Network printing from Windows to an OSX-connected device

Oct2010

Consider the following hardware configuration: First, you have a printer connected via USB to a mac-based computer. That computer has a wireless connection to your router. Second, you have a Windows (XP or Windows 7) computer that also has a wireless connection to your router.

You want to print from your Windows computer to the printer connected to your Mac. When you try to add the printer via the Add Printer Wizard in Windows, you receive the “could not find driver” error.

I ran into this problem several times when we moved into our new place. And the solution is simple: Use Bonjour Print Services for Windows. Rather than messing around with “Local Ports” and “Custom Drivers,” Bonjour makes it easy and I wish I had found out about it sooner.

Install Bonjour on your Windows computer. Once launched, it will search for available printers – importantly, the one connected to your Mac. That’s all there is to it.