On restart, Windows 10 changes the USB Printer port from USB001 to USB002 (or vice versa)

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BrunoSalmon-8590 asked Dec 3, '21 BrunoSalmon-8590 edited Dec 15, '21

On restart, Windows 10 changes the USB Printer port from USB001 to USB002 (or vice versa)

Hi,

We have a shop running a POS software with 2 USB devices: a receipt printer and a code scanner.

The code scanner is a plug & play device, but not the printer. So I set up the printer manually in Windows (Generic Text printer on USB001 virtual printing port).

This week, I replaced our old PC (Windows 7 with 2GB RAM) with a better PC (Windows 10 with 8GB RAM) and set it up in the exact same way.

Everything works faster but a problem appeared: as opposed to Windows 7, Windows 10 is randomly assigning the receipt printer to USB001 or USB002 on each restart.

So almost everyday our staff is reporting the receipt printer to be not working, and the only way I found so far to fix this is to change the printer port from USB001 to USB002 (or vice versa). But this fix lasts only for the day, until Windows changes the port again on a next restart.

Can you please help fixing this issue and make Windows keep assigning the same USB port to the printer (ex: USB001) on each restart?

Thank you

windows-10-setup

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BrunoSalmon-8590 · Dec 03, 2021 at 03:10 PM

Just to clarify: when I say Windows 10 changes the USB Printer port, this is not showing anywhere in the windows UI. This is just my conclusion of what's happening in the background. I make this conclusion because the only way I found to make the printer working again is to change its USB port in the printer properties (from USB001 to USB002 or vice versa).

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Answer 1 · 2021-12-09T08:42:19.057Z

LimitlessTechnology-2700 answered Dec 9, '21

Hi there,

I would suggest you to try creating a virtual printer port and see if it remains the same after each reboot.

```
  Click on the ‘Start button.
```

  Select the ‘Printers and Faxes option.

Right-click on the network printer and select ‘Sharing’.

  Check the box near ‘Share this printer.

  Provide a name for your printer in the ‘Share Name’ field.

On other computers, click on the ‘Start menu and access the ‘Control Panel’.

  Select ‘Printer’ and then click on the ‘Add Printer’ option.

  Choose a printer from the network and select the printer you just created on the host computer.

  Click on ‘OK’ to save the computer and to create the virtual printer port.

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer--

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Answer 2 · 2021-12-15T17:51:45.193Z

BrunoSalmon-8590 answered Dec 15, '21 BrunoSalmon-8590 edited Dec 15, '21

Thank you for your reply.

I created another virtual printer port like you suggested, but not by sharing the printer through the network, as that's not something we want to do.

I just plugged the printer USB cable to the front of the computer (so far it was plugged at the back). This automatically created a USB003 virtual printer port and Windows doesn't change the printer port on restart this time!

This is just a workaround of the initial problem, but at least it's workable.

Before that, I tried to delete the USB002 virtual printer port to force Windows staying with USB001 (the only remaining possibility) but it didn't allow me to do it (even as administrator).

So USB001 and USB002 seem to be associated to the back of the computer and USB003 to the front. I will try to avoid plugging another USB device to the front to prevent a similar issue again.

Thank you anyway for your suggestion.

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