Operating System

• Vista was a completely revamped software when released and only a handful of hardware peripherals were compatible upon release. Many printers were made compatible over time, but as of January 2011, there are still some issues.
  
  

Driver Updates

• Drivers are programs that run hardware devices. If your driver is not up-to-date it could cause your printer to not be compatible with your Windows Vista operating system. You can go to Dell's support site to download the latest version.
  
  

Generic Drivers

• One way you can try to get around the driver issue is to download generic printer drivers from the Internet. There are a lot available that may work, but other than that, the only thing you can do is wait for either Microsoft or Dell to release an update for your printer.