I'm trying to share a printer that's attached to an XP Pro machine on Vista
Home Premium. Vista finds the shared printer no problem but tries to get the
printer driver from the XP machine. I can't add the Vista driver for this
printer on the XP machine and it seems like there's no way to specify in
Vista what driver to use for the printer during installation. Any
suggestions?

I haven’t tried this but I’ve been told it has worked for some people with
incompatible printers.

Unless Vista has the necessary drivers, the Add Printer wizard in Vista
insists on retrieving the driver for a network printer from the computer to
which the printer is connected. Since you can’t install the Vista driver on a
WinXP computer, that means that Vista fails to connect to the network printer.

You need to fool Vista into thinking that the network printer is actually a
local one, so that you can install the driver directly on your Vista computer.

Download the Vista printer driver and install it on the Vista computer.
You’ll be prompted to connect the printer to your computer. Choose the option
to proceed with the installation WITHOUT connecting the printer.

Once installed, open Printers in Control Panel, right-click on the printer
and choose Properties. Go to the Ports Tab, click Add Port…, select Local
Port, then click New Port…
For the Port Name enter exactly the network path and share name of your
printer, click OK, and double-check that this new port is selected with the
checkbox next to it. Click OK to close the printer properties.

"pareez" wrote:

I'm trying to share a printer that's attached to an XP Pro machine on Vista
Home Premium. Vista finds the shared printer no problem but tries to get the
printer driver from the XP machine. I can't add the Vista driver for this
printer on the XP machine and it seems like there's no way to specify in
Vista what driver to use for the printer during installation. Any
suggestions?

PROBLEM SOLVED! thanks for the advice!! i got my system to finally work!!

"BurrWalnut" wrote:

I haven’t tried this but I’ve been told it has worked for some people with
incompatible printers.

Unless Vista has the necessary drivers, the Add Printer wizard in Vista
insists on retrieving the driver for a network printer from the computer to
which the printer is connected. Since you can’t install the Vista driver on a
WinXP computer, that means that Vista fails to connect to the network printer.

You need to fool Vista into thinking that the network printer is actually a
local one, so that you can install the driver directly on your Vista computer.

Download the Vista printer driver and install it on the Vista computer.
You’ll be prompted to connect the printer to your computer. Choose the option
to proceed with the installation WITHOUT connecting the printer.

Once installed, open Printers in Control Panel, right-click on the printer
and choose Properties. Go to the Ports Tab, click Add Port…, select Local
Port, then click New Port…
For the Port Name enter exactly the network path and share name of your
printer, click OK, and double-check that this new port is selected with the
checkbox next to it. Click OK to close the printer properties.

"pareez" wrote:

I'm trying to share a printer that's attached to an XP Pro machine on Vista
Home Premium. Vista finds the shared printer no problem but tries to get the
printer driver from the XP machine. I can't add the Vista driver for this
printer on the XP machine and it seems like there's no way to specify in
Vista what driver to use for the printer during installation. Any
suggestions?