Printer Not Present In Virtual Machine

OR - it's possible that the USB connection is meant for connection to a router as an alternative to wireless, in which case it still will not be accessible directly from XP. As I said earlier I'm not familiar with that type of network printer as I use one that connects directly to my PC, not to my router, and can be accessed from my VM.

 

THIS might help you to attach your network printer as a local printer in Win 7. Once attached as a local printer hopefully it will appear in the XPVM. No certainty though. Other than that it's a case of reverting to trying again to get file and printer sharing working between the VM and Win 7.

I'm sure there are others here who could help with this printer problem but after more than 50 posts no one new is likely to join this thread so it might be worth creating a new one.

 

Earthling,
Thanks again for all of your help, and for sticking with it for as long as you did. FYI: I tried using a USB cable for the printer, but that didn't work either.

I called HP Tech help, and got free assistance under Warranty. The tech remotely connected to my computer, used the same setup (add printer in control panel) with the following differences from what I did:

1. In the wireless setup, he used a substitute driver from the drop down list, and then renamed the printer after installation. You'll recall that my printer model was not shown on the drop down list.

2. He looked up the printer's IP address using the printer's touchpad. Critical, because its IP address had somehow changed since I installed it last year. The IP address which I used in the installation was no longer valid. I had this recorded, along with other critical information.

So, these 2 key items enabled successful installation.

So now I have the printer, my expensive program, and use of a USB thumb drive if I need to grab files from my Win 7 machine. I have access to the "public" folder in XP from the Win 7 computer. I won't screw with the sharing any more because that's where things went very badly last time, and I had to start over again.

 

That's good news Joe I was always certain that the VM route was the right way to go, but not too sure at all about setting up the network printer so it would be available to the VM. So hats off to HP on that one and congrats for finally getting this project over the finishing line.