XP Printer shared to Vista Laptop

  • Thread starter Thread starter gbrooksby
  • Start date Start date
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gbrooksby

I have a Desktop PC running Windows XP-Pro with an HP Photosmart P1100
printer connected. I have shared the printer. I also have a laptop
running Vista.
Initially I added the shared printer over our home wireless network to
the Vista laptop and was able to print using the printer. I believe
it was using printer drivers on the XP machine.
Then the CPU died on the XP box. The laptop became our only machine.
I connected the laptop directly to the printer and after trying to
install printer drivers for a long time discovered that the printer is
not supported in Vista. I found that if I forced the printer to use
an alternate driver I was able to get the Vista laptop to print to the
printer.
I then replaced the CPU in the XP machine and brought it back to
life. I deleted the printers on the Vista laptop and re-added the
shared network printer. Vista installed it using the "hp photoshop
P1100" drivers. I can only presume it still had the drivers stored
somewhere on the disc.
Now the laptop will not print to the networked printer. I presume
this is because it is not supported in Vista and is trying to use
local drivers. I want to get it back to the point where it is using
the remote XP drivers, but can't seem to figure out how to do that. I
cannot find the HP driver files to remove. When I go into the
printers window and go to server properties and tell it to remove the
HP P1100 printer drivers and package it claims to do so. But if I add
the printer again, it once again installs the driver - which must be
coming from a local source.

Does anyone know how to force vista to remove drivers completely and
permanently?
How else can I force Vista to use remote drivers for a network
printer?

Thanks for any help. This is driving me bonkers.
 
Turn on XP's File and Printer Sharing.
And XP's Printer has to have a Vista compatible printer Driver installed on
the Vista computer for the vista machine to print from the XP's printer

If the worst came to the worst(no compatible driver), copy files from
Vista>XP>Print from XP

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Have a read of the above link re Vista File and Printer Sharing.

Permissions/Share info is there as well.

If using Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro I.S., make sure file and printer
sharing is enabled in THEIR firewall (or LAN allowed, depending on how their
Exceptions are worded in their Firewall)

1st thing to do is make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computers is
the SAME.

In Vista Network and Sharing:

Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)

Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)

File Sharing: ON

Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista’s Public Folder is the same as XP’s Shared
Docs)

Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames and
passwords (passwords can be different) on ALL computers in your Network) If
you have it ON, you will be asked for a username and password when you try to
access a Vista computer from an XP computer, or a Vista computer.

Also, run the XP’s Home or Small Office Network File and Printer Sharing
Wizard to include Vista in your “New†Network, even if you had an XP Network
set up prior to adding a Vista computer to it(redoing the Wizard seems to
work for XP machines!).

In “My Network Placesâ€: “Set up a Home or Small Office Networkâ€
OR under Accessories > Communications > Network Setup Wizard > Allow File
and Printer Sharing.
 
Turn on XP's File and Printer Sharing.
And XP's Printer has to have a Vista compatible printer Driver installed on
the Vista computer for the vista machine to print from the XP's printer

If the worst came to the worst(no compatible driver), copy files from
Vista>XP>Print from XP

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Have a read of the above link re Vista File and Printer Sharing.

Permissions/Share info is there as well.

If using Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro I.S., make sure file and printer
sharing is enabled in THEIR firewall (or LAN allowed, depending on how their
Exceptions are worded in their Firewall)

1st thing to do is make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computersis
the SAME.

In Vista Network and Sharing:

Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)

Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)

File Sharing: ON

Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista’s Public Folder is the same as XP’s Shared
Docs)

Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames and
passwords (passwords can be different) on ALL computers in your Network) If
you have it ON, you will be asked for a username and password when you try to
access a Vista computer from an XP computer, or a Vista computer.

Also, run the XP’s Home or Small Office Network File and Printer Sharing
Wizard to include Vista in your “New” Network, even if you had an XP Network
set up prior to adding a Vista computer to it(redoing the Wizard seems to
work for XP machines!).

In “My Network Places”: “Set up a Home or Small Office Network”
OR under Accessories > Communications > Network Setup Wizard > Allow File
and Printer Sharing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

First off there are no official supported Vista drivers for my
printer.
Therefore I really need the printing to go through the XP drivers on
the XP machine.

The perplexing thing about this is that the printing worked fine
before I tried to install the drivers on the Vista machine. After
installing them, then finding out they won't work, I can't get back to
the previous state.
Nothing else has changed about the network or the computers.

I've told Vista to entirely uninstall the drivers, but every time I
point it to the network printer, it somehow "finds" and installs a
driver. Since whatever drive it finds is not Vista compatible, it
won't print.

Other ideas are welcome.

Glen
 
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