General

This article describes how to use a printer that is connected to another computer in your network.

The following instructions should work in all newer versions of Windows including Vista. There are other ways to find and connect to a network printer, for example using the Printer Install Wizard, and you may or may not have to install the printer driver locally.

With some printers you don't get the full functionality without installing the driver on each client computer. But first try to use the printer without installing the printer driver on each client computer.

Connecting to the printer port

1. Open the Control Panel and find the printers.
2. Right click on the new printer.
3. In the context menu, select: Properties
4. Select: Ports
5. Click on: Add port
6. Select: Local port (Crazy? Yes, but otherwise it would be too easy. :-)
7. Click on: New port
8. As the name of the port enter your computer and printer share name in the following format, beginning with two backslashes and substituting your actual computer and printer share names: \\computername\printername
9. Click twice on: OK

Try printing on the new network printer and test it thoroughly. If your printer options are insufficient or if it doesn't work at all, you may have to install the printer driver on each client computer. Only in that case proceed as follows.

Installing the printer driver on the client computer

1. Install the printer driver on your computer.
2. The installation may ask you to connect the printer to your computer. But since you don't want to do this, reject this option.
3. If the driver refuses to install without the printer connected to this computer, do connect the printer to this computer temporarily. Put it back after the driver is installed.
4. After the printer driver installation is complete, go back to the previous chapter above and perform the steps again to connect to the remote printer port.
5. Make sure you never buy anything from the manufacturer of this printer again.

Background information

File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista