W7 64bit network and printer

I have a new laptop with W7 64bit installed. I connected it w/o a problem to my network. One issue, however, remains. My two printers, A HP840C and a Canon MP640 are wired to my desktop. Both run perfectly for the purposes I use them for. I wanted to add both printers to my new laptop but it does not work so far. With "add a printer" the two printers show up but they would not connect instead I am asked to enter an .inf file which I tried but does not work.

So, I suppose that W7 refuses to connect resp. rejects the printers because their drivers are 32bit on the desktop are 32bit. Is there a solution to this problem? I checked on the net but have not found a straight forward answer yet.

Go to both HP and Cannon and get the 64 bit drivers for them.
Install them on the laptop and during the install, watch the pop ups real close, they should go and pick up the printers.

Sorry Train, it did not work at all. First, there is no 64 bit driver at HP. However, they said to connect the printer via USB cable to the laptop and it would install the printer which it did but no pop ups etc. I then reconnected the printer to the desk top and tried "add printer" on the laptop. Result it still asks for an .inf file as set up information.

I also tried this on the 32 bit XP desktop: Contol Panel > Printer and Devices, right clicked on the HP printer (shared) and then on Properties. Under the Sharing tab is a button "Additional Drivers", in the opening box there is a check box for for x64 Windows XP to install. Checking the check box would try to install a x64 for Windows XP. Doesn't do this. Here again it asks for a .inf file which I do not have or do not know where to find since I already did do a Find.

Any other suggestions?

If you had the printers working when they were connected to the laptop using the USB connection, then you should be able to change the port that the installed printer driver uses to point to the same printer when it is connected to the other computer. You will have to Add a new port, and designate the connection as follows:

\\ComputerName\PrinterName


Link:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...dows-7-and-xp/

Do you have printer sharing set up.

Sorry, at the moment, I am unable to follow up on this thread. The reason ist that I have a serious unrelated problem with my XP desktop. It appears to be dying. Probably have to get a new one with W 7 which will probably resolve the issue because the W 7 will be 64 bit.

MY XP desktop did NOT die! It was the video card that was acting up. Replaced the card and all is fine.

Anyway, I still cannot find a solution for the printer sharing. I checked out "howtogeek" site but it offered no solution that was usable for me. Besides, the description here is a bit fuzzy, and it did not cover exactly my situation. To repeat, on the XP PC the driver for the HP deskjet was installed as soon as I plugged in the USB cable years ago. With the Cannon, I installed the driver from a CD, and then plugged in the USB cable. There is a third PC with a 32 bit W 7 and this one had no difficulties finding and setting up both printers. Now, tell me what is the problem with a 64 bit system just trying to connect to both printers where it even sees the two and knows its names and consequently its port names. Last but not least, why is MS making it always so difficult. Something like this should be one of the easiest exercises for their operating systems or shouldn't it be???

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Desertfox

Something like this should be one of the easiest exercises for their operating systems or shouldn't it be???

---

If Microsoft had total control over ALL of the hardware and ALL of the software in ALL of our computers, then yes it would be much closer to do-able.

I got the solution! It goes this way:

1. On Devices and Settings, click add a printer and choose Add a local printer.

2. Choose Create a New port - Choose a Local port

3. Enter \\XPMACHINENAME\SHAREDPRINTERNAME as the Local port

This forces Windows 7 to load a driver to enabling to print on the XP machine.

This is not explained in the Help and Support!!!!!

Excellent! Good to hear you got it working and thanks for posting your solution. :)