For better or worse, Windows Vista is out today and I'll shortly be moving to it as the primary operating system on both my work and home PCs. Aside from compatibility glitches in certain Adobe applications, everything I need to work on Vista does (if a little shakily, in the case of Firefox).

The one issue that almost prevented me from making the move was my need to connect to the shared printer at the office.

A Samsung SCX-4216F, the SitePoint office printer requires new printer drivers to work in Vista. Unfortunately, unless Vista has the necessary driver built-in (it doesn't in this case), the Add Printer wizard in Vista insists on retrieving the driver for a network printer from the computer to which the printer is connected. At SitePoint (and at many other offices, I imagine), that is and will remain for the foreseeable future, a Windows XP computer. Since you can't install the Vista driver on a Windows XP computer, that means that Vista fails to connect to the network printer.

The solution is a twisty one that I wasn't able to find in any of the official Microsoft documentation. In short, you need to fool Vista into thinking that the network printer is actually a local printer, so that you can install the driver directly on your Vista computer.

Here are the exact steps that worked for me:

  1. Download the Windows Vista printer driver for the SCX-4216F multifunction printer from www.samsung.com.
  2. Install the driver on your Windows Vista computer. During installation, you’ll be prompted to connect the printer to your computer. Choose the option to proceed with installation without connecting the printer.
  3. After installation completes, open the Printers applet from the Windows Vista Control Panel.
  4. Right-click on the new Samsung SCX-4100 Series printer and choose Properties.
  5. Go to the Ports tab.
  6. Click Add Port..., select Local Port, then click New Port...
  7. For the port name, enter exactly the network path and share name of your printer (e.g. \\RECEPTION\Samsung SCX-4x16 Series).
  8. Click OK, and double-check that this new port is selected with the checkbox next to it.
  9. Click OK to close the printer properties.