XP to 7 Printer sharing

jimbo45 said:

Hi Mods
Maybe you can make this a sticky -- often comes up and I posted a solution yesterday which works.
..............extract from previous post .....
Hi there
I've posted on this before but to share Printers attached to XP computers with either X-64 or X-32 versions of W7 is SIMPLE. These instructions are for the Printer attached to the XP machine (but works in reverse as well).

("Stand alone" Network printers can be done slightly similarly BTW).

assume the computers are call XPMACHINE and W7MACHINE.

1) Ensure Printer on XP machine is shared - assume it's called SHAREDPRINTER.

2) On the Network Browsing on your W7 machine ensure you can "See" the Printer share.

Now on the W7 machine do the following (doesn't matter if it's X-86 or x-64).

3) Control Panel==> add LOCAL (Yes LOCAL) printer. I know it's on a Network but hold your horses -- what we are actually doing is "Poodlefaking" the W7 machine into thinking it's running the printer.

4) Create NEW port==>Local port

5) Portname is \\XPMACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER

6) Now W7 will load a driver and you'll be able to print on the XP machine.

Simple

(For a "Network stand alone printer") at 4) chose TCPIP port
and at 5) enter the IP address.


If the printer is on the W7 machine and you want to print on the XP machine then do the same instructions on the XP machine --
port name in this case will be \\W7MACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER

Cheers
jimbo

Thank You So Much... My daughter got a new laptop for xmas. My wife says what good is it without internet? I get a router and play around. We have DSL on our Family Room Desk Top.
1) Hook up The Wirless Router on the (Windows XP) Desk Top.
2) Able to run the (Windows XP) Desk Top in the Bedroom, And Print.
3) Able to run my yougest daughters Lap top with (Windows XP), And Print.
4) Tried for a week, and coulden't Print From mine, or my daughters Lap Top running Windows 7. Used you solution, and we were up and printing in about 20 Minutes. Thank You So Much!

Jimbo45; I followed your instructions. After Step 5, I click OK and recieve a "Access is Denied" message. A HP LaserJet 2200 printer is connected to a XP computer and it is shared. The printer is visible on the Windows 7 computer and the printer is useable from other Vista and XP computers in the Workgroup.
I will appreciate any further recommendations.
Thanks,
Bill

Got an alternative work round for those of you that have got the 'Accessed Denied' message when trying to use the local port work round.

As I'm a new Windows 7 user and have found this forum a great help, I thought I should share this possible alternative with you all.

I got the 'Access Denied' on my wife's laptop running Vista, when trying to connect to the printer hosted on my new installation of Windows 7 on our main machine.

In desperation I opened the network window on the Vista laptop to see if the printer was showing up as a shared device, it was. So, just for the hell of it, I picked up the icon for the printer from the network window and dragged it into the printers window.

It worked! The printer was recognised and the drivers installed automatically (they were already on the laptop, due to previous shared printer when the main machine was running Windows XP).

Try it if all else fails, though you might need to have the printer drivers handy, if you've not previously installed them.

I wish to add my thanks - after screwing around for weeks I used this workaround and it worked right away. I had been in a catch-22, I couldn't load the HP3055 x86 driver onto my Windows 7 machine because it wasn't just an INF file ..... and if I loaded it onto the XP machine it wouldn't associate it with the network printer. I am grateful that this alternative works but I assume that there should be a way to correctly load the driver per the MS instructions.

Hi Duhmel,

Brilliant that this worked for you too.

It suggests to me that all's well with printer sharing in the guts of Windows 7 BUT not in the user interface/final part of actually sharing it.

If the 'drag and drop' approach works for you and others, it might make sharing across a network less painful an experience!

Thank you for this solution, it worked for me too after I picked a Windows 7 printer driver that was for a printer "like" my very old XP system printer.

Jimbo45 - thank you very much for the detailed instructions. I have a W7 computer with a printer. I am trying to print from a XP computer. Following your instructions I was able to add the printer but I am still unable to print- I receive a Communication error that the XP computer cannot talk to the printer. When I go to the XP Network places the printer for the W7 does not show. I can however look at files on the W7. On the W7 machine if I go to Network Places and click on my W7 machin I can see the printer as well as the public Users folder. Could you provide some additional support please ?

Hi Jimbo45

I have followed your steps below - however at step 2 I can not see my printer share on my XPMACHINE from the win7 machine - I can however see the TVersity Media server on this machine - I can also mount file structures from this XPMACHINE to the win7 computer

How do I get to "see" the printer driver on the XPMACHINE from win7 - yes the printer is shared [works for non win7 machines] and both computers share the common workgroup name MSHOME.

Any help much appreciated

Thanks

jplouis

jimbo45 said:

Hi Mods
Maybe you can make this a sticky -- often comes up and I posted a solution yesterday which works.
..............extract from previous post .....
Hi there
I've posted on this before but to share Printers attached to XP computers with either X-64 or X-32 versions of W7 is SIMPLE. These instructions are for the Printer attached to the XP machine (but works in reverse as well).

("Stand alone" Network printers can be done slightly similarly BTW).

assume the computers are call XPMACHINE and W7MACHINE.

1) Ensure Printer on XP machine is shared - assume it's called SHAREDPRINTER.

2) On the Network Browsing on your W7 machine ensure you can "See" the Printer share.

Now on the W7 machine do the following (doesn't matter if it's X-86 or x-64).

3) Control Panel==> add LOCAL (Yes LOCAL) printer. I know it's on a Network but hold your horses -- what we are actually doing is "Poodlefaking" the W7 machine into thinking it's running the printer.

4) Create NEW port==>Local port

5) Portname is \\XPMACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER

6) Now W7 will load a driver and you'll be able to print on the XP machine.

Simple

(For a "Network stand alone printer") at 4) chose TCPIP port
and at 5) enter the IP address.


If the printer is on the W7 machine and you want to print on the XP machine then do the same instructions on the XP machine --
port name in this case will be \\W7MACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER

Cheers
jimbo

Thank you Jimbo45!!! Your solution worked perfectly for me. I have HP 610c printer connected to my XP machine, and I followed your solution to share it with my Win 7 64 bit machine. Worked like a charm. You're the man!

I have recently bought a Dell Inspiron loaded with W7, it is networked to a Dell Dimension running XP through a Linksys WRT160N Router. Connected to the XP machine I have a HP Photosmart C4480 and a HP Color Laserjet CM1015. After some poking around and hair pulling I got the C4480 printing from the W7 machine. No matter what I tried I could not get a functional driver, downloaded from the HP web site, to load on the W7 machine in either the X32 or the X64 format.
I tried the method you posted, PFM, it worked immediately, loaded the driver obviously from the XP machine and printed a test page all in less than 5 minutes. Thank you.