How to print to a printer from another computer?

I have a laptop and a desktop, the desktop is hooked up to the printer, it's running windows xp sp2, and is there a way i can print from my laptop to that printer?(laptop is running windows 7 home). I need this because I use the laptop a lot, and I need to print from it wirelessly.How to print to a printer from another computer?
Steve,





Here's the problem. You didn't give the make and model of your printer, so I don't know if it's capable of wireless printing or not. If you want to print to the printer using your laptop wirelessly, then you'll need to have a wireless router setup to create a small network, and the printer and/or computer that it's connected to, will need to be connected to the router. If going through the computer with the printer to print through the router, then you'll have to setup printer sharing on the desktop and your laptop to allow use of the printer. You'll also have to have the desktop on all the time in order to print from your laptop. If you connect the printer directly to the router, then the printer will be accessible by both computers at any time without having to have one computer on all the time.





So basically you need a wireless router in order to do anything close to what you want. If you have that, then let me know and I can provide more help from there.





Best of luck.How to print to a printer from another computer?
Yes. Go to the printer folder on your desktop and find the printer. Right click and click on sharing. Mark the printer as shared. The icon for the printer will change so that it has a hand underneath it.





Make sure you have run the Network setup wizard on the desktop, otherwise this won't work.





On your laptop, go to your network and search for the desktop machine. When you double-click on the icon for the xp machine, it will show you the shared printer. Double-clicking on that printer will bring up a dialog box about adding the printer to your laptop. Continue.





Presto. Yay!





(Obviously, whenever you print from your laptop, your desktop will need to be turned ON)
No problem, just be aware that the desktop needs to be on in order for you to print through it. :-)





If you go to ';Printers and faxes'; in the Control Panel on the desktop, and right-click on the printer icon, among the choices you get an option to share the printer on the network - it should be pretty straight forward from there...





Then on the laptop, you choose to add a printer, and select ';Network printer';, it should pop up there, if you shared it correctly on the desktop.
1) Download a Vista/Win 7 compatable driver for your printer, and install it on your laptop





2) On the desktop, share the printer on the network.





3) Add a printer on your laptop, select ';Add a Network, wireless or Bluetooth printer';





4) on the next screen, select the printer.
You cant print from a computer that is not hooked up to the printer. It depends on if your printer offers the wireless capability. Put the CD that came with the printer into your labtop and download the printing softwear to your labtop
You could try and program your laptop to print with your printer