Scenario:
VMware Workstation:
Windows 7 SP1 64 bit host
Windows XP SP 32 bit guest
A scanner and a printer only have hardware drivers available for Windows XP. No hardware drivers are available for Windows 7.
If hardware drivers for these devices are installed on the guest Windows XP OS will they work?
Thank you.
Welcome to the user community.
The answer is (as usual), it depends...
My experience has been the following:
If your printer/scanner is usb based, there's a reasonable chance it will work.
I have an old HP Scanjet (USB) and an old Belkin UPS (USB) that both require drivers and software that only work in XP. I have an XP VM that I run each device's drivers and software in and everything works.
I also have an old HP LasetJet (parallel port) that isn't supported directly by Windows 7 and greater. For this I used a USB->Parallel converter and from within an XP VM, I'm able to access and print to it. A Linux VM also recognizes the printer via the serial->parallel adapter and I can print to it as well.
In all cases, I only install the drivers in the VM, not on the host. Actually I can't install the drivers on the host even if I wanted to, they are blocked from even installing in Win 7 and in particular Win 7 - 64bit host.
If your hardware requires a custom board plugged in to the motherboard (like SCSI controllers used in early scanners), chances are pretty good that it won't work as Workstation doesn't do pass-through for PCI (or any other) device.
I've had mostly good luck with USB devices. (Not all, but most).
You'll probably just have to try it and see..
Good luck.
Welcome to the user community.
The answer is (as usual), it depends...
My experience has been the following:
If your printer/scanner is usb based, there's a reasonable chance it will work.
I have an old HP Scanjet (USB) and an old Belkin UPS (USB) that both require drivers and software that only work in XP. I have an XP VM that I run each device's drivers and software in and everything works.
I also have an old HP LasetJet (parallel port) that isn't supported directly by Windows 7 and greater. For this I used a USB->Parallel converter and from within an XP VM, I'm able to access and print to it. A Linux VM also recognizes the printer via the serial->parallel adapter and I can print to it as well.
In all cases, I only install the drivers in the VM, not on the host. Actually I can't install the drivers on the host even if I wanted to, they are blocked from even installing in Win 7 and in particular Win 7 - 64bit host.
If your hardware requires a custom board plugged in to the motherboard (like SCSI controllers used in early scanners), chances are pretty good that it won't work as Workstation doesn't do pass-through for PCI (or any other) device.
I've had mostly good luck with USB devices. (Not all, but most).
You'll probably just have to try it and see..
Good luck.
Thank you for the welcome and for the great response!
Both devices operate through USB, so it's encouraging.
I appreciate your help!