Solved adding a USB Port to Windows 7 inside VirtualBox

broiyan

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I want to add a Fuji Xerox USB printer to Windows 7. I believe it is a GDI printer meaning most of the processing happens on the PC and so the driver is responsible for doing most of the work.

Since such a driver is not available on Ubuntu, I have my Windows 7 as a "guest" operating system on Virtual Box on Ubuntu.

There is a VirtualBox filter to allow the Fuji Xerox USB printer to be seen by Windows and in fact, Windows does detect the printer and it appears to use a default Microsoft USB Printer Driver which of course will not work for the type of printer that absolutely must have a Fuji Xerox driver. There is no point in upgrading that driver since the attempt to upgrade will just indicate that it is already the latest Microsoft USB Printer Driver.

The manufacturer's readme file says to "Add a Local Printer" but the problem is that the only ports visible when I add a printer are COM and LPT. I do not see a USB type of port. (As an experiment, I installed the driver on another pure Windows 7 computer and I can see that the port being used is a USB Virtual Printer Port named USB001. Yes, it prints on that computer. I cannot recall how I installed it . I have also installed this driver on a couple of Dell desktop Win 7 machines and a Samsung RF711 laptop Win 7 dual booting. I've always found a way to use my printer from those other Win 7 setups.)

Presently, I'm using the same hardware, the Samsung, but instead of dual booting, I am using VirtualBox because dual-booting was a hassle and a slow way to print to the Fuji Xerox.

How do I add a USB port to a Windows 7 inside a Virtual Box?
 
Last edited:

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
mix and match
OS
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Motherboard
Asus MA 770 UD3
Memory
4 GB DDR2 1066
Graphics Card(s)
GeForce 8400 DVI and Analog, EGA 8400 Analog
Monitor(s) Displays
2 portrait Samsung 2243, 1 landscape Asus 222
Hard Drives
300 GB
PSU
500 Watt
Case
Antec 500 Sonata III
Keyboard
dasKeyboard USB, the original loud click version
Mouse
Logitech TrackMan Wheel
Internet Speed
DSL
First be sure to have installed the Oracle Extension for VirtualBox.

You have to go to the Virtual Box "Machine", "Settings", "USB" dialog. In there, enable the checkbox for USB 2.0 EHCI Controller.

Create a USB Filter specific to the printer by simply selecting the printer from the list of USB devices.

Then when you go to "Add a Printer" the Port "USB001 Virtual Printer Port" will appear.
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
mix and match
OS
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Motherboard
Asus MA 770 UD3
Memory
4 GB DDR2 1066
Graphics Card(s)
GeForce 8400 DVI and Analog, EGA 8400 Analog
Monitor(s) Displays
2 portrait Samsung 2243, 1 landscape Asus 222
Hard Drives
300 GB
PSU
500 Watt
Case
Antec 500 Sonata III
Keyboard
dasKeyboard USB, the original loud click version
Mouse
Logitech TrackMan Wheel
Internet Speed
DSL
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