Thursday, March 6, 2014

Adding 64bit print drivers to 32bit print server

We got a batch of new computers pre-loaded with 64bit Windows.  We are currently a 32bit shop, so this left me with 2 options, reload all the computers with 32bit Windows, or locate 64bit drivers.  Now, we have some old printers, but I figured I'd give the 64bit drivers a chance.

Step 1, find 64bit drivers.
Then connect to the print server
Right Click the printer in question and go to Properties
On the Sharing Tab, go to Additional Drivers
Put a check in the x64 checkbox, browse to the location of your drivers and open.

That was easy.

Wait...
"The specified location does not contain the driver for the requested processor architecture"?  What?

So to get past this, you'll need a 64bit machine.

Browse to the print server (//printserver/printer) and add the printer.  You'll get a message saying the driver wasn't found, at which point you will browse to the 64bit driver you've already located.
Once the printer is successfully installed (*which it should be, I'll go over something that happened to me in a minute) go to the printer properties on the 64bit machine, Sharing Tab, Additional drivers and put a checkmark in the x64 checkbox.
Done.
You can now add this printer to 32 and 64bit machines.

*One of the printers had a different printer driver on the server, when adding to the 64bit machine, the 64bit driver has to match the 32bit driver on the server.  Ex) PCL5 on the server, you need 64bit PCL5 driver.  If the drivers don't match in this way, you'll get an error about not locating a suitable driver.  You can mismatch drivers, but you won't be able to connect through the print server, you'll have to connect directly to the printers IP.  Which is completely acceptable, if you don't mind having to manually setup each person that wants to print from that printer.


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