It’s a miracle that people running XP/Vista can ever get anything done. As friends of mine will know our house is all Mac except for my girlfriend’s HP notebook (which, inexplicably, doesn’t shut down when you close it… but that’s another story). Since I’m sharing a printer, my HP OfficeJet 6200 series, from an Apple Airport Extreme connected to my home network, one would think this would have been a piece of cake. But oh-ho!
The networking stuff used to be the hard part, but Apple’s bonjour makes it easy. But as for installing the correct drivers, the Windows world knows no delimiters of common sense.. Two hours later I had performed the correct sequence of incantations and solved the problem so I thought I’d share the misery with you here in the hopes of saving you an hour or so.
To save the rest of us the same nightmare I endured, here’s how you do it. Note that this assumes you already have Bonjour printing working for the Macs in your household. That’s actually fairly intuitive to set up and I need not cover it here. Here goes:
-  You need a driver since whatever printer you’re going to use is likely not a part of your Windows install. Go to the HP web site and download their giant bloatware driver pack for your Windoze box.
- Gone are the days when you could just locate the driver someplace and have Windows install it normally. Once the above pack has exploded itself into your hard drive, you need to “fool” XP into installing the driver. Plug your Windoze machine directly into the printer via USB (hope it’s a laptop!). It should detect the printer and automagically install the drivers. Once done, “Print Test Page” to make sure it works.
- Don’t delete this printer yet, but go ahead and unplug the USB. Instead, install the Bonjour drivers for Windows on to your Windows XP box.
- Open the “Add Printer” tool from the Bonjour folder that now appears in your Start menu. If you’re still connected to the network and the printer’s again connected to whatever Apple device is sharing the printer, your computer should detect it. Since the driver has also been installed, the appropriate driver, in my case “HP OfficeJet 6200 series”, should appear as an option.
- Delete the USB printer and make the Bonjour printer the default from within the Windows “Printers & Fax” menu item.
That’s pretty-much it. It only took me two hours to figure out how to fool Windows into installing the driver, as I couldn’t seem to mine it directly from within the installer or the folders HP placed the drivers into (which I still can’t dig up).
On to my next battle.. hope this helps!
-Ian.
Amazing! Thank you so much for your post! I have an old PC and an old hp deskjet 3650 as well as a new Macbook and Airport Extreme. For some reason I couldn’t update the printer drivers using the disks or hp website on my PC (running Windows XP). I tried for 4 long dreadful hours. Then I came across your post, downloaded Bonjour and viola was able to add my printer in a matter of seconds. Super easy. Super fast after wasting 4hrs with hp disk, website!
What are you talking about? Windows works just as it should. Here is my story: After having nothing but Mac’s since 1986, I purchased an inexpensive PC Laptop running Windows 7 for the sole purpose of doing corporate taxes. In my office, I have two printers; a wireless HP All-in-One and a Brother Laser printer that is connected via USB to an Apple AirPort.
After completing the taxes, I needed to print a copy. Since it was all text, I figured I would connect to the Laser Printer. Certainly, it should be easier than connecting to a wireless printer. I found an icon on the PC to add devices and clicked on a button that said something like “Add a Printer.” I clicked it and then I think I chose an option that said “Auto Detect.” It found the Brother printer. I clicked on the Brother Model # and then had to pick a driver. I inserted the Brother Disc and picked the driver. All told, it only took about about 10 minutes. I actually thought to myself “I wonder why so many people complain about connecting stuff to a Windows computer. This couldn’t have been easier.” I then clicked the button that said “Print Test Page.” In a matter of seconds, out came the test page from the HP PRINTER! I am sure happy that my taxes are done.
Yes! This worked. After I waded through your pro-Apple twaddle the actual instructions worked. I appreciate the time-saving.
I’m currently networking seven computers together on an airport express (both mac and pc) and all I’ve had to do on the windows machines are install bonjour from the CD provided and click through a wizard.
