I am running a Konica Minolta Magicolor 2400W printer which is connect via
USB to a PC running XP Media Centre. The PC is connected to the home network
router.

The printer is shared to the other home computers over the wireless home
network.

Computers running windows XP Home Edition can print to it OK but a laptop
running Vista Home Basic gets an "access denied" error message.

All computers have the same workgroup name and can see and access files on
each other. I have tried turning the firewalls off but this still doesn't
work.

I have installed Vista drivers on the XP machine that is connected to the
printer and have also installed the Vista drivers on the Vista laptop too.

I have also tried installing the printer via a local port on the Vista
laptop but this doesn't work either.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do next?
Thanks
Tim

Tim,
I'm not going to be much help except to say that I'm having the same
problem. I just bought a laptop running Windows Vista to replace my old
laptop which runs Windows 2000 Professional. As we speak, I have both
laptops up and running side-by-side here on my coffee table. The old laptop
easility connects to my desktop which is running Windows XP Home Edition and
it shares the desktop's printer and folders where I'm enabled sharing on the
desktop. Unfortunately, I can't share the desktop's printer or map network
drives to the laptop from my new Vista laptop. I've tried everything I can
think of to add the printer and map network drives from the Vista laptop, but
it just won't find the desktop computer. In that regard, I see that there
are literally thousands of hits in Google where people are having sharing
problems with Vista. To me, it's small comfort that so many people are
having the same problem as me. I also asked some of our IT people in work,
but they don't know how to get to a shared printer using Vista. As a result,
I'm quite frustrated with Vista--it just shouldn't be this difficult.
Anyway, if you learn how to connect to your shared printer, please let me
know. Thanks.
b3player2

"Tim Williams" wrote:

I am running a Konica Minolta Magicolor 2400W printer which is connect via
USB to a PC running XP Media Centre. The PC is connected to the home network
router.

The printer is shared to the other home computers over the wireless home
network.

Computers running windows XP Home Edition can print to it OK but a laptop
running Vista Home Basic gets an "access denied" error message.

All computers have the same workgroup name and can see and access files on
each other. I have tried turning the firewalls off but this still doesn't
work.

I have installed Vista drivers on the XP machine that is connected to the
printer and have also installed the Vista drivers on the Vista laptop too.

I have also tried installing the printer via a local port on the Vista
laptop but this doesn't work either.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do next?
Thanks
Tim

Having done all the obvious stuff in other threads on this (like making sure
that the computers had the same workgroup name and trying to install the
printer locally etc) I finally figured out how to do this and thought this
might be of help to the many others with the same problem.

As pointed out in other threds on this topic the source of the problem was
the fact that my Vista laptop did not have access permission to the printer
drivers on the XP machine to which the printer was connected. However,
working out how to give it this access was not obvious.

To give the Vista machine access you firstly have to turn off simple file
sharing on the XP machine or you are unable to share the necessary files
because they are used by the operating system. Go to:

My computer
Tools
Folder Options
View
Clear the check box marked simple file sharing
Details in this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

You then have to share the drivers file on the XP machine (shared as print$)
in C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool by right clicking and selecting properties
followed by the sharing tab. I actually shared all of the spool folder just
to be sure.

You also have to set the security permissions for this folder to include
EVERYONE. This group was not originally shown so I had to use the add button
under the security tab to add it.

I then ran the network setup wizard again on the XP machine (not sure if
this was necessary but did it just in case)

Finally I added the printer on the Vista machine as a networked printer and
voila no error message this time and a successful test page printed after the
drivers had installed. Again, I'm not sure if this was necessary but I had
also installed the Vista drivers on the XP machine.

Whilst I'm not an expert and this might all have been obvious to others I
was quite pleased with my efforts. However, I think that Microsft should not
have made this difficult in the first place and hope that they will take note
and sort this out soon.
Tim

This sounds excellent. I have searched the web and this is the first solution
I found. Unfortunately I have XP Home, so its not possible to turn off simple
file
sharing (no checkbox). I cant share the spool / system32 og windows folder
because they are systemfolders, now i sharing the hole harddisk, hoping that
it wil create the solution (after 30 minutes wait).
Is there any hope for me?

Regards Martin

"Tim Williams" wrote:

To give the Vista machine access you firstly have to turn off simple file
sharing on the XP machine or you are unable to share the necessary files
because they are used by the operating system. Go to:

My computer
Tools
Folder Options
View
Clear the check box marked simple file sharing
Details in this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

You then have to share the drivers file on the XP machine (shared as print$)
in C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool by right clicking and selecting properties
followed by the sharing tab. I actually shared all of the spool folder just
to be sure.

Is there any hope for me?

There was, but not the above solution. Before my laptop was finished with
sharing the entire harddrive, I read Rons`s suggestion to install the shared
printer as a local printer with \\computername\printername as port. Worked
like a charm.

Yes, unfortunately you can only do what I did if you have XP PRO or MCE as
you can't turn off simple file sharing on XP HOME.

If you are on XP HOME it looks like your only solution is to install the
printer as a local printer like Martin did. For some reason this didn't work
for me though but this link shows how to do it and it seems to work for many
others

http://help.wugnet.com/vista/Access-...pict42601.html

A lot of people are still waiting for Microsoft to stand up and say what
they are going to do about it, in the meantime I'd be wary about adding vista
machines into an existing XP home network.
Tim

Ron suggestion worked for me too......I was about to give up
hope.......however i never found Rons post so i must give credit to
MH..........WAHOOOOO

"MH" wrote:

Is there any hope for me?

There was, but not the above solution. Before my laptop was finished with
sharing the entire harddrive, I read Rons`s suggestion to install the shared
printer as a local printer with \\computername\printername as port. Worked
like a charm.

Hello. I have also tried some of the suggestions listed under this thread
and here is what finally worked for me:

Share the C:\Windows\system32 folder on the XP machine (where the shared
printer is located)

Share the C:\Windows\system32\spool folder on the XP machine

Finally, I installed the printer as a local printer, then accessed Printer
properties (right-click on the printer icon located in the Control
Panel:Printers dialog). After clicking the Ports tab, add a port and give it
\\computername\printer name where computer name is the XP machine the printer
is shared on, and printer name is the specific share name of the printer.

Hope this helps solve some problems and keep some of you from pulling all of
your hair out. Mine is partially gone already so I didn't have much more I
could lose.

Regards,

Jeff Parish