Problems with Windows (via VMware Fusion) recognizing Printer

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I have the new MacBook, with VMware Fusion installed, and the network printer (with capabilities to connect through bluetooth and wi-fi) HP Officejet Pro 7700 Series.

My Macbook recognized the printer and connected without any problems, and didn't even need the drivers for the printer to function, but my VMware Fusion cannot seem to find the printer, even when I have tried to install the driver!!

Can anyone help me and know what could be possibly wrong? This is horrific, especially since I MOSTLY print from my VMware side, and not the Mac side.

-Lillian
 
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If by "WMware Fusion" you really mean 'Windows', then you probably just need to reinstall the Windows drivers for the printer in order for it to work.

Check out HP's site to make sure that you have the most up-to-date drivers.
 
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Similar situation with me - my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.5.6) automatically installed a HP Officejet 5780, but I needed to install the drivers for the printer to work in Windows (VMware Fusion).
 
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Thanks so much D3v1L80Y and sputacus--

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, to try to follow your advivce, but I'm getting to the same problem. In the set up of the printer (after downloading and installing the driver), when it gets to "select connection time", I select "wireless", but it comes back "search complete, no printers found."

However, I have checked, and double checked, connected and reconnected the printer to the network-- and I know it must be connected ok since the mac os recognizes the printer.

What could I possibly be doing wrong? THIS IS SO AGGRAVATING!!! I also tried to connect using the IP address but I'm not sure if I'm doing that right.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!
 
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Iwang124,

Does the printer show up in the Fusion tray (for lack of a better word)? It is located at the lower right hand corner of the Fusion window (exit unity and full screen modes). You should find a "grayed out" printer icon. If it is there, click on it to receive prompt to connect to printer.
 
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Solving Laptop Printer Problems with VMWare Fusion

Important for Laptop Users (MacBook, MacBook Pro) With No Physical Connection to a Printer:

If you are having problems with a network printer on a wireless network and you are dealing with a laptop that doesn't have any physical connection to another machine , save yourself some time:

1. Before you start your virtual machine (VM), in your virtual machine settings, set network to 'Bridged' instead of 'NAT'. My VM was Vista Premium Home.

2. Start up your VM, open your browser and download Bonjour for Windows from:

Bonjour for Windows

3. Install Bonjour, and follow the prompts for it to find the printers on your network. You may or may not need to install a printer driver.

I spent a good day trying to troubleshoot how to connect to my D-Link wireless network with a Brother HL-5250DN printer, and all I needed to do was use Bonjour.

Prior to installing Bonjour, with my Network setting on 'NAT' I could not enable my network printer - I would click on 'Enable Printers' but it would uncheck the selection after about 2 seconds, so that I was unable to use "All printers installed on the Mac will be automatically added to the virtual machine".

This information is for network printers (i.e. your printer is connected physically to your wireless router, not shared, where the printer is connected to either the same computer, as in a desktop computer with physical wired connections to printers). Otherwise, you may find the NAT setting to share printers to be a workable option.
 
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Thanks much, LoRob.

I have a MacBook Pro, Time Capsule, wireless HP OfficeJet 6480, and VMware Fusion 2.0.5 with XP Professional virtual machine.

Setting network to 'Bridged' and installing Bonjour worked. (I had already installed the printer driver while trying to get things to work before I saw your posting.)
 
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printing to windows printer from virtual windows on mac

well i had the problem too.

i have windows vista installed on my macbook pro through vmfusion and use airport to connect to networks.

when i tried to access a printer connected to another machine that was running xp, i couldn't go through although i never had problems before.

i realized that a virtual machine is just that---a virtual machine such that it does not actually have its own wifi adapter but just passes through that of the host.

the problem was resolved though the network settings in vmfusion.

instead of the default "share the mac network" (NAT), i toggled instead "bridge connections" using airport

this way, the virtual machine actually shares the wifi adapter and is treated as separate and distinct from the mac machine such that the other windows computers can now "see" the virtual machine running on the mac instead of the mac itself

hope this helps.
 

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