Hi, sorry but no-one seems to be answering my question. Prior to all this my iMac 21.5 inch iMac was running High Sierra and would print no trouble at all using it hard wired to each other. Then inadvertently I must have ticked 'update automatically'. New thing I open my home page after three or four hours only to find Monterey has been installed; no more printing on a hard wire connection. THE QUESTION IS -- if I download Windows Office will that solve the problem??? I ask because I have spent a long time trying to set up our printer--------------------------NO GO at all; I am too long in the tooth to understand it at all.
Regards from Keith in Derby England.
No, Windows Office won't be able to print if the system doesn't have the printer attached. Originally you asked about Window OS, not Office, so to address that:
If I put some form of Windows OS on my computer will I be able to use my printer in cable connection again?
There are just a few ways to run Windows. One is to completely convert your Mac to Windows, erasing the drive (and all the data) and installing a clean copy of Windows on the machine. That is like cutting off your hand because of a hangnail, but it is an option. I don't know if it will solve the printer problem or not because I don't know if the latest version of Windows has a driver for that printer.
Second way is to use BootCamp to install Windows and pick the option of Monterey or Windows at boot time. Complex and reasonably difficult to get working properly. Probably an overkill again, and it won't be guaranteed to fix the problem for the same reason I listed above.
Third way is to run Windows in a virtual system using Parallels or VMWare or similar emulation software. Again, no guarantee because of the same driver issue, plus it's not trivial to get a virtual system working properly and the virtual system will use the Mac protocols to talk to the printer so if the Mac can't see the printer, neither will Windows in a guest system.
Bottom line: It will be much easier to get printing working properly under Monterey than to use Windows.
SO, now that the question is answered, can you address some of the things Nick and Ian asked so we can help?