Remember the days when a new computer would be brought home and after you got it all set up through the out of box experience you would need to install any printer that was on your home network?
Sometimes the drivers came built into the OS and other times you would need to either track down the drivers CD/DVD or download updated drivers from the manufacturer’s website. Once you had the drivers you could run the setup and usually get the printer up with minimal headache.
Well last week, while on a vacation to Orlando, I bought a Microsoft Surface RT tablet from the Orlando Microsoft Store. That meant the first week of work on the new tablet including its setup was done in our room there and being connected to the resort Wi-Fi network.
When we got home this weekend I pulled the Surface RT tablet out and connected it to my home wireless network for the first time. After being prompted to allow Network and File Discovery to be turned on Windows 8 RT just automatically made my printer available to the system without any intervention from me. It is already available under the Devices Charm and ready for me to send any document to it for printing.
No drivers, no CD/DVD’s, no downloads.
It just worked and that is a great way to have things these days!
