64bit Windows 7 Sharing Printer With 32bit Windows XP

  Everything works fine. The drivers given by Windows 7 64 bit worked when I "added a printer" in Windows XP 32 bit (I just connected to the printer server "\\Windows7machinename\HPprintername") . I had never tried that out this time around. It seemed like such a simple thing to do. I guess I was scared that the HP printer sharing tool made it sound as if the 64bit drivers were not going to work when installed on the 32 bit XP system.

Thank god that worked, because I could not find a .inf file from HP's Vista 32bit installation that was compatible with the HP printer.

For those out there trying to do the same thing with a Canon printer (mine is a PIXMA ip5000), the process was a bit different. My printer is connected to my Windows 7 32 bit computer and I wanted to share it with my Windows 7 64 bit laptop. The problem is that Canon doesn't provide the .inf file for Windows 7, they provide a "Printer Driver Add-on Module". When I ran the Printer Driver Add-in Module I couldn't actually find the .inf printer driver that it created. After trying many of the suggestions that I found on forums, I ended up downloading the Windows XP 64 bit driver for my PIXMA ip5000 printer (onto the desktop of my Windows 7 32 bit machine). I then went (still on my 32 bit machine) to the "Devices and Printers" window, right clicked my ip5000 printer and selected "Printer Properties". Then on the "Sharing" tab, I clicked the "Additional Printers" tab and checked the "x64" box. When it asked me for the location of the 64 bit printer driver, I pointed it to the temp folder I had created on my desktop and it loaded the driver. Once that was done, I went on my 64 bit Windows 7 machine and in the "Devices and Printers" window, selected the "add a printer" tab and then the "add a network, wireless or bluetooth printer" tab. From there you should be able to figure it out.

I struggled for several days with a similar situation. 64 bit windows7 desktop with an HP multifunction attached and a laptop with 32 bit XP, wirelessly connected. Windows 7 invited me to provide x86 32 bit drivers for shared printer functionality, but then prompted me for the driver location. HP drivers for this printer are only available (as best as I could find) as installable software package; I didn't want to do that to a fresh installation, and fear of a conflict with the 64 bit microsoft provided drivers.
My solution was to;
1) plug the printer into the laptop
2) install the HP driver package on the laptop
3) unplug the printer
4) add the printer as a network printer
5) delete the 'hardwired' printer

this should NOT have been this hard.

dc

This worked for me too, but one thing was not mentioned. I used Winzip to extract the inf file and driver from the executable (without running it) to the temp folder.

Okay, I consider myself pretty computer savvy, but acknowledge that I haven't kept up with the times on all this stuff because it's getting harder to grasp. LOL So, could someone please provide easy step-by-step instructions on how to get my 64-bit Vista laptop to share my HP OfficeJet 6110 with my 32-bit XP Desktop?

The printer is hooked up to the 32-bit and I believe the printer has network and wireless capability. I may have to download some drivers for the wireless, but I can get those from HP. It just seems that whenever you try to contact these people (HP and Canon), they simply tell you they don't have drivers for 64-bit computers, nor do they have any plans to develop any for older models.

No instructions are given by these printer companies for properly setting them up to get them to work. So, all this time, we just assumed we'd have to buy a new printer to work with both. Of course, that's what they want you to think so you'll go buy one and put more money into their greedy little hands.

Rather than spend more money on a new printer after spending some serious bucks for this supped up laptop, we decided to put our beloved laptop up for sale and use that money to buy a 32-bit laptop that would work with our existing printer.

Now I'm reading that it's possible to get it to work with our printer? Why isn't this information provided by Microsoft? Did the printer companies buy them off? I sure am glad this laptop hasn't sold, yet, and will be removing my listing until I get this figured out.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.  

Hello,

I had the same problem. Wanted to connect a Canon iP5200 to a Windows 7 64 bit, and share it from a Windows XP. I solved it by attaching the printer to Windows XP first, and install it normally.

Then I disconnected it there, installed it on the Windows 7 machine, and shared it.

On the Windows XP, I opened up the properties page of the printer, looked at the interfaces, and simply added a new interface of type "local". As the name, I supplied the name of the share.

That worked best. No driver copies required.

When you test it, remember to look for the switch "Work offline", and unselect it. When Windows detects a missing printer, it switches this switch on to prevent errors. Later on, it prevents printing.

Thanks mat-jung...I'll try that. It sounds easy enough to me. LOL :c)

Mat-jung's fix works the other way, too. I have a Canon iP5200 connected to and shared from a WinXP 32-bit desktop but couldn't install it as a network printer on a Win 7 64-bit laptop. Tried installing it as a local printer on the laptop with Canon's Win 7 64-bit driver, then plugged the printer back into the XP host and tried the network installation again on the Win 7 64-bit -- no joy.

Since I still had the Canon as an (unplugged) local printer on the Win 7 laptop, I changed the port setting from 'USB1' to 'Local' and gave it the shared name from the XP - bingo! Very strange...first time I ever saw a local/network printer.

My

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