I have an HP Deskjet 6540 with a duplexer unit. When I upgraded my computer to Vista I could not use the duplexer. There was no way to select double-sided printing in programs such as Word and Acrobat. This problem can be fixed by going to Printers in the Control Panel, right-clicking on the HP printer, and selecting Properties. In Properties, go to the Device Settings pane and select Installed for Duplex Unit.

However, if Vista doesn’t recognize you as the owner of the printer (that is the user who has rights to administer it), this option will be grayed out. Interstingly, this can happen even if you’re logged in as an administrator (yes, this would be a bug). This is what happened to me when I reinstalled Vista (indexing stopped working - I’ll have another post on this subject soon). After reinstalling Vista, I was back to not being able to use double-sided printing. I tried to select Installed as explained above, but this option was not selectable. To fix this problem I first unplugged the printer. Next, I deleted it from the Printers list in Control Panel. Finally, I plugged it back in, which reinstalled the drivers. Once this happened, Vista allowed me to administer the printer and I could select the Installed option for the duplexing unit.

Andrew Kun

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