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floridaguy
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Printing from VMWorkstation - Need drivers or what? Not intuitive to me.

I have VMWorkstation installed on an XP Pro host. I have a brother network printer "installed" on the XP host and the connectivity to it is over my home ethernet. I'm not sure how to access it via the VM. When I try to print a document in the VM all I see as a print option is "_VMwareVirtualPrinter". When I print to that it doesn't print to my networked Brother printer, so that is not apparently a virtual link to it. I haven't seen anything in the documentation as to what to do. Do I install the printer on the VM as I would on the host? Is there a way to connect to driver already installed on the host? The fact that there is not much documentation would seem to indicate that it is seemless and that there is nothing that I need to do, but I am not finding it to be that way in reality. My suspician is that a USB printer would show up under VM/RemovableDevices/USB devices but I don't know what to do with this networked printer.

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction.

FloridaGuy

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KevinG
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The "_VMwareVirtualPrinter" is used only with an ACE deployed instance.

Actucally, setting up a printer in a VM, is no different than setting up a printer on a physical machine.

You would do the exact same steps if you had two physical machine with one having the printer.

If the printer is connected to the host. You share the printer on Host and acess the printer in the VM as a shared network printer.

If the printer is a standalone networking printer with it's own IP address/NIC you setup it up in the guest OS as a network printer.

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RuralRob
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As I understand it, the Virtual Printer currently only works when running under a Server host. Under Workstation or Player, it is just a black hole into which your print job goes, never to be seen again. You'll need to install a real print driver for the printer in the VM, and make sure the printer on the network is visible to the VM.

KevinG
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The "_VMwareVirtualPrinter" is used only with an ACE deployed instance.

Actucally, setting up a printer in a VM, is no different than setting up a printer on a physical machine.

You would do the exact same steps if you had two physical machine with one having the printer.

If the printer is connected to the host. You share the printer on Host and acess the printer in the VM as a shared network printer.

If the printer is a standalone networking printer with it's own IP address/NIC you setup it up in the guest OS as a network printer.

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floridaguy
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I agree with the black hole concept. It appears to be printing but you have no idea as to where.

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floridaguy
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Thanks for your input here. I installed the driver, just as I did on the host machine, and everything appears fine. I probably would have tried this earlier, but the virtual printer that was listed as a printer with no effort on my part, led me to question what to do. Thanks again.

Floridaguy

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