~Say Bonjour to your Mac Printers in Windows
Posted by John Kendrick on January 26, 2008
I’ve received several questions recently from Parallels users about how to access Mac printers from within Windows, so this post will provide some guidance from my own experiences in that area.
This is a common issue in that Parallels does not automatically install Windows printer drivers or make the connections to those printers available within the Windows virtual machine. While there are a variety of ways printers can be installed, by far the easiest method is to use Bonjour for Windows. Bonjour is a free Apple application that uses industry standard IP protocols to allow devices to automatically discover each other without the need to configure complicated IP addresses and DNS servers.
Here are the steps to install Bonjour and make your Mac printers available to Windows.
- Make sure that the printers you want accessible in Windows are working from OS X. If not, install and test them in OS X first.
- Make sure that Printer Sharing is setup in OS X. Open System Preferences in OS X, select Sharing in the Internet and Network section. Check the box next to Printer Sharing and make sure the printer desired is checked. If you want to access printers that are connected to other OS X machines in your network, you will need to do this on each Mac with a printer connected to it.
- Start Parallels and your Windows virtual machine.
- Using Internet Explorer from within Windows, download and install the current version of Bonjour for Windows available free from the Apple website.
- After Bonjour for Windows is installed, go to each printer that you want to make accessible in Windows and make sure it is turned on and connected.
- Run the Bonjour Printer Wizard from within Windows by clicking on Start | All Programs | Bonjour | Bonjour Printer Wizard.
- Follow the steps in the wizard until it displays a list of your shared printers. All local and networked printers that are setup as shared printers in OS X will be displayed.
- Select the desired printer and click Next.
- Select Generic/Postscript in the model list for the printer you selected.
- Repeat steps 5 through 8 for any additional printers desired for the Windows environment.
Note: If you select a printer from the list of available printers and get a message that it is not accessible, it is probably turned off or has gone into sleep mode. Just turn it on, or wake it, and go through the steps again and it should be accessible.
That’s it. Saying hello to all your networked and local printers is easy with Bonjour!
Rosa Alves said
I installed Bonjour on a Windows XP computer to print with the old AppleLaserWriter12/640. First, I connected the printer to the computer with the cable. Then I added the local printer. I run the Bonjour Printer Wizard from within Windows and I could not find the printer on the list. Finally,I plugged the printer to the lan network and nothing happened either. Please help.. Thanks
jbkendrick said
Rosa,
Did you share the printer? If not, look at step 2 in the post “Say Bonjour to your Mac printers in Windows”. Is the printer working from Mac applications? After you get it running from within OS X, then make sure it is shared, and then try Bonjour again. Hope this helps, John.
Update 2/9/08 from Apple.com > Support > Discussions > Older Hardware Products > Apple Printers
The LaserWriter 12/640 is capable of Printing via either AppleTalk-over-Ethernet or LPR/LPD. Some Brand-X Routers do not support bridging AppleTalk packets from Wireless to Wired networks.
Your first step is to make sure every device has an IP Address, and that the IP addresses are on the same Subnet, based on the Subnet Mask being used by all parties.
Kathryn said
I’ve been struggling for a few days to get a Windows XP computer to print to two printers that are hooked up to a Porwerbook G4. Bonjour to the rescue. I downloaded it to the windows computer and it instantly recognized both of the printers. There were no issues with IPs, host or queue names. Being an Apple person since 1984, and Windows literate when I have to be, it was great to see that Apple made it possible for the XP system to recognize the printers.
Zach Hamada said
I have downloaded Bonjour for windows on my pc running xp. It sucessfully found my Canon printer residing on my iMac. The issue is the print quality from the pc to the printer is greatly reduced. Printing directly form the iMac is much better. Is there a way to clean this up?
jbkendrick said
Zach – When you used the Bonjour wizard to select the printer and install the driver, did you select Generic/Postscript as the driver? If you selected the printer driver supplied by the manufacturer that is most likely the problem. Try going back through the wizard and select Generic/Postscript. Hope this helps. John
Walter said
I have an iMac G5 (PowerPC) running 10.4.11. I am running XP on a MacBook (10.5.3). I have in the past successfully printed from XP to my iMac’s printer. Currently, I can still print from the MacBook (in OSX applications) to the iMac’s printer just fine. I cannot however, print from XP. When I run the Bonjour Printer Wizard, the 2nd window that opens fails to “see” my iMac’s printer. Any ideas?
