>I am having a heckuva time trying to set up my "old" HP LaserJet 5 printer to work as directly connected to an XP machine, but able to be used from any other PC, whether Vista or Windows 7 on my local area network. When I went to add additional drivers, using LaserJet 5's own software, there were no options beyond XP drivers in the checkboxes.
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>How do I add Windows 7 and Vista Drivers as additional printer drivers to an XP machine so that the HP laserJet 5 printer on it will work?

Vista and Win7 drivers for your printer are built-in to the OS, so HP doesn't supply them separately. So, you can't make them available on your XP "print server" computer ready to be downloaded and used by remote Vista or Win7 clients.

However, both Vista and Win7 *should* be smart enough to install the correct driver from their local drivers if, on the Vista or Win7 clients, you install the HP printer as a network printer. You may even find that Vista and Win7 automatically install drivers for you with no intervention; you may find in your list of installed printers entries such as "Auto HP LaserJet 5P on {XP computer name}".

If all else fails, you can manually install a printer on Vista or Win7 by manually specifying your printer model, and setting the printer port to \\XPPrintServerComputerName\LaserJet5ShareName .

As it happens, I'm also using an HP LaserJet 5, in my case a 5P. It has only a parallel port interface, so it must be attached to a computer or other device that has a parallel interface. If the only reason your LaserJet 5 is attached to an XP machine is because none of the newer machines have parallel ports, you have at least a couple of options:

- for desktop machines, you can buy add-on PCI parallel port cards. I believe parallel-port PCI cards may be available for laptops as well
- you can buy parallel port print servers that turn a parallel port printer into a network printer. This has the added bonus that any computer on the network can print to it without needing to have a computer running acting as its print server

OTOH the above options mean buying extra hardware, which might end up more expensive than just buying a new USB laser printer - even some network laser printers are amazingly cheap :-\