I just purchased a new workstation for a company network which is Windows 7 Pro 64bit.
Unfortunately they have an Imagistics im2520f Copier/Printer that only has 32bit drivers available.
Windows 7 had no problem installing all the 32bit software, but is there a way to make this 32bit print-driver work on a 64bit system (with a wrapper software or something)?
I tried just adding this device to the 2003 server as a shared printer, but even when you do this, the 64bit machine (printing to the shared printer) must have drivers for the printer (I discovered).
Another idea is this: if I could somehow send print-jobs to the cue of a another workstation (that is 32 bit) I might be able to set it up to where the employee could automatically print though that other machine?
I hoping someone here will know other options/possibilities I haven't considered. Here are the drivers that are available: Link
Best Answer
This is a well known phenomenon with migrating to a 64 bit OS. There have been a lot of institutions which have been forced to upgrade to new printers and scanners, etc.
There is one kind of third party solution available that may be of interest. ThinPrint and a couple other vendors have paid products available that can be used as an intermediary driver which may be able to be purposed for this kind of duty. This is basically an application server that creates a file (usually a PDF) on the local host. This is then forwarded to a server (either a print server or a terminal server). This remote printing host can be 32 bit and can do the work of actually sending the job to the printer.
The cost for a solution like this - hardware, software, and time - is generally much more than it would be to simply update the hardware.