivers in it. "The built-in driver is already included with
Windows® Operating System or is available through Windows® update."

Does that mean I could install 7 on another computer, install the
printer, go to Device Manager (or maybe it's the Printer properties)
and display a list of the installed drivers, copy all of them to the
appropriate directories in Vista, and then install the printer in
Vista?

To make this non-hypothetical: I have a win7 installation disk, which
I presume has a lot of .cab files etc. Any chance I can somewhere
get a list of the drivers needed, or maybe I can tell them by the use
of "br" in their names, copy them all to Vista, and install the
printer that way?

The "Add Printer" wizard includes several Brother MFC models. Pick one
with a similar feature set as yours.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqen... 00002643_001

Yep, that's what they suggest, too.

I have BITS and WU services disabled and only enable them when *I* want
to get updates - and then review each one because Microsoft has turned
some of them into adware for Win10 or want to install updates for
software that is NOT installed and will NOT be used. The Windows Update
in the printer wizard uses WU; however, I'm pretty sure I have
previously used this method to enlarge the list of embedded drivers in
Windows 7.

If that doesn't find a printer driver for your model then you use one
listed that is close to your model. Alas, Brother and almost all
(perhaps all) never list the family of printers supported by a
particular driver and version.

That would be nice. Maybe they think that will extend the life of
their printers and they'll sell fewer? And their model numbering
systems are often all over the place so you can't guess what's similar
because of similar numbers.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqen... 00002644_000

That lists the MFC-6800 at the bottom of the article. They expect you
to get their driver that they gave Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't write
those drivers. They get them from the hardware vendors who want their
drivers available within a Windows distribution or via the WU source.

You sure the Windows XP printer driver won't work?

No, I'm not. I didnt' even install under XP, because at the time,
the computer was in the basement and the basement was full of junk and
there was nowhere within USB cable range to put a second printer. (so
I bought a wireless all in one and put that upstairs, but it's inkjet
and already going through ink. ) I guess the next step is to
connect this thing via USB and try a) the XP drivers, b) to go through
the probably many Brother printers looking for one that's similar.
Well there aren't that many, 20 or so.

On Fri, 8 Jan 2016 21:35:20 -0500, Zaidy036 wrote:

On 1/8/2016 9:26 PM, Zaidy036 wrote:
On 1/8/2016 5:03 AM, Micky wrote:
This is probably a hypothetical question, because the expected order
of events in my computer setup probably won't give me an incentive to
do this. But it's a question nevertheless. Please don't argue with
me that even though I can do it, it's a waste of my time. As I said,
it's a hypothetical question.

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

I figured the Win7 drivers might work, but the Brother page says 7 has
the drivers in it. "The built-in driver is already included with
Windows® Operating System or is available through Windows® update."

Does that mean I could install 7 on another computer, install the
printer, go to Device Manager (or maybe it's the Printer properties)
and display a list of the installed drivers, copy all of them to the
appropriate directories in Vista, and then install the printer in
Vista?


To make this non-hypothetical: I have a win7 installation disk, which
I presume has a lot of .cab files etc. Any chance I can somewhere
get a list of the drivers needed, or maybe I can tell them by the use
of "br" in their names, copy them all to Vista, and install the
printer that way?

Look he
http://www.driverscape.com/download/brother-mfc-6800

Thanks for all your effort

This one wants to install DriverToolkitInstaller.exe. I don't trust
it or really any of the driver sites that claim to have a driver that
the manufacturer doesn't have. It would be different if the
manufacturer had no drivers from that period, but Brother has drivers
for this printer from XP all the way back to win95!!!**. It has winME
too!

**I didn't realize the printer was so old, but maybe it's not. The
copyright on the manual is 2001 and on the quickstartguide is 2002.
It's a color laser scanner/printer/copier/fax in beautiful condition,
and she gave me a new/reman black toner cartridge.

Before I posted back to you I looked for reviews of this site and
didnt' find any.

and he
http://xpdrivers.com/printer/brother...00/_5_3426.cfm

Norton has 4 good reviews for this site, but they're all from 4 years
ago. Scamadvisor and McAfee think it's safe. Google says
"Current status: Not dangerous Safe Browsing has not recently seen
malicious content on xpdrivers.com." Easycounter says user reviews
are 15% positive and 85% negative, but when I click for details it
just gives me the mcaffe page that says it's safe. ?? Ah, the user
reviews only require scrolling down, to see the first 3 and then
there's a link to https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/xpdrivers.com
where it says you have to pay money and/or it doesn't really work. For
example "Jamie_C 30-04-2013 No drivers; just links through to a
'driver updater' program which costs you to continue. HOW is this site
still rated 'good' when almost all reviews are bad? "". Once the
software ran it required I pay $29.95 for further action.""Driver
Detective scam""After my system was scanned it reported many drivers
as being outdated when they were not. To correct the false reports you
have to register which involves paying for their software. "

http://www.driverslib.com/Multifunct.../MFC-6800.html

This one wants to install DriverUpdatePro.exe. Same objection.
Although McAfee and less so AVG don't seem to have an objection to it.
http://www.solvusoft.com/en/update/d...00/sub-models/
This one wants to install SetupDriverDoc_2016.exe. Same objection.
He calls it the Brother MFC-6800 Driver Utility, and in the previous
paragraph he calls it the Brother Driver Update Tool, but the name of
the file is SetupDriverDoc_2016.exe. Seems suspicious to me. Has
anyone ever had success with sites like this?

---
While looking for reviews of the sites above, I came across
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driver...d_websites.htm
which rates 10 such sites, none of the ones above.

One that it had good things to say about was
http://www.driverguide.com/ it had lots of hits for my printer but
all of them except 2 were for XP or earlier. WRT Vista it had 2 hits,
one of which said "This tool will expand the maximum scanning
resolution capability and allow you to scan legal size documents.""
and that's the one file that the Brother site offers for Vista. I
think the other hit is the same thing. So this is, I think, what a
reliable page does, only offers what's good, doesn't bluff that it has
more than it has, more than there is.