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Installing an old, networked printer on Windows 7 or Vista (with the printer physically connected to a Windows XP machine)

I've got an old HP Deskjet 5550 that has served me faithfully over the years, so I haven't had the heart to toss it. I use it as a secondary printer every once in a while; it's physically connected to an old, crappy PC running Windows XP.

After installing Windows 7 on my nice PC, I had a heck of a time getting the networked printer to install on Windows 7. Every time I'd try to add it by searching for a networked printer, Windows 7 couldn't figure out the driver.

Here's the workaround. This should work for any printer that has this issue, I think.

1. Click the Start Menu, then on Devices and Printers.



2. In the upper left corner, click Add a Printer.



3. Counter-intuitively, click Add a local printer.



4. On the "Choose a printer port" screen, click Create a new port, and select Local port from the drop-down menu.



5. In the "Port Name" box, you have to type two forward slashes (\\), the name of the computer where the printer is, another forward slash (\), and then the name of the printer. So the whole thing looks like \\computer-name\printer-name.

Tip: to find the name of the computer and printer, go to Start, Devices and Printers, click Add a Printer, and then click Add a network, wireless, or Bluetooth printer. Windows will search for any networked printers, and will display the computer name and printer name of any it finds. Note the pertinent computer and printer name, and then cancel out of that screen. You can then use that information to enter in the "Port Name" box in step #5.

6. After you have entered the "port name", you can choose a driver.



7. On the "Type a printer name" screen, give it any name you want:



8. On the "Printer Sharing" screen, it's probably best to select the Do not share this printer option, since it's really already shared from another computer. If you want to get wild, though, why not try sharing it twice?



9. Click Finish on the last screen. To verify your new printer is installed, go to Devices and Printers again, and you'll see it in the list:

That's it! Well, maybe that seemed like a lot of work, but your antiquated printer will thank you for saving it from the garbage heap.

Tip: if you delete the printer and try to re-add it, it won't work, because Windows remembers the port. To delete the port, you have to go to printmanagement.msc, expand Print Servers, expand your local computer, and then click on Ports. Delete the appropriate port from the list on the right, and then restart the Print Spooler service using services.msc. For more info on that process, check out this forum.

Give me a shout in the comments section if you have any trouble.