Windows 11 is a horrible nightmare. So much is worse than windows 7 that I upgraded from.
First off getting my HP 450C rollfeed plotter to work in Win11 was a huge trial. I ended up buying an HP JetDirect box to allow the printer to connect to the netowrk directly then WIndows 11 would print to it. Now I find Draw 32 bit won't allow drag and drop for bitmaps. And WIndows 11 won't allow for installation of both 32 and 64 bit versions, in WIndows 7 64b it did. So today to cure the drag and drop problem I uninstalled the 32b version and installed the 64b version. Drag and drop is back working . HURRAH! But now I cannot print to my HP 450C. VGCore Internal Appliaction Error. Grrrr.
So, back to 32bit version.
How old is the printer?
A 450C could be old enough to buy alcohol in the U.S.
Introduced in 1997?
I had to drop any driver based HP from our use due to HP forcing new purchases by not selling updated drivers. The RIP driven devices are ok.
No, earlier than that John. Bought my first 430, mono A1 in 1993. The second one , an A0 colour I bought second hand when the first one fried its motherboard, must be a decade later.
I do hate the concept that a perfectly functional piece of (expensive at the time) capital equipment can be consigned to the scrap heap because of something trivial like a driver not being compatible. If thats progress you can keep it.
Large format printers and digital print engines in many cases are never bought to own any longer. You lease for a short time with your maintenance and consumables included in the lease then upgrade usually every 3 years.
It's great for the high volume users but it's hard on smaller companies.