Hello!
We had a malfunction of our regular printer at work, so we replaced it with a spare printer and made it shared. However, my colleague use a generic HP driver and I didn't want to use that. I wanted to install the specific model PCL6 driver for better quality and access to all printer features. Trying to run HP software, it has two options, either local printer or network printer. Network printer has auto detection or asks for IP or network name of the printer. None worked for a shared printer. So I asked Google about it and it revealed the method. I post it here for reference.
- Download the printer drivers from manufacturer.
- Open the file with WinRAR or other appropriate utility and extract all files to a folder.
- Go To Settings, Bluetooth and Devices, Printers and Scanners and click Add device.
- When you see the message that the printer doesn't show on the list, click to Add device manually.
- When you are asked to select local printer or network printer, select local.
- The default local port is LPT1 (parallel port), select to add a new port, then select Local port.
- You will see a field to type the description of the port. Type
- Proceed to install the printer. You should be presented with a list of manufacturers to select the driver. Click on Have disk.
- Browse to the folder where you extracted the printer driver files, select any .inf file (they open all) and click Next.
- Wait for the printer to install, it takes some time.
- That's it! Print a test page to confirm it is working properly with your custom driver, not the host driver.
We had a malfunction of our regular printer at work, so we replaced it with a spare printer and made it shared. However, my colleague use a generic HP driver and I didn't want to use that. I wanted to install the specific model PCL6 driver for better quality and access to all printer features. Trying to run HP software, it has two options, either local printer or network printer. Network printer has auto detection or asks for IP or network name of the printer. None worked for a shared printer. So I asked Google about it and it revealed the method. I post it here for reference.
- Download the printer drivers from manufacturer.
- Open the file with WinRAR or other appropriate utility and extract all files to a folder.
- Go To Settings, Bluetooth and Devices, Printers and Scanners and click Add device.
- When you see the message that the printer doesn't show on the list, click to Add device manually.
- When you are asked to select local printer or network printer, select local.
- The default local port is LPT1 (parallel port), select to add a new port, then select Local port.
- You will see a field to type the description of the port. Type
\\hostpcname\printername replacing both with the appropriate names. For example \\spapakons\sharedprinter.- Proceed to install the printer. You should be presented with a list of manufacturers to select the driver. Click on Have disk.
- Browse to the folder where you extracted the printer driver files, select any .inf file (they open all) and click Next.
- Wait for the printer to install, it takes some time.
- That's it! Print a test page to confirm it is working properly with your custom driver, not the host driver.
Last edited:
My Computers
System One System Two
-
- OS
- Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (5699), 25H2 (8457)
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Acer Extensa 5630EZ
- CPU
- Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2000 MHz
- Motherboard
- Acer Extensa 5630
- Memory
- 4GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- Mobile Intel(R) GMA 4500M (Mobile 4 series)
- Sound Card
- Realtek ALC268 @ Intel 82801IB ICH9 - High Definition Audio Controller
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 1
- Screen Resolution
- 1280x800
- Hard Drives
- Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB SATA Device (250 GB, SATA-III)
- Internet Speed
- VDSL 50 Mbps
- Browser
- MICROSOFT EDGE
- Antivirus
- WINDOWS DEFENDER
- Other Info
- Legacy MBR installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, no WDDM 2.0 graphics drivers, no SSE4.2, cannot get more unsupported ;) This is only my test laptop. I had installed Windows 11 here before upgrading my main PC. For my main PC I use everyday see my 2nd system specs.
-
- Operating System
- Windows 11 Pro v25H2 (build 26200.8457)
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Custom-built PC
- CPU
- Intel Core-i7 3770 3.40GHz s1155 (3rd generation)
- Motherboard
- Asus P8H61 s1155 ATX
- Memory
- 2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600
- Graphics card(s)
- GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB (GV-N3050WF2OCV2-6GD)
- Sound Card
- Realtek HD audio (ALC887)
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Sony Bravia KDL-19L4000 19" LCD TV via VGA
- Screen Resolution
- 1440x900 32-bit 60Hz
- Hard Drives
- WD Blue SA510 2.5 1000GB SSD as system disk, Western Digital Caviar Purple 4TB SATA III (WD40PURZ) as second
- PSU
- Thermaltake Litepower RGB 550W Full Wired
- Case
- SUPERCASE MIDI-TOWER
- Cooling
- Deepcool Gamma Archer CPU cooler, 1x 8cm fan at the back
- Keyboard
- Mitsumi 101-key PS/2
- Mouse
- Sunnyline OptiEye PS/2
- Internet Speed
- 100Mbps
- Browser
- Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox
- Antivirus
- Microsoft Windows Defender
- Other Info
- Legacy BIOS (MBR) installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, WDDM 3.0 graphics drivers, WEI score 7.4
