atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories remote desktop printing

I have two Windows Vista PC's, and I connect from PC A to PC B via Remote Desktop. Connected to PC A, is a Brother USB printer. While connected to PC B, there are instances where I would like to print what I am working with on PC B to the Brother printer on PC A. In my remote desktop setup, I have checked Printers under the local resources tab, but when I connect...my printer does not show up in my printers list. This did work with the old HP Deskjet 842 that I had. Any ideas what I may be doing wrong?

Is the driver for the Brother installed on the connecting PC?

Justin

You need a matching driver on both ends.

Does the printer have sharing enabled?

Print sharing is not turned on. How do I install the print driver for the printer on PC B, without the printer physically being present to install it?

After you turn on print sharing on PC A, and then try to access the printer from PC B - it should automatically transfer the required driver files to PC B from PC A.

Do workgroup names etc. need to be the same on both machines, or is that not an issue if going thru remote desktop?

It's generally better to keep them the same, but if you can RDC from one desktop to another I don't _think_ it should matter. Can you see the printer on PC B, after having enabled it for sharing (via printer properties) on PC A?

I enabled print sharing on PC A, but it still does not show up on PC B. Any other suggestions? PMCook mentioned having matching drivers on both ends. How would I go about installing the correct driver on PC B, without the printer actually being at that site?

I don't have an answer for that, other than temporarily moving the printer over to PC B from PC A.

Assuming you can't do that, the driver will probably require that it can see the printer before it installs anything, so I don't know how you would do it.

I still think the key is to be able to "see" the printer before worrying about the drivers.

Let's take remote desktop out of the equation for the moment. Assuming you were sitting in front of PC B, you should still be able to print to PC A, completely outside of remote desktop.

So, in this situation, I'd try:

1) As you mentioned earlier, make sure both PC's are on the same workgroup, rebooting as needed.

2) Sitting in front of PC B, go to control panel -> printers.

3) Select "Add a printer".

4) Select "Add a network printer"

5) Wait while windows searches for available network printers. There's a chance it will find PC A, and the printers on it, and from there you would select it and the drivers should automatically install.

6) If it didn't find it, then select "The printer that I want isn't listed".

7) In the next dialog, you can either type the machine name, followed by the printer name (e.g. \\PC A\BrotherPrinter) or, you can hit the Browse button.

8) If you had to hit the browse button, you should see PC A listed. From there you should be able to select PC A, and the printer should be listed as a shared resource under it, you should then be able to select it, and then the drivers will install.

9) You should be able to go back to PC A now, remote in to PC B, and the printers on PC A will still be listed, just as if you were still sitting in front of it.

I know there were alot of "shoulds" in the above steps. The reason for this, and what's got me scratching my head is you'd mentioned you had this working before, only with a different printer - that tells me your network is set up properly for remote printing.

Give the "Add a printer" option a shot, and we'll go from there.