Cannot get Mac printers to work

After upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7, and Parallels Desktop from ver 8 to 9, my Mac printers no longer work. I have tried ALL of the suggestions I have found on various Parallels, Apple and Windows web sites, to no avail. I have an Intel iMac Core i7 using Mavericks.

I first checked the box to "Add all Mac Printers" in Configuration: Hardware: Print. When I did this, my Brother multifunction B&W laser printer and Cannon color inkjet both appeared in the Winows 7 "Devices and Printers" list, but they had the dreaded HP Color LaserJet 2800 Series PS driver. They both printed, but they didn't have the features I need like 2-sided printing, etc. When I selected "Printer properties" after control-clicking the printer's icon in the list, I was able to insert the correct drivers using the Advanced Tab of the Properties window, but then nothing at all would print. The print queues never got populated.

I deselected the "Add all Mac Printers" box and instead installed the Bonjour Printer Wizard. But I had to fight the wizard at each step of the process, from installation through getting it to proceed further and further through the process. Mostly it would start by showing my Mac printers, then "thinking" for quite a while before removing them and telling me there were no bonjour printers available. (I first DID set up Bonjour on the Mac side, both in the "Sharing" and the "Printers & Scanners" system prefs.) Then I tried various things. First I gave the wizard full admin privileges. After rebooting Windows 7 and rerunning the wizard and waiting a while longer for the computer to "think", it finally restored the list of my Mac printers. When I proceeded with the wizard, it would finally crash on the last step, confirmation. I tried this 5 or 6 times, with lots of reboots, etc. I also tried the approach of telling the wizard to run in compatibility mode, but that mode also erased all my printer icons after initially listing them and then told me I had no bonjour printers available.

I even tried adding a Printer to the Parallels Configuration: Hardware menu, but that printer also would not print.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Hi,
the behavior is by design.
When you "Add all Mac Printers" - there is basic Windows driver works (LaserJet 2800) - it OK.

The point is:
to have specific features of printers on Windows side you have to use native device driver (just install in in Windows) AND forward the printer to the Windows virtual machine through:
Devices -> USB -> name of the printer

Please note:
1) Printer has to be connected via USB
2) Forwarding printer to Windows will "take" it from Mac host, so Mac won't be able to print while you hold you printer under Windows
3) To release printer go again Devices -> USB -> name of the printer

 

Eugene,

Thank you for the response. I need all the help you can give me, and it is appreciated.

I am actually quite familiar that Parallels sets up certain default printer drivers "by design". But please be aware that they have NEVER, EVER, EVER worked on any of my computers, not in any version of Windows that I have used over the years as far back as Windows 98. Yes, I can print using them. But they fail to enable 2-sided printing and other features that my printers are capable of. I have participated in forums in years gone by to make them work, but have been left frustrated along with others in those forums. I was so happy when the Bonjour solution was implemented by Parallels.

In Windows XP I was able to successfully print using my Mac drivers by setting up Bonjour. I would really like to get help making Bonjour work for me now that I have been forced to update to Windows 7. I have documented my attempt, above.

Any help in this direction would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks.

Bud

 

Hi Bud, please check your private messages.

 

PROBLEM SOLVED. Thank you, Eugene.

Maria Golubeva of Parallels Support logged in to my computer yesterday and fixed the problem completely in about 15 minutes. She was extremely knowledgeable and friendly.

Earlier in the day I was finally able on my own to get Bonjour partially working. I can't be sure but in my previous attempts I may not have changed from Shared Network to Bridged network. Even after that I still had a lot of trouble when a myriad of printer icons showed up, all configured differently. The HP printer was the default and I was prevented from changing it. As it turns out, I had forgotten to uncheck "Add all Mac printers" as I mention above.

Maria quickly discovered my error, unchecked it, and rebooted Windows. When it finished rebooting, the myriad of duplicate and erroneous printer icons were gone, leaving just my pair of shared printers and one or two pdf printers that I had installed. Amazingly (to me), the HP generic drivers had magically morphed correctly into my Brother and Canon drivers, and all my advanced printer capabilities were now working. Apparently, that is the way it is designed to work by Parallels, but also apparently one has to have ALL of the configurations set correctly before that occurs.

I hope this will help others who are having this problem.

 

Hi Bud,

Thanks for feedback. I really glad that the issue is solved now.
Appreciate your cooperation and time.