Anything to share a printer from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows?

I've got a printer which only has 32-bit drivers, so it's installed on a 32-bit machine (XP). I need it to appear as a printer (with duplex control etc) on a 64-bit machine (Vista).

• I can't just share it using Windows printer sharing because the 64-bit client requires drivers to connect to it.
• There's no 64-bit driver for a similar printer that works (using the new port named \\server\printername).

I've tried the ghostscript approach but that doesn't seem to help with the duplex control etc.

Printeranywhere doesn't support 64-bit OS yet.

Is there another way to do this?

Solution 1:

The problem you have is that to get duplexing and other features, you need to use the native features of the print driver. Things like ghostscript will get you the basic printing features, but to get more advanced features, you really need a proper driver for the printer.

Solution 2:

Is it a PCL5 printer? If so, I've had success with the HP Universal PCL5 driver (on HP's website) even on non-HP printers.

HP driver

Solution 3:

I know this is an old question but I just figured out how to do it so I thought I'd post my method for connecting to and printing from Windows 7 64-bit to a 32-bit Windows print server (should be the same for 64-bit Vista):

• ensure you have the proper printer driver installed on your Windows 7 box
• goto printers and devices, add new printer
• select local printer
• use existing port (LPT1)
• select proper print driver
• click next throughout rest of process
• name the printer how you'd like it to be displayed.
• let it install...
• select "do not share"
• when finished, right click and select "Printer Properties"
• goto ports tab, click "Add port..."
• select "Local Port" and then click "New Port..."
• type in the exact network address for the printer. ie: \printserver01\hplaserj
• click OK, then click close
• ensure the new port is selected and click Apply, then close
• test printer. If it doesn't work than you may have an incorrect or incompatible print driver installed

Also, if you're trying to connect to HP printers I have found the HP Universal PCL6 driver to work remarkably well: download here