I, too, am having problems printing. It takes minutes to do do something that normally takes seconds. I saw a thread that said Bonjour is the answer. I installed it, but it is basically worthless. The printer dialog has none of the normal settings for my Epson R1800. Is there some trick to getting a printer installed that actually uses the proper printer driver? Rick
Please take a look at this link for step-by-step instructions. http://forum.parallels.com/thread9900.html
I can see where that may work, and I have the experience/expertise to do that. That is a very involved, non-friendly procedure. BUT, with all due respect, I find that unacceptable. Could you explain the reason why Parallels cannot simply connect to a USB printer with the real printer driver? Only then would Parallels be living up to its claim of easy USB connectivity. Thanks... Rick
I am wondering about that myself but for some reasons, Parallels could not make it work for many printers.
Why do you want to connect your printer directly to Windows? Surely it's far more convenient to share it between the two OSs?
Having a printer server in a multiple OS/user environment serializes print jobs from the various users/systems so that they don't step on one another. In addition, some very smart printers have very dumb software on them, and each client it is installed on thinks it and it alone lords over the target printer. Some smart printer software polls the printer from time to time to see if it needs new ink cartridges, etc. A single printer server minimizes this noise and also prevents these polls from coming in on the middle of a printjob that is already running. Finally, it is a very intelligent way to manage resources that were never designed for a multi-machine environment.
To take another crack at your question, it sounds like you are not familiar with the concept of virtual machines. Parallels can, quite easily, connect to a USB printer with the real windows printer driver. It just cannot do so while another computer is attached to the printer. Picture that you have a real OSX machine sitting on your desk. It has a real USB adapter and a real printer attached. Now picture that you have a virtual windows machine sitting beside your OSX machine on your desk. Can it print to the printer? No, because it is not attached. You must unplug the USB cable from the OSX machine, and plug it into the XP machine. You might even have to reboot the printer. Fortunately, with Parallels, this business of having to unplug the cable and replug it into your VM can be done through software. You just have to go to Parallels/Devices/USB and click on the printer you want to use. This tells Parallels to unhook the printer from the OSX machine and to attach it to the XP VM. You will not be able to print from OSX until you release the printer (or power down your VM). If you think about it, it has to work this way. Sometimes you want the printer attached to OSX and sometimes you want the printer attached to windows. But how would Parallels know this unless you tell it? Murphy's law ensures that the printer will always be attached in the opposite place to where you currently need it. The Bonjour solution solves this issue by making the OSX machine a printer server, so that both machines can print to the printer with no muss, no fuss and no reconnections. But the USB option is there if you want it.
I understand all of that very well. It is unacceptable, though, to have a printer (my R1800) function fine in OSX, but have a severely limited capability in Parallels by using some GENERIC driver. It allows me access to about 10% of the printer's capabilities. How is that COOL? A NETWORK printer that is shared can use the native driver with most of the functionality intact. Why can't Parallels? Rick
I use an HP 7780 printer and I also use Bonjour, and Windows uses HP drivers for the 7780 and prints perfectly. It also faxes and photocopies and scans perfectly, too. Bonjour does not require you to use a generic driver. But it does allow you to print to printers for which you have no specific drivers.
The steps I described in the other thread uses Windows native printer driver, not generic driver. You should get 99% of the R1800 capability including CD label printing. The only thing you cannot do is to monitor ink level.
Here is yet another way to print, using a new feature in 3.0...a virtual printer using a virtual parallel printer port. Parallels Knowledge Base Article
