New to Mac Windows Parallel Questions

[masonfoley]

First time to the site, brand new Mac User. I'm a photographer who is transitioning from Windows to the Mac, but having real problems with Mac's new Intel Processor. Not that the processor is poor, but new drivers are either non-existant or difficult to set up.

Is there a question already on this site that I can go to for information using Windows Parallel?

My thought is I might need it to drive my Fuji and Epson printers.

I also have concerns about what parallel might do to the Mac considering Apple will not give any guidance on the issue.

I would appreciate any advice in this matter.

 

[dkp]

Your Mac uses the Open Source Common Unix Printing System (CUPS). More information can be found here: http://www.cups.org/ and you may be surprised to see you have a web server running on your Mac to manage it at http://localhost:631/. There are a lot of drivers for CUPS systems and perhaps your printers are included. But even if they are not, there are surely drivers for Windows for your printer and they will allow you to print from Windows at least.

Printers are an interesting problem in virtual machine environments. It can be used direct connected to either OS X or by the virtual machine, but not both at the same time. The solution to printing from both is rather elegant and simple. Apple has created a tool for Windows called Bonjour and you can download it from apple.com. The sequence to follow is:

1. Connect your printer to OS X.
2. Install OS X drivers for your printer. If drivers are not available for OS X from Apple, try the CUPS site. If that fails then you may be able to print using a near-fit driver. If everything fails and no drivers are available at all for OS X, use the CUPS interface to create a "raw" printer and Windows can use it.
3. Use the OS X system manager to share it out
4. Install Bonjour in Windows
5. In Windows, connect to the shared printer using the Bonjour wizard
6. If OS X drivers were found in 2. the printer info will be shared with Windows which should autoload the correct drivers. If not, then manually install the correct drivers.

This worked well for me for the last year or so I've been using Parallels. But it always bothered me that there were no proper OS X drivers for my HP printer and scanner. I finally decided to purchase a new combo printer/scanner/copier/fax machine from HP and which also has a wireless interface. That works perfectly and native driver support for both OS X and Windows is available in the box.

 

[John Howard]

2. Install OS X drivers for your printer. If drivers are not available for OS X from Apple, try the CUPS site. If that fails then you may be able to print using a near-fit driver. If everything fails and no drivers are available at all for OS X, use the CUPS interface to create a "raw" printer and Windows can use it.

The printer manufacturer may also have Mac OS X drivers. I acquired my Brother and Epson drivers that way.

My Brother MFC-4800 is connected to my Airport Extreme base station. Using Bonjour for Windows I can print wirelessly from my VM to the Brother even though this particular brother is not "rated" as wireless-capable.

Bottom line: printing from VM can work very well if setup is done correctly.