Can I make firefox remember what printer I used

[slickrcbd]

I rarely print these days, and my printer is connected to my old computer that I don't always turn on. Because of quirks with Word not liking my printer being offline if I fail turn on my old computer, I have set my default printer to be Microsoft XPS writer.
Is there any way to get Firefox to remember to use something other than Windows default printer? I could have sworn that an earlier version of Firefox would default to the last printer used, but now it is defaulting to Windows Default every time I hit print, and I have to print a bunch of documents obtained via a web interface, forcing me to change the printer every time.

[Grumpus]

If the printer is installed it should show up in the /File/print list and you should be able to select it
If not try installing the preferred printer as the system default printer and restart your system and Firefox and see what happens

[the-edmeister]

Firefox defaults to the last used printer. Nothing to do with the Windows OS default printer.

In about:config see this preference. print_printer
That pref is remembered until the user selects a different printer for Firefox to use.

That said, if you should happen to try to use the "last used" or "Firefox default" printer AND that printer was NOT turned on when you opened Firefox, I suspect that Firefox won't "see" or use that printer; Firefox would need to be restarted before you could print. I'm not 100% sure of that, but I vaguely recall running into that issue many years ago when I had 3 printers connect to my LAN. (Laser, InkJet, and old dot-matrix printers). The "print" code in Firefox dates back to the mid-1990's when Netscape Navigator was written; the underlying base code has changed little in the last 20-Plus years.
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[Brummelchen]

as a workaround you can install a pdf printer, its either a sneak preview after firefox preview, and you possible can redirect output to any printer if it is online.
/me uses priprinter that offer all this options.

[BuddhaNature]

If you can afford it then install FinePrint and set that as your default printer. I've used it for many years on my own system and it is definitely worth the purchase price. From memory I think you can download and it will operate as a trial version -- so you can test and see if it is useful to you. https://fineprint.com/fp/

Tip: when you install it select to have FinePrint installed as your default printer. (If you ever want to change that it is very easy to do so from within Windows' printer settings.)

P.S. You wouldn't need your physical printer powered on to print to FinePrint. And you can control what is the default physical printer from within FinePrint's own interface.

[slickrcbd]

Firefox keeps defaulting to CutePDFWriter instead of my actual printer, even when I'm printing multiple documents from the same website in succession. I thought I'd set the default in Windows to XPS writer, but I was thinking of the other computer.
Every time i hit print, CutePDFWriter is selected, not the printer I last printed on.

Is there some preference that could have changed it to use Windows 7 default instead of the last used printer?

Although I should point out that it is a network printer connected to a Windows 98SE/Windows XP dual-boot computer.
Looking at about:config, I see a bunch of print.printer stuff for both things like "print.printer_CutePDF_Writer.print_resolution" and "print.printer_\\slickswintel\HP_Officejet_5600_series.print_resolution".

The point was that Windows 7's default printer is set to the pdf printer for the sake of Word so I can work on a document while leaving my nearly 20 year old computer (it's primary purpose in 2019 is a file/print server, secondary is retro gaming. That is different from the start of the 21st century when it was my primary computer and main workhorse and though not really suited to the name gaming rig) turned off if I have no intention of printing, which is at least90% of the time, and that is low-balling the percentage.
I've used Word to spell-check things I intend to post online, often saving in "plain text", and to write letters that I then send via e-mail instead of snail mail to make saving a copy to my hard drive easier than Thunderbird if I want to quickly call up the document as T-bird only gives me the option of HTML.
I want Firefox to default to using the actual printer when I hit print, usually for printing a receipt from a purchase or some document I have to sign and fax.