The network I set up yesterday was on an airport express and I just chucked an ethernet cable into the printer and router and all windows pc’s were printing to it in within 10 minutes.
I’m really not sure what your on about when you talk about the incantations needed to hook up a “windoze” machine to a network printer. You probably just arn’t very good at IT.
And your girlfriends machine won’t power down when you close the lid because you need to change the power preferences in the control panel. I have my laptop set to not shut down when I close the lid so I can hook it up to a speaker system at parties and put it away safely.
Let go of this stupid war between apple and windows, they are both equally a bunch of wankers we have to deal with to get our work done, just try learning a bit more.
Thanks for the info, it was really helpful.
I do have to agree with thumpky though. If Microsoft created software for Mac OS that didn’t work properly, everyone would put MS down. However, Apple writes software for Windows that doesn’t work and somehow it’s MS fault again?
I like Mac’s, but this ‘Windows is evil’ crap is just getting old. End of the day, the world needs a more open OS platform. People can write software very easily on Windows, and a lot of businesses need that. On the other hand, Macs are great and I can see why people choose to use them.
Windows has it’s place, so does Mac. Why does there have to be this juvenile war? I just don’t get it.
So lets summarize. You’re angry at Windows for how it behaves when Apple Software is running on it using a proprietary Apple network protocol ( Bonjour ).
Apple should fix, or at least document these problems and limitations.
I’ve had problems with Bonjour in the past. With my last HP printer, Windows could print to it over an AirPort express but my Mac could not ( tho it could print when plugged in via USB! ).
I’ve had the same problem as Pais when using Bonjour for Windows; sometimes the initial installation completes but the Bonjour Printer Wizard is absent or doesn’t work. I do hope Apple attends to this bug in their software. But once Bonjour is working it’s smooth as silk. One of our faculty has never used a Mac, but I set him up with an Airport Extreme (802.11n) for his home just so he could share his USB printer easily. Mac toting houseguests will approve, too.
that was so useful. i have been trying to figure out how ot print off my mac network printers on a windows laptop for ages. thanks for the easy to follow tips!!
I don’t know if anyone is still following this string, but I hope so. My problem is very similar (or the same) as several described previously. My HP Officejet L7780 works fine w/the iMac via Time Capsule/AirPort. My old Dell Inspiron 700m is still struggling. I’ve loaded/unloaded/re-loaded the Time Capsule disk and it seems to be installed correctly. However, I can’t locate a “Bonjour Print Wizard” anywhere. I found the following on the Apple Support page as it relates to running Bonjour on PCs:
“Bonjour for Windows includes a plugin to discover advertised HTTP servers using Internet Explorer. Click the Bonjour icon in the Internet Explorer toolbar to enable Bonjour browsing. If you have Bonjour devices on your local network with embedded HTTP (Web) servers, they will appear in the list.” I don’t see a Bonjour icon in the Internet Explorer toolbar or anywhere else. I’m at wits end…
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Thank you sooo much! We are all mac too except my wife. Stupid windows. This was VERY helpful!
Thanks. Not hard, but it sure takes time. But now my BootCamp MacBook has a printer!
Thanks for the tip! We are an all Mac household except for my work PC. This is going to make my life much easier.
Thanks for the helpful hints, Ian! Some people may profit from my experience. My HP Mini netbook came with a bonjour folder already installed, and when I ran the bonjour installer it asked me if I wanted to “repair” bonjour. I ran the program twice and still couldn’t locate anything like the “bonjour printer wizard”. Realizing that I was dealing with that crock o’dreck we call Windows, I UNINSTALLED bonjour, using the “bonjour installer” and then REINSTALLED IT. Suddenly voila! There was the bonjour printer wizard on my desktop. I ran it and it worked.
If it takes 10 minutes on a Mac, it’ll take 10 hours on windows. Ask me about linking to networks at my workplace.
