Windows 10: Attempt to install Brother HL-1210W printer driver On Win 11 OS laptop opens Microsoft Store

Live in Thailand bought an ASUS laptop that has factory installed Win 11. Have had no issues installing other drivers but the Brother printer driver downloaded from the Brother site is causing an odd issue. OPening the installation .exe opens Microsoft Store and offers a driver for 134 baht. This is odd and a bit ridiculous. What is going wrong?

:)

 

No printer driver found for Brother HL-5040

I Just moved from an old PC to a new PC. I did NOT migrate. I am setting the new system fresh.

The printer was working on the old PC which was running Windows 10 (NOT Pro), using the same USB cable.

Brother Printer HL-5040 now connected to a PC running Window 10 Pro, version 20H2, using a USB cable.



I Go to "settings", "Devices", "Printers".

HL-5040 is shown with the text "Driver is Unavailable"



When I click on HL-5040 a click box shows up "Remove device", so

I click on "Add printer or Scanner".

That ends leaving messaage "The printer that I want isn't listed".

I click on that, which brings up a window "Find a printer by other options".

I click on "My printer is a little older. Help me find it" and click "Next".

It searchs for available printers and finds my networked Epson printer, but not the Brother HL-5040.

I click on "Next" and a window comes up "Install the printer driver" with two sub windows, Maufacturer on the left an Printer on the right.

The Manufacturer window only shows "EPSON", "Generic" and "Microsoft". So I click on the "Windows Update" box.

I select "Brother" in the "Manufacturer" window and in the "Printers" window I scroll down to where the "Brother HL-5040" should be.



IT IS NOT THERE!!



It goes from "Brother HL-4570CDW series" to "Brother HL-5130".

Can I use a different driver and if so, which one, and will it recognize my printer??????





I also went to the Microsoft web site and followed their instructions, which told me to delete the printer and reinstall it. I did that and the result was the same. It found the printer, but no driver.

 

No printer driver found for Brother HL-5040

I Found my own work-around.

Unplugged and re-plugged the printer (it's connected to the computer by a USB cable). Windows added the printer, but had the message "Driver is unavailable".

Then went through the process of adding a new printer, printer not found, I have an older printer, etc., etc. until I got to the list of Brother printer drivers. I then clicked on the HL-5140 drive and windows installed it.

So in my printers list I now have a HL-5140 printer (which is the one I select when I want to print on the HL-5040) and an HL-5040 printer with no driver.

WARNING - Do not delete the HL-5040 printer. I did that and I couldn't print.

I suspect one is making the physical connection and the other the software connection.

 

Installing Generic drivers for Brother HL 5070-N printer

I have an old Brother printer - an HL 5070-N and I recently bought a new computer. In trying to install the printer, I see that my model is missing from the very long list of Brother products provided by the 'Windows Update' during the installation process.
I searched the Brother site and they are adamant that Microsoft provides a generic printer driver which will operate this machine, and I looked on my old machine which was also Windows 10 to see what driver was used - it is a Microsoft product called "printqueue.inf"
version 10.0.17763.1 but this product isn't listed with any of the other drivers that I can see during the installation process. There doesn't seem to be a way to search for a specific driver by name - does anybody know the best way to get this thing running?

***Modified title from: Brother printer, Generic printer driver, Windows 10?***