// PRINTER & SCANNER SUPPORT
Printer keeps asking for an administrator password to install
You have the printer, you have the cable or the network details, and Windows stops you dead at a box demanding an administrator password — one you either never had or cannot remember. It is a maddening place to be, particularly when the same printer is working perfectly well for everybody else. The reassuring part is that nothing is broken: that box is Windows protecting itself, and it appears because adding a printer means installing software. What happens next depends almost entirely on whose computer it is. Here is the work laptop case, the home PC with the forgotten password, and the installers that ask over and over. Rated 4.9 on Google.
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/01 — WHY IT ASKS
Why installing a printer needs an administrator at all
A printer feels like a piece of hardware, so being asked for a password to add one comes as a surprise. Adding a printer is not really a hardware job, though. It puts a driver into Windows — a small piece of software that sits underneath your programs, loads with the computer and is allowed to talk directly to the machine.
That is exactly what the administrator barrier exists to control. Anything that installs software or writes into the protected parts of Windows sets off the same check: the screen dims, everything stops, and the computer waits for a person with authority to approve it. It is the moment software that should not be there has to announce itself.
Printing in particular has been tightened over the last few years. Serious flaws were found in the way Windows handled printer drivers, and the response was to require administrator approval to install them — including for printers shared from another computer or a server, which staff often used to be able to add on their own. If a printer that took one click on an older office PC now stops and demands a password, that change is usually why.
The useful thing to take from all this is that the prompt is not a fault. Nothing is broken, the printer is fine, and running the installer a fourth time will not wear it down. Windows is doing its job and waiting for an answer it can accept.
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/02 — WHICH ACCOUNT
Standard or administrator, and which password Windows actually wants
Windows has two everyday kinds of account. An administrator can install software and change how the computer works. A standard account can use the computer normally — open files, print, browse — but cannot install anything that writes into Windows itself, which is most desktop software and every printer driver. Work machines hand out standard accounts on purpose; home PCs often end up that way by accident.
The prompt itself is a fair guide. Nearly always, if it offers only Yes or No, you are already an administrator and clicking Yes is all that is needed. If it asks you to type a user name and password, you are on a standard account and Windows wants somebody else’s details — though on some managed machines administrators are made to type their password too.
To check properly, open Settings, then Accounts, then Your info. If you are an administrator, the word appears under your name. Other users in the same place lists the other accounts on the machine, and where Windows shows an account type you will see it there. On a work laptop that page is often restricted, which is itself a fair sign the machine is managed.
Be clear, too, about which password is wanted, because this catches people out more than anything else. It is the sign-in password of an administrator account on that computer. It is not your email password, not the WiFi key, not the code printed on the router, and not anything belonging to the printer. If that administrator signs in with a Microsoft account, it is the Microsoft password — the one attached to the email address on screen, which people rarely type because they use a PIN instead. Where that administrator has a PIN or a fingerprint set up on the machine, the prompt will often take one of those instead.
/03 — WORK LAPTOPS
If it is a work laptop, ask IT — and here is exactly what to ask for
If the computer was issued by your employer, assume the password is being held back deliberately. The signs are easy to spot: you sign in with a work email address, parts of Settings say that some settings are managed by your organisation, or Accounts shows a work or school connection.
The reason is not that anyone distrusts you. A standard account is one of the strongest defences a business has, because anything nasty that reaches your machine inherits your rights and no more — it cannot quietly install itself. UK schemes such as Cyber Essentials expect ordinary staff accounts not to carry administrator rights. On many managed estates the password is different on every machine, so there is nothing to hand out even if they wanted to.
So ask, and make it easy to say yes. One message with all of this saves three days of back and forth:
- the printer’s make and model, exactly as written on the front
- whether it plugs into your laptop by USB or sits on the office network
- the printer’s name or address, if its own screen shows one
- whether colleagues already print to it, and which of them
- what you actually need to do — print, scan, or both
What not to do is go hunting for a way round it. Driver downloads from search results are a well-worn route for fake installers, and on a monitored estate attempts to raise your own rights are visible to IT. If you are the owner and the real problem is that nobody ever answers, that is a different conversation, and one we are glad to have.
/04 — THE FORGOTTEN ONE
At home, when the administrator password has simply been forgotten
The home version is a different problem. The administrator account exists and it belongs to you, but the password has gone — usually because the machine was set up years ago and everybody has signed in with a PIN or a fingerprint ever since.
