Got an interesting Vista problem just the other day:

I tried to setup vista to print to a printer that was shared from an XP PC.

I go through the add printer menus in vista, follow the prompts for adding a network printer, until I get the message: “Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied”… the printer was found on the network, but it just won’t let me print to it… why?

I found an excellent solution at:

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PageIndex=3&SiteID=17&PostID=1333289

Basically, it boils down to creating a “local printer” instead of a network printer… and the local printer port is the windows domain name of the printer.

ie: Go to Control Panel. Choose printer, then choose Add Printer.

Add a local printer… Click on “Create a new port”. Leave the default in the drop down box (should be “Local Port”). Click next.

A dialog box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the \computerprinter (where computer is the network name of the PC that has the printer attached… and printer is the network name of the shared printer).

Thats all it takes!