How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup exe?

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup exe?

Post by John Gray »

An HP OfficeJet 6950 printer has a monolithic .exe file which installs all the drivers for (say) a 32-bit Windows system.

I also need the 64-bit drivers available on this 32-bit PC, so that Remote Desktop (from, say, a 64-bit laptop) can make use of them. In Devices and Printers -> That Printer -> Sharing -> Advanced I tick the box in front of x64 drivers, whereupon it asks me to point to an .inf file in the 64-bit drivers folder.

How can I get this file and folders for a 64-bit system?
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

User avatar
Leif
Administrator
Posts: 7193
Joined: 15 Jan 2010, 22:52
Location: Middle of England

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by Leif »

Have you tried running the 'monolithic .exe' file on a 64-bit PC to see if installs them, ready for copying them to the 32-bit PC?
Leif

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by John Gray »

There are separate files shown for [full-system and drivers-only] [32-bit and 64bit] [for several versions of Windows].
I had installed the 64-bit Windows 7 full-system version on the 64-bit laptop, and the 32-bit Windows 7 drivers-only version on the PC.

You say "ready for copying to the 32-bit PC" - all I get, as far as I can see, is a series of C:\Program Files\HP\... folders (on the 32-bit PC) ; I presume the same for the 64-bit laptop, which I don't have easy access to.

I didn't see any sign of an option to "just expand monolithic.exe into a set of source installation folders which contain the relevant .inf file", from which setup.exe could be run...
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

User avatar
stuck
Panoramic Lounger
Posts: 8127
Joined: 25 Jan 2010, 09:09
Location: retirement

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by stuck »

How about using something like 7-Zip to try to see inside the .exe and then extracting just the file(s) you want?

Ken

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by John Gray »

Thanks, Ken - that looks promising! Just have to choose the correct .inf file...
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by John Gray »

Hmmm Less promising, since every one tried gives an error message.
More investigation needed...
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

User avatar
AlanMiller
BronzeLounger
Posts: 1545
Joined: 26 Jan 2010, 11:36
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by AlanMiller »

John Gray wrote:Hmmm Less promising, since every one tried gives an error message.
More investigation needed...
I downloaded a file OJ6950__Full_WebPack_1094.exe and opened it with WinRAR no problem. It contains five .INF files.

BUT good luck in discovering the one you need ... if it is there at all. I had the same issue trying to build a WinPE boot disk incorporating drivers for my USB mirror backup. Kept wanting an INF file, but none seemed to exist on my PC, nor as a download on the manufacturer's site. I had to buy a second ATA drive installed in the box so the mirror could actually be seen by something at boot-up!

Alan

BTW, 7-Zip also opened it, so maybe you have a corrupted .EXE if this is the file you're talking about?

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by John Gray »

Thanks, Alan - I tried the same file that you did (plus the Drivers-only one), and got the same .inf files. From Devices and Printers ... Additional Drivers, [x] x64, I tried all the .inf files, especially the most likely largest one, but got an error message every time (which I should have written down). I'm going to have to Google this message, and try the HP Community Forum, but spent an hour yesterday trying to register but failing...
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

User avatar
John Gray
PlatinumLounger
Posts: 5401
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 08:33
Location: A cathedral city in England

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by John Gray »

I talked to an HP Technical Support chap on the phone, and after a lot of faffing about he said that it shouldn't be necessary to get the 64-bit drivers to copy to the 32-bit PC, because "they are all the same anyway"! The printing should just work...

An alternative explanation was that it isn't possible, because of upward compatibility, which works 32 -> 64, but not downward compatibility, 64 -> 32.

Consequently I am probably going to have to make another 90-mile round trip to test this out, some time next week...
John Gray

Venison is quiet deer, and quite dear.

User avatar
AlanMiller
BronzeLounger
Posts: 1545
Joined: 26 Jan 2010, 11:36
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: How to get an *inf file out of a printer driver setup ex

Post by AlanMiller »

Device drivers are still as much fun as back in the day ... when you had to get a different printer driver for each application, only to discover a virus on the floppy it took you 2 weeks to hunt down. Some things stay the same. :sad:

Alan