We recently added a new MacBook Air to our household, we are basically replacing a computer that stopped working a few months ago.
All our computers run on Windows, but I though it would be fun to also have a Mac.
As of now the new computer will be used by the kids for homework and play. Both kids are excited and in just a few days, they have experienced the computer in ways I have not seen them do with our old PCs.
As for myself, I am still working on setting it up. I spent a few hours yesterday working on connecting the new computer to our HP printer which is connected to a PC.
I have to tell you it was not fun and I only found bits of pieces of information as to how to do it, so I decided I would write everything down in case some of you may find it useful.
1) On your Mac, update the new Mac’s operating System, you can read instructions on how to do this in the following link:
https://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/
2) On your Mac, download updated printer driver. There are many websites where you can do this. I used the following link:
https://download.cnet.com/Apple-HP-Printer-Drivers/3000-2116_4-200232.html
3) As to how add the new printer, I followed Option 1, described in the following article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/
The first step was to enabled LDP Print Service on the Windows desktop. (Control Panel>Programs>Turn Windows Features On or Off, >Enable LPD Print Service.)
This change of settings took a few minutes to be completed. Once it was completed I went back to the Mac:
Back at the Mac, I went to system preferences and double clicked on Print & Scan, to Add Printer, held the Control key and right-clicked on the toolbar, then selected Customize the toolbar and dragged the Advanced icon onto the bar. Next, I clicked Advanced, and in the Type field selected LPD/LDR Host or Printer. As the author of the article explains, here it gets a little complicated: In the URL, you will need to input your printer as //PC name/Printer name. On my network, the address was lpd://my-pc/HP Photosmart C4100 series.
I looked at the following youtbe video that showed me how to find out the name of your printer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4Y5efTXdoc
Next in the Use: pull down menu, scroll down and make sure to find out your printer driver
I clicked Add, installed the printer driver, and finally I was able to printed a test page. It was definitely no easy task.