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I have an older version of AutoCAD (v2000) that will not install under Windows XP. My new printer (Epson WF-7520) does not have a driver available for Windows 2000. Windows XP Home is my host OS and Windows 2000 Pro has been installed to the VM. The printer is attached via wired Ethernet, and I have allowed it to be shared in Windows XP. Both OSes have been assigned to the same Workgroup, but I cannot see either one from the other. I would like to use the host OS as a print server. Please help. Thanks.

Sorry, but I don't think that will work. I don't personally have much use for printers, but I believe the situation is that you still need a printer driver, even if the lowest level comms channel is a network redirector instead of a direct connection. The printer driver is still needed to control all the features and settings of the printer.

Best I can suggest is to print to PDF into a shared folder. I'm sure you'll find a version of CutePDF or PrimoPDF etc that works on a Win2K PC.

Or: have to tried running the AutoCAD installer on your host using Win2K compatibility mode? XP and Win2K are very close, I can't think of any reason why a Win2K app shouldn't run on XP.

Or: have to tried running the AutoCAD installer on your host using Win2K compatibility mode? XP and Win2K are very close, I can't think of any reason why a Win2K app shouldn't run on XP.

Wow! I didn't know about that. My first experience with incompatability that wasn't solved by planned upgrades of hardware or software. I thought the driver for XP should have no problems running on 2000 either.

I accessed the Compatabiliy Wizard apparently inside Windows Help which seemed strange. Does it not exist outside of Help? After a couple failed tries, the installer ran in the Windows 2000 Compatability mode and appeared to do everything expected, except that I never got to the "Finished" dialog. A message box popped up saying some program files could not be copied because they were in use by other programs, and to click OK to restart now (no other options). After the restart, there was a lot of disk activity, and possible CDROM activity, but no dialogs from the AutoCAD installer ever came up. It apears to have installed OK. What do you think?

Should I configure the AutoCAD application to run in Compatability mode also, or only if I experience problems? I'm not sure if there would always be any clear signs. XP is not listed as a compatible OS on the AutoDesk website.

Anyway, thanks a bunch! That solved my conumdrum much better than I ever thought possible. Now I just have hours and hours of configuring to get AutoCAD where I want it, not to mention that every drawing in my library has to be reassigned (and possibly modified) to a new 'plot device' if I ever want to print it again (no way to do this reassignment in batch that I am aware - well there is AutoLISP when I want to teach myself another programming language). I hope this printer lasts longer than the last three (HarshPenalty).

I'm not sure what you are asking re compatibility mode, but it's a Windows feature, not Autocad: when XP came out they obviously didn't want a lot of complaints that it was incompatible with existing software, especially premium software such as Autocad.

Perhaps the file copying that went wrong had to do with copying DLLs into the Windows folder. XP discourages that kind of thing.

I suspect that the final cleanup of the install may have been truncated. At this point an installer app would typically create file associations etc, so it's possible that'll you'll have to do some of that manually, somewhere down the line.

Anyway, it seems that this is no longer a VirtualBox discussion, so good luck.