Thanks for the tip on uninstalling Bonjour – I had to do this too to get it to work. Otherwise everything else in Ian’s tutorial worked with the exception of “Delete the USB printer and make the Bonjour printer the default from within the Windows “Printers & Fax†menu item.” I couldn’t get Bonjour to show up, but it turns out I didn’t need to do anything as the printer just showed up in the print dialog window. As long as it works I am happy, but what a pain!
Ian,
I’ve tried everything you and Tim T recommended, but to no avail. Some of what you describe doesn’t come up in the latest version of Bonjour for Windows, e.g., the “add printer” tool from the Bonjour folder. I have an EPSON Stylus CX4800 printer connected to an AirPort Extreme base station. It prints fine from my MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard and the latest driver for it from EPSON. The old Dell 733r running XP Home with all the service packs installed can’t even see the printer on the network. It’ll print fine when it’s directly connected to the Dell via USB. I even installed the latest version of Java and did a repair install of Bonjour–still won’t work. Any suggestions?
Ian,
I had to add one more step I had to go under the printer properties for my canon mx310 printer that bonjour recognized and added and then go to the port tab, and add a new standard TCP/IP Port port with the address 10.0.1.1, and then my test page printed. Thanks for getting me pointed in the right direction.
Ian; many thanks for the windows/bonjour hook-up procedure. In two largely fruitless days of attempting to install my airport express-connected hp printer to an acer netbook, the only thing I could even guess at was that the successive failures somehow concerned bonjour. I then stumbled across your article and the directions worked perfectly. Thanks again for the help!
Steve Evans
Thanks mate! I was really in need of this article, it made my day! (Y)
I usually do not comment on blog posts but I found this quite interesting, so here goes. Thanks! Regards, P.
Thank-you simply does not say it. Mega thank-you’s might begin to express the gratitude for your post. My battle is finally over and I can now begin my day at 3:41 pm. You having kept me from falling over the edge!! Thanks for the fabulous life-saving!!! 😉
I can find the printer with Bonjour for windows but when I try to print, I get a “you don’t have enough memory message”. Anybody got any ideas?
Thanks
doug kent
Both Mac and PC use TCP/IP. Bonjour runs over TCP/IP. CIFS runs over TCP/IP. If you want things to work together, adopt a common standard. I don’t care who writes it, just make it standard.
Ian,
I was having the same problem as above (probably why I Googled and found your tip) and it has solved my problem. Thank you for your help it was greatly appreciated.
The dominant networking technology is TCP/IP, and it was definitly not written by Microsoft.
It’s also a shame that Mac won’t just use the dominant networking technology written by Microsoft. But no. That would be too easy.
Thanks for this .. I just used the bonjour add printer wizard with a Lexmark driver .. but this was the only place that had some decent instructions. Pity Windows can’t just play nice and use an open protocol like Bonjour built in.
Thank you for saving us the trouble you went through. 🙂 Appreciate it, buddy!
Thank you for this post! Worked flawlessly and saved me quite a bit of time.
Thanks again.
Well it must work with your printer because on Vista Bonjour works fine, but on XP it doesn’t. FYI Windows XP printer download install for HP is much smaller then the HP drivers (wait! I thought Macs didn’t use drivers) size for Macs. I like Macs I have one, but Windows is efficient.
Thanks a million: exactly as you described, so clearly.
Thanks for the great information. I ran into this problem today and could not figure it out at all, so this will definitely help out a bunch!
Thanks!
@braulio
I’m the same mate, I can send things to be printed on the mac but they don’t print, their status is ‘stopped’ when I look at the print queue on the mac. Did you manage to get anything sorted?
Thank you for the post is very help, however I can’t get it to work… everything seems fine, I followed the steps you gave, the printer is found no problem, I send something to print everything seems fine but… it never prints! any tips?
Braulio,
did you ever get your printer to print using Bonjour? ref your response to Ian in 2008.
thanks.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been leaving this work until the Christmas holidays to figure out. I will try it sooner than later! Thanks so much. I have really enjoyed reading your blog.
Yay! you’re the man. I wasted 2 hours and then found your post and it worked!