With the Windows printer and the computer it’s connected to active, and the printer set up for sharing, you’re ready to add the printer to your Mac.
Add the Shared Printer to Your Mac
- Launch System Preferences by clicking its icon in the Dock.
- Click the ‘Print & Fax’ icon in the System Preferences window.
- The Print & Fax window will display a list of currently configured printers and faxes that your Mac can use.
- Click the plus (+) sign, located just below the list of installed printers.
- The printer browser window will appear.
- Right-click the printer browser window's toolbar and select ‘Customize Toolbar’ from the pop-up menu.
- Drag the ‘Advanced’ icon from the icon palette to the printer browser window’s toolbar.
- Click the 'Done' button.
- Click the ‘Advanced’ icon in the toolbar
- Select ‘Windows’ from the Type dropdown menu. It may take a few seconds before the dropdown menus become active, so be patient.
The next step is to enter the shared printer’s device URL, in the following format:
smb://user:password@workgroup/ComputerName/PrinterName
An example from my home network would look like this:
smb://TomNelson:MyPassword@CoyoteMoon/scaryvista/HPLaserJet5000
The PrinterName is the ‘Share name’ you entered in Vista. - Enter the shared printer’s URL in the ‘Device URL’ field.
- Select ‘Generic Postscript Printer’ from the Print Using dropdown menu. You can try using one of the specific printer drivers from the list. The drivers most likely to work are labeled ‘Gimp Print’ or ‘PostScript.’ These drivers usually include the proper protocol support for shared network printing.
- Click the ‘Add’ button.
