Visa Open dont detect Printer after windows update from 7 to 10

[govindsankar]

I have a printer Zebra ZT230 connected to the PC via USB. The printer was working fine till recently. I use VISA Open to connect to the printer, Visa Write to sent the data to be printed and then VIsa close to close afterwards. The VISA open automatically detects the USB before. But now after upgrading to windows 10, it doesnt show. I keep clicking refresh but the VISA open is not detecting anything. Why is this and how to fix it. Thank you. 

[rolfk]

Maybe it would help if you installed the correct driver: https://www.zebra.com/gb/en/support-downloads/printers/industrial/zt230.html

[Mark_Yedinak]

The upgrade to Windows 10 broke the capability of communicating with the printer using raw USB. Windows also requires that any driver be signed now so you can't use the driver wizard to create a driver.

[govindsankar]

Windows also requires that any driver be signed now so you can't use the driver wizard to create a driver. I am not sure what that means. Can you please clarify. Thank you. 

[rolfk]

Well, you haven't told us how exactly your printer is connected through VISA, but there are only two ways and both involve in some ways a device driver.

Either there is a standard device driver from the manufacturer that makes it look to Windows as a serial or parallel port (although the later is nowadays very unlikely, a parallel port had very limited possibilities). In this case the driver was signed by the manufacturer.

The other is that you or someone else created a VISA USB Raw instrument driver. This is basically a driver installation file that tells Windows to use a VISA provided generic USB driver to connect to the specific device. But this installation file is considered a device driver too by Windows. And since Windows 10, a device driver is required to be cryptographically signed in order for Windows to even attempt to load it. This signature can't be done by NI, since it is not them creating this installation file but you or whoever else has done this in the past. In order to sign a driver, you need a signing certificate from a globally recognized certification authority. Maintaining the infrastructure to provide such a service costs money and therefore you have to buy these signing certificates. It's a yearly reoccurring cost as long as you want to be able to sign files in such a way. Every time you make even the most minor modification to this installation file you need to sign it again with a valid signing certificate. 

[govindsankar]

 I have attached a screenshot of the connection that was in the program. It is a USB RAW connection. This was working with windows 7. Now with windows 10, this doesnt work. I tried refreshing the VISA open but nothing comes. Thank you. 

[rolfk]

It won't work! The only feasible solution is to either use a different method to talk to the printer or not upgrade to Windows 10 and beyond.

Or you can buy a signing certificate and sign that VISA USB Raw INI file yourself.

[govindsankar]

What do you mean, different method, like something different from LabVIEW or use a different method in LabVIEW. 

[rolfk]

Different than VISA USB Raw! I'm not able to dig deeper into this. 

[govindsankar]

Thank you. Does anyone else know any other solution to this. Thank you.