Thanks -
- Walter
John Kendrick said
Walter – I’m not sure what could be preventing the printing. I have heard of very old Apple printers not working with Bonjour. What is the printer and what is the printer physically plugged in to, which computer, or is it running straight off the network. Are you using Parallels, Boot Camp or VMware to run Windows on the macbook. Make sure that the printer is turned on and awake (not suspended) when sending the print job. And have you shared the printer in the printer preferences? John
Walter said
Ya – the printer is shared etc. I can successfully print to my desktop’s printer, from Mac OS (laptop) – works fine. The wireless connection is via my DSL modem/router. There is a problem in XP – in the system tray, the Local Area Connection Status says, “Limited or no connectivity”. At the suggestion of my friend who is rather PC savvy (I am not at all) I went to command prompt and I cannot get a successful ping to my DSL modem/router or my desktop whereas I can ping them both from Mac OS (on my laptop)
Walter said
I have the latest build of Fusion – 1.1.3. I’m not even sure how to determine if I am up to date with XP. I do not use XP but for one application for school – I do not have internet or any other activity on XP save for that one application.
jeff said
I have a MAC Mini, Airport Base Station, and a Dell PC laptop. Everything had been working just fine, could print off the PC and the MAC to my HP printer connect to the Base Station. Last week I got an ” update ” notice from Apple about the Apple software on my PC. I agreed to the update….and now I can’t print from my PC. I’ve done everything I know how to do. The printer registers and is being shared by the MAC. I’ve download and run Bonjour for Windows but when it gets to the section where it’s browsing for Bonjour Printers, it can’t find my printer. I’ve uninstalled Bonjour and started over from scratch more than once. Nothing seems to work, the Dell PC can’t ” find ” the shared printer. What’s most frustrating is that ALL of this was working just fine before I updated the Apple software on my PC.
What should I try next?
John Kendrick said
Jeff – My standard answer is to make sure your computer and printer are not sleeping, the printer is shared in OS X preferences, you are using the generic driver not the specific driver from the manufacturer, but it sounds like you have all of this covered. Check out this discussion thread for some ideas – http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1516464&tstart=15 Hope it helps, John.
Steve G. said
I have a Windows desktop where i have a Samsung printer connected via USB. No matter what i do i can’t get my MacBook Pro to print wirelessly to the printer. I can’t even get Bonjour on the Windows PC to see the printer. Please help, i’m out of ideas.
Kevin said
I have a Lexmark x2650 attached to my iMac. I’m running osx 10.5.5. I have a laptop running xp that connects to the same network. I ran bonjour and get to the point of selecting the postscript option of bonjour. The drivers then are installed then I get an error of “You do not have sufficient access to your computer to connect to the selected printer” Please advise as I’ve been trying many methods to get this working.
Kevin in Calgary said
I’m getting the same problem as the previous post “You do not have sufficient access to your computer to connect to the selected printer” .
I’ve deleted the old printer (and by association it’s queue) from the PC, re-booted .. but still get the access problem.
Any ideas?
How To Print from Mac Leopard to a shared Vista Printer - MacTalk Forums said
[...] I found, but it is for XP, however the setup wizard should be pretty much the same in both OS’s. some steps for you Here is another article from a more reputable source Macworld that also seems helpful. Let me [...]
Russ said
Uninstall bonjour and install Bonjour for 64bit Vista. Worked for me.
Kenan Hobajabu said
I did what Russ said and it worked (wasn’t working until I installed the 64bit) thanks for the tip Russ!