Can Vista x64 print to a printer in a XP x86 Computer?

Well the subject title pretty much sums it up. Can an XP machine with a printer using printer sharing accept data from a Vista x64 machine? I have it all set up in my XP partition, and can print to the printer connected to my other XP computer. On vista I get a box up requesting a printer driver, but no x64 drivers are available for my canon i905D printer from the canon website. However I know that these drivers a preinstalled with windows vista, as when I plug it into my Vista computer it installs drivers and I can print. But how can I get it to print to my XP machine? Is there anywhere that vista stores all the .inf files that I could point the box to? Why cant it find it itself? Even if I do manage to install a driver for it, how would it communicate with the 32bit printer driver in my XP machine? Is it even possible to set up?

Anyone who has got this working with any other printer please post so I know it can be done.

Sorry for volume of questions.

 

Ive not had this problem, but I found this googling....<DIV class=commentsbody>

HI All,

There is a known issue from Microsoft about the Vista x64 printer sharing option. Microsoft provide a workaround for the printer sharing problem and i will share with all of you. I already tested and works fine with Vista x64 Enterprise RTM and Windows XP SP2.

1) Go to the Vista Machine and go to Start - Control Panel - Printers and other hardware and then printer and faxes.

2) Double Click Add Printer to start the Add printer wizard and click Next.

3) Click on Local Printer, clear the Automatically detect and install check box, and then click NEXT.

4)Click CREATE A NEW PORT and then click LOCAL PORT in the PORT TYPE section.

5)In the Port Name box, type the path to the printer in the following format where SERVER is the name of the print server and PRINTER is the name of the printer:

\\server\printer

6) Click NEXT and then select a driver for your printer.

7) Click Next and the follow the intructions to finish the wizard.

NOTE: When you use this procedure, the print job is printed locally and then redirected to the network path. If you use this procedure, you do not receive printe updates from the printe server when you update the printer driver on the print server.

I hope this process help with your problem. It works for me and was so easy to do.

AlexR</DIV>

 

Great, thx man, could find anything when i googled it, i bow to your superior google skills.

Worked a treat! Although the explanation is a little wrong, it should be on Vista machine not XP machine. Ive edited your post to correct it, hope you dont mind

 

no problem mate. glad you sussed it.