Remote Desktop printing add additional drivers

I run Hyper-V with a mix of 32bit/64bit operating systems and would like to print from any of the remote session to my local printer.

My ancient HP LaserJet 1200 has the default Windows 7 32bit driver installed but I cannot get the additional 64bit driver to install.

I seem to remember a similar situations in the past with a network printer where the resolution was the printer had a different name in the 32 bit inf than the 64 bit. I hacked the 64 bit inf file and ensured the names matched exactly … with success.

Did not want to go through that again and thought that I would try the HP Universal Printing PCL 5 drivers installed from the command line with PNPUTIL.EXE … why … never used it and wanted to try it.

• Downloaded both versions of the driver from HP
• Installed the 32 bit driver from an elevated command prompt
• pnputil –a c:\<path>\*.inf
• and did the same with the 64 bit
• opened the printer properties, advanced tab and switched the driver to the HP Universal Printer PCL5

As I did not intend blogging this I forget whether I had to go to the share tab and add the additional drivers or whether it was smart enough to find it for itself.

Painless and I can now print from 64bit VMs