1 common problem I have run into with clients is trying to share a printer connected to a Windows XP machine with Windows 7/eight/10. There are lots of people out there that have USB continued printers attached to one computer, sometimes fifty-fifty a Windows XP machine.

If you lot get a new laptop running Windows vii/8/10, it makes sense to share that printer and then that any computer can print to it. Unfortunately, trying to print to a shared printer on XP from Windows 7/8/10 is not as simple as information technology should exist!

In this article I volition walk you through the steps for XP to Windows 7/viii/x printer sharing. I am assuming your printer is directly attached to a Windows XP machine and you want to print from a Windows seven/8/10 machine.

Setup Printer Sharing

Step i: First make sure that the printer on the XP automobile is shared. You lot can do this past right-clicking on the printer and choosing Sharing.

share printer xp to 7

Click the Share this printer radio push and give your printer a share name. Brand sure is less than eight characters and does non comprise any symbols.

share printer

Step two: Brand certain you lot can run into the printer share from the network browsing area in Windows 7/8/10. You can do this past going to Command Panel and clicking on Network and Internet.

win 7 to xp printer sharing

And so click on View network computers and devices nether Network and Sharing Center.

printer sharing win 7

At this point, yous should see the name of your XP computer in the listing of computers. My XP motorcar is called Aseem.

network printer sharing

Double-click on the figurer name and you should see your shared printer in the list. Here you lot can try to add the printer by right-clicking on it and choosing Connect.

connect to printer

If everything goes perfectly, Windows 7/8/10 should automatically add together the printer to your set up of printers. All the same, if y'all get a message like "Cannot connect to printer", follow the adjacent steps.

Step three: Click on Start and and then click on Devices and Printers. At the top, click on the Add a printer link.

add printer win 7

Step four: Adjacent choose Add together a local printer. Yes, that sounds counter-intuitive, but this is what you have to do!

local printer win 7

Step v: Next, click Create a new port and cull Local port from the listing of options.

create new local port

Pace six:  Click Next and in the Port proper noun box, type in the path to the shared printer. Information technology should exist something like \\Aseem\HPXP, where Aseem is the proper name of your XP automobile and HPXP is the shared proper noun of the printer.

printer share name

Step 7: Now choose the printer driver from the list or download the latest driver for the printer and choose Have Disk. Note that if you printer is a little older, it's a good idea to download the Windows vii/8/x driver for the printer and earlier clicking Accept Disk.

add prin to win 7

That's it! Windows vii/eight/10 will load the commuter and you'll be able to impress to the XP machine from Windows 7/8/10! The main things to remember are sharing the XP printer and downloading the latest commuter for the printer on the Windows vii/eight/x auto.

If you have any issues sharing your printer on XP and printing from Windows 7/8/ten, post a comment here and I will try to help! Savour!