My sister bought a new HP m277dw printer for her Windows 8 PC. The printer supports both USB and wireless modes. I think it got a RJ45 LAN port, but it's not being used.

I installed the latest driver for that printer downloaded from HP website.

Word 2007 failed to print to it directly, when all other programs (e.g. Notepad and Chrome) could. Running Word 2007 as administrator fixed the problem, but that's not the best solution.

Then I found the HP Universal Driver PCL5. Word 2007 could print to the m277dw via this virtual printer without issues, and without the need to elevate security to administrator.

I noticed that the Universal PCL5 driver was printing to the wireless connection of m277dw, not the USB connection. The stock printer driver printed via the USB connection, but Word 2007 kept saying that the printer was offline.

Now, what's happening here? I just cannot comprehend it...

BTW, my sister installed Office 2013 once. I wonder whether it messed up the security settings of all printers, or did it only affect Office 2007? But that should not have happened...