Problem connecting to a network shared printer?

[RetrogradeOrbit]

This problem has been bugging me on and off for months.

I have a number of network printers shared from a Windows 2003 server and I get problems trying to connect off of the share to a Windows 7 workstation, especially if it is 64bit.

In case any of you are experiencing this yourself, here is a solution which works for me

If you are getting this error even if you manually point the wizard to the appropriate printer drivers directory, then this might just help you.

Do note that you must have the correct drivers for the printer you want to install already available as inf files on either the local PC or a network share.

• From the "Start" button click "Devices and Printers"
• Click "Add printer" and then "Add a network, wireless or bluetooth printer"
• Click "The printer that I want isn't listed"
• Click the radio button "Find a printer in the directory" then "next"
• From the list which appears, find the printer you need and right click it, selecting "properties"
• A window will appear asking if you want to install the driver, click "yes", then "next" and "have disk"
• Browse to the location which contains the appropriate driver files and click "next"
• This will install the drivers, it may or may not actually install the printer itself.
• If it does not, go back to the list of printers, right click the one you need and select "connect"

As the drivers are now installed it should successfully complete the installation of your network printer as a share from the server, thereby keeping your print spool files on the server and not on the workstation.

No guarantees here, but it has worked for me on several occasions.

I've got my own little forum, where I put solutions I find to problems I encounter in my work as an IT consultant. There are a few other tips there, take a look if you like... http://forum.starplex.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=17