No. The client machine needs the driver as it spools the print job before sending it to the server. When you configure a shared printer on a client the server sends the driver installation software to the client. You would need to use some intermediate format (pdf is probably the most universal), send that to server, then have an application on the server to print those files.

As I suggested to Clive in my reply to his request for a driver.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

You still need drivers to print to a shared printer.

I think the extra steps that I outlined in my reply to Clive would be necessary.

Ah yeah. With you now. In the other thread which I just read 👍

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

No. The client machine needs the driver as it spools the print job before sending it to the server.

Thats how it worked in Win9x and NT4 days, but I believe with Win8 (so zero use to Clive) and later the "Enhanced point and print" improvements was intended to stop having to install printer drivers on thousands of call centre machines, and only install the printer driver on the 'print server' either a Windows Server or a Windows Workstation class machine.

viz:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/d...

Edited by jchamier (Sun 15-Jan-23 17:44:37)

I thought that was a Windows Server technology. Doesn’t printer sharing from a workstation use the older model?

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

I thought that was a Windows Server technology. Doesn’t printer sharing from a workstation use the older model?

I thought it was the same on both Server and Workstation, but may rely on the right "type" of driver. Probably not going to help Clive.

Tagging this on the end. I had a bit of a search last night on this and it appears it *may* be able to be done as a shared printer from within Windows 7 to a Windows 10 client. See this blog post / article from a university CS dept.

Caveats are that the Windows 7 machine should be able to offer 64-bit drivers.

So found a version of the driver on the old OKI North America website which has a version 2.1.0.0 driver for Windows 7. Admittedly couldn’t download it from there, had to find another hosting site.

https://my.okidata.com/pp-C5200n.nsf/openingdrivermenu

Maybe it’s worth a shot trying this on a virtual guest install of Windows 7 x64?

That just appears to be offering a driver that the client can download. Not much use if there is no suitable driver.

Yep agreed it would need to be the correct driver for use as a shared driver with Win10.

My search on this lasted all of about 10 mins. Not exhaustive at all - perhaps a lead for Clive, worth exploring if there’s nothing else.

Many thanks Pheasant, TinyM, James et al for the effort you have gone to on this.

To recap, my PC is 64-bit currently Win 7 Pro and I intend to install Win10 Pro on a new SSD. My OKI printer is a C5200n which lives in a room upstairs whereas both mine and my wife's PCs are in a home office downstairs, connected via wired LAN. There is also a Brother mono printer in the home office.

I will explore printer sharing as per the Education Authority of Hong Kong's FAQ re Win7 &10.

Whilst not 100% convenient, since I have to go upstairs to collect whatever the OKI has printed (I can switch on/off remotely via a Tapo smart socket and a phone APP) I have also considered transferring documents for printing as PDFs via a memory stick to a Toshiba NB100 notebook which runs Win XP Home 32-bit, connected via USB. This has OKI C5200n drivers. With a bit of effort I can likely network the NB100 to the OKI C5200n via the existing LAN connection.

I am in no immediate rush, I have some office tasks for the next couple of months (or so) which I don't want to upset with a change of OS to Win 10.

I will update this post as and when I make changes to the PC etc.

Thanks again for the help and KT.

Cheers!