Start by working out what kind of account it is. If the administrator signs in with an email address, it is a Microsoft account, and the password is the one for that email. Microsoft’s own account recovery, using the recovery email address or mobile number already on the account, is the proper way back in — done on Microsoft’s own website and nowhere else.
If it is a local account with no email behind it, there is no online recovery, and what is available depends entirely on what was set up the day the account was created. Before assuming the worst, look under Settings, Accounts, Other users: a surprising number of home PCs carry a second administrator account that nobody has touched since a shop or a relative set the machine up.
What we will not do is tell you how to strip a password off, and we would be wary of anyone who will. Those tools are the same ones a thief would use, a fair number of the downloads are malware, and on a machine with device encryption switched on you can end up locked out of your own photos and documents, asked for a recovery key you have never seen.
If nobody can reach an administrator account at all, the printer is the least of it — nothing can be installed, updated or repaired on that machine again. That is worth putting right properly, and we collect free of charge.
/05 — THE ENDLESS PROMPT
Why the manufacturer’s installer asks over and over, and a leaner way round
Manufacturer downloads are rarely a single program. One file typically carries the print driver, a separate scanning driver, a status monitor, a background service, an updater and sometimes a browser extra. Each part that writes into the system can raise its own approval, so on a standard account you meet the password box again and again for what looked like one installation.
It also explains the half-finished results. If a prompt is cancelled part way through, some installers carry on regardless and report success while the printer never appears in the list, which quite reasonably leads people to run the whole thing again.
There is a leaner route worth trying first. Windows has printing support built in, and many recent printers, network ones especially, can be added through Settings, Bluetooth & devices, Printers & scanners and Add device without the manufacturer’s suite at all. It works when Windows already has a suitable driver of its own, which covers a lot of recent network printers. If it still stops and asks for a password, Windows has to bring in a new driver, and that is the same barrier again rather than a fault. You also give up extras such as ink warnings or the fancier scanning options, but you get printing. And while you wait for anyone, phones and tablets can usually print straight to a network printer on their own, which has rescued more than one deadline.
One thing to avoid. Plenty of advice online tells you to weaken or switch off the protections around driver installation. Those changes undo the fix that closed the printing flaws, handing anything running on your machine a clean route to install software with full privileges — a day of convenience traded for the exact hole that was shut. On a work laptop they are also very likely to be blocked and logged.
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// GOOD QUESTIONS
Frequently asked
I am the only person who uses this computer, so why am I not the administrator?
Being the only user does not make you one. Every Windows account is given a type when it is created, and it is common for a shop, a relative or an IT team to set up an administrator account for themselves and leave you a standard account for day to day use. Open Settings, then Accounts, then Your info to see which yours is, and Other users to see what else exists on the machine. On a work laptop that page is often restricted, which is a sign in itself that the machine is managed.
Is there any way to install the printer without the administrator password?
Sometimes, though not by getting round the password. Windows has its own printing support built in, so a modern network printer can often be added through Settings, Printers & scanners, Add device without the manufacturer’s software at all. That works when Windows already has a suitable driver of its own; if it still asks for a password, a new driver has to be brought in and you are at the same barrier. Phones and tablets can usually print to it directly too.
My IT department will not give me the password. Are they being difficult?
Almost certainly not. Keeping administrator rights away from everyday accounts is normal practice and is what UK schemes such as Cyber Essentials expect. On many managed laptops the password is unique to that one machine anyway, so there is nothing to pass on. The productive move is to ask them to install it for you, and to send everything they need in one message — make, model, how it connects, and whether colleagues already print to it.
I typed an administrator password and it still would not install. What now?
A few things cause that. The account you used may not actually be an administrator. The password may belong to a different account from the one named on the prompt. An earlier cancelled attempt may have left part of a driver behind that the new one trips over. On a work laptop, policy can also block driver installs no matter whose password is entered — that is deliberate, and only your IT team can lift it.
Can you fix this remotely, or do you need to take the computer away?
Most printer installations we deal with are done remotely while you watch, which is much the quickest route when an administrator account is available. Where the password is genuinely lost, or the machine needs work in front of us, we collect free of charge across Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset. A short call on 01202 775566 will usually tell you which of the two it is.
Stuck at the password box?
We install printers and untangle account problems for homes and businesses across Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset, usually remotely and often the same day. Call 01202 775566.
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