Vista Printing Saga, Part 2

The last time I wrote about Vista printing problems I related three cases of inferior customer service and the realization that we are alone when it comes to fixing our computer problems (except for the expertise in the Computing and Technology Group at About.com and perhaps a tech-savvy friend or two).

To recap: My Vista laptop did not print correctly over my wireless network to the shared Brother Laser Printer attached to a Windows XP computer. I tried everything several times (new drivers, different installation options) with no luck, nor consistency in printing results. Now the rest of the story.

What fixed the problem was disabling the print spool function for that printer, by changing the printer properties on the XP computer. I noticed that these settings were visible on the Vista machine, but because the Vista machine does not have Administrator rights, those settings could only be changed on the XP computer. For step by step instructions and an explanation as to why this fixed the problem, read "Fix Vista Printing to Shared Printers Attached to Windows XP Computers."

Will this solution solve all Vista printing problems? Probably not. I will tell you that during my testing I set up a separate occurrence of Windows 7 on the same laptop as the Vista OS and that I had no problem installing and using that same printer (regardless of the print spooler status). Yet one more reason to look forward to Windows 7's release in October...