Vista cannot connect to XP printer share

Posted by Theo van der Sluijs on 29 Jun 2007 in MS Windows | 0 comments

Well…. Vista… I have it on my new Dell pc.
It looks great, but Windows ME also looked great.

Windows Vista like Windows ME is far from a workable product.

Like connection to my XP Shared printer. It just doesn’t work !

Yesterday I found a great workaround for this not solved Microsoft Windows problem.

But what was my problem exactly ?

I wanted to use my Windows XP shared printer (HP Laserjet 6L).
So I tried adding a new network printer.
I found it, I can see the properties…. but I cannot connect.
On my Windows XP machine, it says that everyone can use this shared printer.
Hell, even my Ubuntu laptop prints on this printer

But… Vista thinks it cannot ! It just refused to connect !

So.. the sollution

=============================================
Go to Control Panel. Choose printer. Then choose Add Printer.

Choose Add a local printer. Click on Create a new port. The default in the drop down box is Local Port. Do not change that. Click Next.

A dialogue box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the \computernameprintername ie. My computer’s name is “DeepSpaceNine” and the printer name is HPLaser6L so I typed in \DeepSpaceNineHPLaser6L

Now… press cancel. (yes press cancel !)

Choose Add a local printer (what … again ? Yes again.. I told you this is a great workaround)

Press Next choose your just created new port.
Choose your printer from the list.
=============================================

And Voila …. it works

Ain’t Vista great !

Theo van der Sluijs

Theo van der Sluijs (1975) is Software Development Manager at Bax-shop.nl. You can read more in dutch on his “Dutch Blog“, he also created Gebruikmaar.nl. He is a member of the Board of the Dutch Flex Usergroup and Goesweb.net.