Unable to print from parallels/win XP

I have used the Paralles Devices menu to select my printer but am unable to print. I am asked to install the hardware but I have already installed it and it is working perfectly on my mac OS.
Also on the bottom right corner in windows I have now seen a msg saying that new hardware has been detected.

When the printer pane on my Mac OS
Active (selected)Completed
stopping and Resetting a Virtual Machine
Page 1of 1
GenericClass waiting for device
Printing stopping and Resetting a Virtual Machine

Help appreciated as I don't know what else to do.

 

Download Bonjour for Windows from Apple.com and install it. It makes your Mac a printer server and allows Windows to attach to it. Printers are another device that doesn't like to be shared on two systems at the same time, and Bonjour is a great fix for the problem. You will be able to print from both your Mac and from Windows at the same time.

 

With my crash hat firmly on my head, and pedant mode engaged ... Bonjour is client software, and doesn't make your Mac a print server. You have to enable printer sharing in your Mac's Sharing and Printer preferences. I do agree that Bonjour for Windows is an excellent way to auto-configure your Win XP system to use the shared printer on your Mac, and is far better than trying to connect the printer directly to the Windows VM.

 

True - I was trying to be brief and to avoid a lot of technobabble. The entire process creates the server client relationship. Bonjour simplifies the process.

 

I knew you knew that

I guess I have reduced expectations of the capabilities of posters here to fill in the blanks in these situations.

 

I use CutePDF to save everything as a pdf first. I save it to the Mac side so I can use spotlight to index it.

Example:

\\.psf\.home\Documents\Printed Docs\print001.pdf

Then if I want to print it, I just print it from the Mac side

www.cutepdf.com

 

Thanks so much dkb and neosublime. I feel so much better to see how willing you are to help me. I don't know what I'd do otherwise as I have read all of the relevant parts of the Parallels manual & the Help online but I need a lot more assistance than offered there.
Bonjour
I have already downloaded Bonjour but have been reluctant to install it in case I end up with some conflict and even more problems. I was trying to get networking set up on my mac as the parallels manual states that to use a Network Printer is the most stable method. However, it does seem from all the posts that I really do need to use Bonjour , especially as it works so well with Windows. So here goes...

Problem
Can't download to pc desktop only the mac
FTP -have found (I think ?) and they are checked dkp.
Bonjour also downloaded to my mac desktop :-(

TCP/IP is checked in Local Area Connection Properties -General tab-Internet Protocol . The General tab accessed from Parallels didn't direct me where you said it should have.
neosublime
thanks for the idea to save files as a PDF. At least now I can print the files I download while using WIN XP (from the mac side) I didn't have to download anything to do that as I can just save to PDF but hadn't thought to do that while in windows. It has helped me ++ as a work around until I can get the printer working.

 

Can you drag and drop the Bonjour file to your Windows desktop?

 

Printing *should* simply work if you created your VM with Parallels 3.0 and have installed Parallels Tools. In my VM the printer shows up as "HP Color LaserJet 8500 PS" but actually prints to the default Mac OS X printer.

If you created your VM with an older version of Parallels, to setup Parallels for printing:

1. While your VM is not running go to the Edit menu and select "Virtual Machine...".
2. Press the "Add..." button.
3. Select "Parallel Port" and press the "Next >" button twice.
4. Press the "Finish" button.
5. Press the "OK" button.

 

Unable to Print
Bonjour is installed successfully .In Parallels devices my printer is selected. I chose to install Generic/Postscript but was told "You don't have sufficient access to your computer to connect to the selected printer" . It does list my brand of computer but not the model so I let it default to Generic/Postscript.
I do have Admin access and I had previously ticked Share Printers in the Shared folder in Systems (found via Spotlight)
dkb I also fpund FTP access there which is unchecked. Should I check it ? I might not be very technical but I instinctively agree with your posts about allowing windows the minimal amount of access (preferably none !) to the Mac OS . So... should I check both those shared boxes ?

 

You don't need to select the printer under devices. In fact, doing that will prevent the printer support from working. And you don't need to setup printer sharing or Bonjour or anything of the sort. One of the new features of Parallels 3.0 is the ability to pass all printing jobs over to a Mac OS X printer. When you are in OS window mode, at the bottom of the window there should be some icons. One of the icons should be a printer icon. If there is no printer icon then follow the instructions I posted to add it. Then when you go to print in Windows there should be a "HP Color LaserJet 8500 PS" printer available. Select that printer and try to print. It should print on your default printer in Mac OS X.

 

I have now unchecked all as suggested. The printer icon is ( and always has been) showing at the bottom in my task bar/Mac OS X. When I go to Windows there is no printer available on my vm Hard drive . As soon as I try to print I get a msg asking me to install the hardware. In Parallels devices I can see my printer .