HP provides download of a Windows 7 driver for an HP LaserJet 2300 which installs fine for a local printer. However, with the printer installed on a workgroup XP computer, the HP driver Install program is hijacked by the Windows 7 Add a Printer tool which searches for a driver in its database, then goes to Windows Update, and returns with no driver found. Browse attempts to point the tool to the driver installed for the local printer have been unsuccessful. Any ideas?

Have you tried installing “additional drivers”? http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/print_drivers_install_additional.mspx?mfr=true Santhosh Sivarajan | MCTS, MCSE (W2K3/W2K/NT4), MCSA (W2K3/W2K/MSG), CCNA, Network+ Houston, TX http://blogs.sivarajan.com/ http://publications.sivarajan.com/ This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi, Is the HP printer connected to the Windows 7 machine or Windows XP machine directly now? If the machine is plugged on Windows 7 machine directly, I suggest you refer to the following article to share a network printer to Windows XP machine. Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP Note: The third-party product discussed here is manufactured by a company that is independent of Microsoft. We make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability. If there is any error message, please post it here for further research. Thanks, Novak

Dan from the windwos 7 PC Browse tot he XP box with the shared print, highlight the printer and right click, now click connect. give a few mins to find and install the driver and when it is done you should have no problem printing

The printer is attached to the XP machine in the workgroup. When Windows 7 attempts to add the printer as a network printer, my understanding is that it first tries to download the driver it needs from the sharing machine (in this case, the XP. Note that this works with newer printers where drivers for XP, Vista 32, etc. are included with the printer CD). If the driver needed isn't there, Windows 7 looks at the drivers it already has. If not there, it checks Windows Update to see if the driver is available there. If not, it asks for manual intervention, e.g. CD, Browse. In this case I know the driver exists within the Windows 7 system because I was able to install the printer as a local printer using the HP download and its Install exec. Unfortunately, I can't locate the driver via a search of the system (the Windows 7 Search function doesn't seem to be anywhere close to the exhaustive search you can do with XP or Vista). Regardless, the HP Install exec also provides the option to install the printer as a network printer. However, once you select that option, Windows 7 seems to hijack (preempt) the HP Install exec and take over, using the process described above, i.e. scanning the XP machine for the driver, looking through its own resources, going to Windows Update, etc. If you know how I can determine where the driver resides on the Windows 7 system (e.g. how to do a more exhaustive search or where printer drivers are normally kept), pointing directly to the driver via Browse would probably solve the problem.

Hi, Based on your description, I understand that the networking printer driver cannot be installed on Windows 7 when it is connected to Windows XP machine directly. If I was misunderstood, please feel free to let me know. At this stage, I suggest you perform the following steps to troubleshoot the issue. 1. Click “Start”, “Devices and Printers”. 2. Click “Add a printer”. 3. Choose “Add a local printer” and click on “Create a new port”. 4. Select “Local Port” and click “Next”. 5. Type in "[\\computer name\printer name]" (without quotation marks) for the Port Name and click “OK”. Example: If the computer you wish to connect to is named ComputerA and the printer is called PrinterA then the path would be \\ComputerA\PrinterA 6. Please select a correct driver from the list. If the model is not listed, please click the “Windows Update” button. Wait for the process finishes and try to find the driver again. Thanks, Novak

Interesting. Note that the printer in question is an HP LaserJet 2300 PCL 6. I know from looking for a 2300 driver by going the "Local Printer" route that the only printer driver available from Windows 7 (and that via Windows Update) is for a LaserJet 2300 PCL 5. Even though this driver will work to my satisfaction for the printer, Windows 7 won't pick it up when going the "Network Printer" route and I can't find a way to force it or trick it (for example, I tried renaming the printer 2300 PCL 5 on the XP system). Thanks for the tip. I'll give this a try, of course.

Appears to work. Followed your recommendation and selected the PCL 5 driver which was available via Windows Update. Thanks, Novak.

i was about to suggest the same. as Novak cause i overcam exactly your problem using the same method. Give him a vote of thanks - why not ? I mean click on the vote as helpful button - why not ? also while you are there click on Propose as answer - why not.

Hi, I know I'm a bit late on this path, but I have a similar problem that unfortunately the above method doesn't resolve. I have an old HP LaserJet 8000 directly connected via the serial port to a Windows XP machine. I have a new Windows 7 machine that doesn't see this shared/network printer. I have tried adding it on the Windows 7 machine as a network printer via the Add Printer functionality but it doesn't find the driver. I downloaded drivers from HP, but no success. I've tried adding it as a local printer and specifying the port name as \\COMPUTERA\HP LaserJet 8000 Series PCL and it comes up with an error message 'The network name cannot be found'. I notice that there is an option 'HP Universal Print Monitor' on the Type of port: drop down list. Selecting this option gives me an error 'Specified port cannot be added. Operation could not be completed (error 0x00000078)'. However if I use an existing port I CAN install the printer successfully - finding a driver via Windows Update. I also have another 3 XP machines on the network that see the printer without any problems. Any help gratefully received Cheers

Hi Novak, Thank you so much for this way around the issue... My Windows 7 Netbook would not install a network printer and I had tried everything. But this worked immediately! Thanks again! Micadan (Patty)