Scott Hurring » HOWTO » Printing from OS X 10.4 to Windows XP

HOWTO
info
Released: Feb 16, 2006
Updated: Feb 16, 2006

Problem

I have a Samsung ML-2010 USB printer on my Windows XP desktop and i want to print to it from my OS X 10.4.5 laptop.

Theoretically this should work for just about any printer sharing from Windows XP to Mac OS X

Solution

Step 1: Windows Setup

1.1: Share the printer

Click on "Start" -> "Settings" -> "Printers and Faxes"

Highlight the printer, right-click and select "Sharing"

Enable sharing and give the printer a name... i used "Samsung" for mine becuase i'm creative like that.

1.2: Turn on "Print Services for UNIX"

Go to the "Control Panel"

Click on "Add or Remove Programs"

Click on (the left) "Add/Remove Windows Components"

Scroll down and check on "Other Network File and Print Services"

Click "Details" button and then check on "Print Services for Unix".

It's been mentioned on other sites you might need your original Windows XP disks, but i have a pre-load Dell and it didn't prompt me for anything

1.3: Make sure your firewall doesn't block printer sharing!

This depends on your firewall / security application, but please give it a once-over and make sure you're not blocking print sharing or else you're going to be ripping your hair out in about 10 minutes.

Step 2: Configure OS X

2.1: Driver install

Download and install the Mac OS X version of the printer drivers.

2.3: Run "Software Update" to latest OS X

Don't skip this if you're running anything less than 10.4.5: I had trouble with 10.4.4 throwing off "NT_STATUS_NO_MEMORY" errors and it turns out that there were some SMB bugs in 10.4.4 that were fixed with 10.4.5, so please update now if you need to.

2.2: Setup the printer

Go to "System Preferences" -> "Print & Fax"

Add a Printer (the "+" button)

Hold down ALT(option) key and click "More Printers"

Select "Advanced" and "Windows printer via SAMBA"

The Device URI should be something like: smb://user:pass@Workgroup/Machine/Printer

Then, choose the printer model and click "Add".

If you don't use this "Advanced" technique, you will most likely get NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED errors (see previous note)

Notes & Comments

(Aug 01, 2006)

" When I bought my first Mac the one thing I had a hard time with was getting my Mac to print to a printer connected to my XP machine. I went with the software available here: http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3 After that, it's been smooth sailing. All I had to do after installing the two packages downloaded from there was share the printer in XP then add the printer in system prefs on my Mac. "