Windows 7: Help with printing to XP on network

I have been struggling for days to find a solution with an annoying printing problem on my new Windows 7 (64bit) HP Laptop. I can not print from my HP Laptop to any printers on my older XP Desktop wirelessly over my home network. I can open files from my shared folders on my XP desktop from my Windows 7 Laptop, etc. I can see all of the printers when I "Add a Printer" - but it tells me that:

"Windows can't find a driver for Canon iP4300 on the network."



I cannot find a driver manually and have installed a Windows 7 compatible driver for the iP4300 on my Laptop, etc. - no luck.

When I connect the same XP Printer directly to my Laptop by USB cable - it prints find. But, I can't seem to find a solution to my wireless problem. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

what networking protocol are you using? homegroup? homegroup is for exclusively win 7 networks. If used in meixed networks it can give connectivity problems, slow DLs, and random disconnects. If you are its pretty easy to find out. create a new netwrok using the work group model. If it doesnt solve it you may alse have to install the priter drivers locally on all the pcs before it will work. I sus[pect homegroup


Ken J+

I ran into the same problem. I have an XP Home box that I use as a print server for my two 64bit Windows 7 systems.

What I ended doing it manually installing the 64bit driver for my printer on the Windows 7 systems. After I did that I went through the add printer again. Sometimes it went through fine and on another it failed to find a driver but it still added the printer on the Windows 7 system.

From what I can tell the Windows 7 machine wants to download the driver from the XP box which always fails.

Just my 2 cents.

I have a homegroup set up on the Windows 7 laptop but I think I am using a workgroup that I set up on XP. Do I need to delete the HomeGroup on the Laptop? I will remove the homegroup and try to reinstall a Canon Driver for Windows 7 on the laptop.

Nothing has worked. Same problem - the laptop sees the printer on the xp desktop but fails to find or install a driver for the printer. I have downloaded a Win 7 driver and installed it to the laptop, but this does not fix the problem. I can open and save files over the wireless network - but cannot get the printer to work.

Hmm, Your Windows 7 laptop is 64bit and you tried to install the 64bit printer driver on it. Did you actually get the printer going directly connected to the laptop? that will at least make sure the driver is installed.

On the XP machine, did you share the printer? Right click on the printer under Printers and Faxes, click Sharing then click Share this printer (if you haven't do so already).

If all that is done, try the Add Printer again in Windows 7. In my case Windows 7 still had an issue trying to get a driver but it still made the connection to the printer.

If that doesn't work we can try adding the printer manually.