One of the common problems I’ve encountered with clients is trying to share a printer connected to a Windows XP machine with Windows 7/8/10. There are many people who have USB-connected printers connected to the same computer, and sometimes even to a Windows XP computer.
If you are getting a new laptop running Windows 7/8/10, it makes sense to share this printer so that any computer can print to it. Unfortunately, trying to print to a shared printer in XP from Windows 7/8/10 isn’t as easy as it should be!
In this article, I will show you how to combine printers with XP and Windows 7/8/10. I am assuming that your printer is directly connected to a Windows XP machine and you want to print from a Windows 7/8/10 machine.
Set up printer sharing
Step 1. First, make sure the printer on the XP machine is shared. You can do this by right-clicking on the printer and choosing Share.
Click the Share this printer radio button and give your printer a common name. Make sure the length is less than 8 characters and does not contain any characters.
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Step 2. Make sure you can see the shared printer from the Network Browser in Windows 7/8/10. You can do this by going to Control Panel and clicking Network and Internet.
Then click “View network computers and devices” in the Network and Sharing Center.
At this point, you should see your XP computer name in the list of computers. My XP machine is called Aseem.
Double click on the computer name and you should see your shared printer listed. Here you can try adding a printer by right-clicking it and choosing Connect.
If all goes well, Windows 7/8/10 will automatically add the printer to your printer set. However, if you receive a message like “Unable to connect to printer”, follow these steps.
Step 3: Click “Start” and then “Devices and Printers”. At the top, click the Add Printer link.
Step 4: Then select Add a local printer. Yes, it sounds counterintuitive, but this is what you need to do!
Step 5. Then click “Create New Port” and select “Local Port” from the list of options.
Step 6: Click Next and in the Port Name field, enter the path to the shared printer. It should be something like \ Aseem HPXP, where Aseem is the name of your XP computer and HPXP is the generic name of the printer.
Step 7. Now select a printer driver from the list, or download the latest printer driver and choose Have Disk. Please note, if your printer is a little older, it is recommended that you download the Windows 7/8/10 printer driver before clicking the Have Disk button.
This is it! Windows 7/8/10 will download the driver and you can print to an XP machine from Windows 7/8/10! The main thing to remember is to share your XP printer and download the latest printer driver to your Windows 7/8/10 machine.
If you’re having trouble sharing your printer in XP and printing from Windows 7/8/10, leave a comment here and I’ll try to help! Enjoy!
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