Printer Issue

[OoR]

i have a windows 10 64-bit as a host and windos xp 32-bit as a guest
i want to print on roland pnc-960 old printer already installed on xp the base machine and the clone vm
although win 10 doesn't read it

is there any way to print from the vm to that printer

[BillG]

A vm does not automatically see the devices attached to the physical machine. The first problem is getting the vm to see the printer.

I believe that this printer can only use a serial or parallel port, not USB. Is that correct? That complicates things. I have never tried to do that, but it may be possible.

[andyp73]

I believe that this printer can only use a serial or parallel port, not USB. Is that correct?

A quick scan through the user manual shows that to be correct. If your new host has a serial or parallel port you should be able to capture that into the VM guest settings directly. If not, then you are probably going to need to look at a PCI/PCIe parallel or serial port for the host. You might be able to get away with a USB-RS232 serial adapter passed through to the guest and it appear as a COMx: port but that is probably the least reliable option.

-Andy.

[mpack]

I'm not sure this would work anyway. In Windows IME you typically have to install the correct printer driver even if the printer is remotely connected via a network. So even if the host was able to see the network PC, it still couldn't use it without a driver.

Unless your plan is for Win10 to print to PDF, and have XP print the PDF to the printer.

[OoR]

Update
it's a serial printer ( vinyl cutter )

the printer doesn't have any driver for win 10 which is the host

the latest driver for it is for win xp which is the guest

of course win 10 (host) can't see the printer but xp (VM) does - but i can't print from the vm even if it sees it

[mpack]

You have two basic options for communicating with any serial device from inside a VM:

1. Use the serial port redirection feature configured in the VM settings - we would need to see details of how you configured this, and how you configured the guest printer driver.
2. Use a USB filter to grab ownership of a USB-RS232 adapter.

There may also be less basic options such as serial redirection over a network. I don't know of any such tool but I'm sure it must exist. Ditto for a USB Bluetooth dongle. I've just had great success with one of these - I wasn't using it in a VM but the requirements are low (it'll work with USB 1.1), so I assume it would work.

[Mehwish01]

If the printer is networked, my suggestion is to setup a vpn. Then you can vpn onto the network and send your print job.
Hopefully your router supports that, or at least it’s not a huge investment.

[scottgus1]

it's a serial printer

Use the serial port redirection

If the printer is networked

This printer isn't networked, it's serial, so a VPN wouldn't work. A VPN wuold b overkill for a local device on the LAN.

Old topic, going to lock it.