Sharing a printer that's connected to an XP computer

[Guest]

I am trying to access my printer over a network. The printer is hooked up to
a computer running on XP, while mine is running on Vista home premium.
The network runs fine. I can see and access files on the XP computer no
probs. The printer works fine, if it's plugged in directly to either computer.
My computer can see the printer on the XP computer through the network, and
can even tell the type (canon pixma mp760).
However, when I try to connect to it, I get an error message, telling me the
XP computer doesn not have the proper drivers.
I've tried putting the vista drivers onto the XP computer and tried
accessing the printer through the vista drivers already installed on my
computer, but have not had any luck getting through.
The computer tells me 'the file *.inf is needed'. I can find the file
'mp760sc.INF' on my computer and the XP, where I stashed the Vista driver,
but when I try to use that, the computer gives me an error message: "Printer
driver setup error. Operation could not be completed (error 0x800f214)"
I haven't seen this problem among the posts, so maybe it's something
ridiculously simple, but I don't know what it is.

 

[Guest]

Drivers for XP don't always work for Vista and vice versa. You will need to
download the drivers for Vista for the printer mentioned.

 

[Guest]

Yeah. That was the first thing I did... are you saying I should try
installing the Vista driver on the XP machine?

 

[Guest]

try this on the Vista machine

1) using the Add Printer Wizard, add a local printer.
2) Create a new port, and select 'Local Port'
3) when prompted for the port name, enter '\\<XP Computer>\<Printer Name>
4) provide the vista driver for the printer

 

[Mark R. Cusumano]

This works great, I've added several printers attached to XP machines on my
Vista laptop. Not sure why you just can do it directly but as long as it
worked was all I cared about.