Printer Sharing From Vista x64 To XP x86

I posted the following in the Vista newsgroup for printing and faxing, but I also thought I would pose the question here.

Hello all. I would like to thank you in advance for any answers that are given in this thread. I am an MCSE and would consider myself pretty savy overall, but this particular problem (which exists in my home network) has me frustrated.

I have a PC running Vista Ultimate x64. Attached to that PC (via USB) is a HP Photosmart C3180. My wife's laptop is running XP Professional x86. I am trying to allow her to print to the printer attached to my Vista x64 PC.

I install the printer properly and confirm it working on my Vista x64 PC. I then share it out under the name HPC3180. I disable password protected sharing and under the security settings of the printer I give "Anonymous Logon" permission to access the printer.

I know generally I would have to specify the x86 version of the driver under the "Additional Drivers" area in the properties of the printer; but in this case I do not know where to get the .INF files. I can download the drivers for the 32 bit version of XP from HP's site, but they aren't self extracting EXE files so I cannot get the INF file out of them to use.

I even tried setting it up (on XP x86 laptop) as a "Local Printer" with a "Local Port" that points the printer. I then tried to use a variety of older and generic drivers. At worst it refused to print entirely. At best I got some sort of seemingly random output from the printer.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You Again,

Richard R.

Hi Richard,
I assume the HP file you downloaded is an .exe file? If so you can use Winzip or Winrar and right click on the exe file and that should allow you to extract the contents to a folder. Winzip or Winrar should even create the folder name for you. Then go to Start > Settings> Printers> File > Server Properties > Drivers tab > Add the printer driver there. That should fix you up.
Raj

I am having the same issue but with an Epson R320 installed on a Vista x64 machine and the Vista x86 machine also connected to the network sees it fine, but the XP Pro system on the network won't install a driver.

I have unzipped the driver (in fact they had been used before so I know they work) and installed the printer drivers on the XP machine but still won't work.

I have tried manually searching for the INF when asked by the network install but it says they are incompatible.

I thought installing "Additional Driver" on the Vista x64 machine might work but all it supports are Vista x86 and Itanium.

rajinisback: I just tried your instructions and still won't install. Thanks for trying.

The file you download from HP is not a self extracting .exe so I cannot extract files from it.

Richard,
I do it all the time. Download hp drivers that are .exe files and I use Winzip to extract them to a directory. Not sure why you can't?

No matter if the Printer is hosted on a XP32 bit or Vista 32 bit pc, you MUST install the 64 bit driver on the Vista64 PC. Vista 64 will not accept a 32 bit driver.

Raj

Right .... think I might have the solution to this.

1) On the x64 box get the printer working using x64 drivers and ensure the printer is shared. Don't worry about adding x86 drivers or anything.

2) On the x86 box. Download and install the printer driver for your printer (ie, the one attached to the x64 box). Only when it asks you to find the printer or select the connection use "FILE:" (ie, output to a file)

3) On the x86 box. Go back in to the printer properties and click on the "Ports" tab. Then click "Add Port ...". Then select "Local Port". In the pop up box type in the machine name and printer share (eg, "\\x64box\printer").

4) Make sure the new local port is ticked and not "FILE:"

5) Bob's your uncle. It should now work without asking for drivers - as you already have the x86 driver installed.

Good stuff glob! I had the same issue and your solution worked brilliantly.

Many thanks!

Glob,

Thank you for your info it worked wonderful.

Glob's solution didn't immediately work for me. After installing printer with new driver to "file" and completing steps 3 and 4, still couldn't get network connection recognized.
I went back added printer (as a copy) using the new driver, and set port as described in Glob's step 3. Then worked fine.
Suggests you might be able to skip step 2.