Is a Window's only printer able to print on the mac side?

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by Tw0Bit, Sep 17, 2008.

  1. Tw0Bit

    Tw0Bit Bit poster

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    I just got parallels for my mbp and I'm using Windows XP.

    I have a Canon imageclass MF3110 printer/scanner. It only has windows drivers. I have set it up on the windows side and I am able to print things on the windows side.

    What I want to do is print things on the mac side using this printer. Is there such a way? I've tried setting up printer sharing on the windows side and looking for it in the finder on the mac side, but that didn't work. Is this possible? It would also be nice to scan stuff on the mac side, which I can already do on the windows side.
     
  2. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

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  3. Tw0Bit

    Tw0Bit Bit poster

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    Ok so I got kind of far in that tutorial. Everything was making sense and nothing really was confusing until i got to the end of step 3. I went to print a test page using the made up printer, but nothing came out. Printing a test page with my real printer worked.

    I'm thinking this is because of the text string I had to type into the field called "Argument's for this Program are". I put in that field this text string: -printer "CanonMF3110" -copies 1 -color - . My working printer is called CanonMF3110. The tutorial says if you are having trouble to throw the "-copies 1" entry in. I did that and nothing works.

    Help, I've tinkered around and its not working. I might try going on the with tutorial to see if anything happens, but let me know if you know whats going on. Thanks
     
  4. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

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    I am not sure about string to place, may be you can contact Canon support?
     
  5. Tw0Bit

    Tw0Bit Bit poster

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    i don't think this has to do with Canon
     
  6. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

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    They may be aware of some tricks
     
  7. tonycarreon

    tonycarreon Member

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    Printing from OS X to a parallels / winxp printer should work the same as if XP was installed on another computer. You'll want to make sure File And Printer Sharing is installed in XP. Try setting the printer up through OS X's printer setup utility adding the printer as a "Windows" printer. Additionally you might try installing Bonjour in your XP instance.

    Is there a reason you're not installing the printer in OS X ( I assume it's a windows only printer ) but Canon might have OS X drivers (ha!).

    This is something that's given me grief from time to time and I wish Parallels had a generic printer like they do with most other devices that would allow me to print from Parallels to OS X.

    So far the only solution I have found that works for me is to install a PDF printer driver in XP and print everything to PDF then print that PDF in OS X.

    Any word on if this feature could be added ( or is planned ) for a future release, namely printing to a pseudo-printer from Parallels to OS X?
     
  8. Tw0Bit

    Tw0Bit Bit poster

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    There isn't an OSX driver for this printer. I have tried bonjour and nothing. Setting up printer sharing doesn't really do anything. You idea of PDFs is kind of interesting though. I could make a PDF of something I want to print in OSX and then move the pdf to windows and print it. That could be a temporary solution
     
  9. tonycarreon

    tonycarreon Member

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    yeah if the printer is working as expected in windows the simplest solution may be to print to pdf in os x and then print to the printer in windows.
     
  10. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

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    One little note, for (Printing from OS X to a parallels / winxp printer should work the same as if XP was installed on another computer.).
    In case if VM is in Bridged mode
     
  11. tonycarreon

    tonycarreon Member

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    You're saying it wouldn't work if the VM is in Shared or Host-only networking?
     
  12. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

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    You will not be able to print to Windows Printer in this case from another Mac
     
  13. tonycarreon

    tonycarreon Member

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    but would the mac that is running parallels / windows be able to print to that windows printer?
     
  14. John@Parallels

    John@Parallels Forum Maven

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    Yes, if you connect by IP listing in
    ipconfig /all in Windows
    But you need driver for that printer
     
  15. tonycarreon

    tonycarreon Member

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    cool. thanks for clearing that up!
     

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