Sharing your windows printer for use on the iPhone and iPad was originally made possible by elpamsoft.com. ElpamSoft’s free tool named Windows Airprint Installer could install the airprint executable, dll’s and service that work in conjunction with iTunes and the Bonjour service to make Windows printers available to IOS devices. The problem is that tool no longer works with IOS5. Even the now modified instructions at JAXOV.com for creating a windows AirPrint service no longer allow IOS5 devices to print. iPhones and iPads running IOS5 can see printers, but they appear locked and cannot be selected.
UPDATE: The instructions below no longer work. Elpamsoft.com has announced that the Windows Airprint Installer tool will install an Airprint service that is incompatible with IOS5 devices. There is no indication that a patched new tool is forthcoming.
[what you’ll need]
- A windows PC that’s always on or has wake-on-wifi/lan support.
- A printer with drivers installed connected directly or wirelessly to the PC
- iTunes
- Elpamsoft’s Windows Airprint Installer
[step 1] On your Windows PC, test your printer by printing any page. Then share it by right-clicking it and checking the share this printer boxes in the sharing tab.
[step 2] Install iTunes.
[step 3] Download the Windows AirPrint Installer and extract the contents to any folder on your computer.
File Name : Windows-AirPrint-Installer-iOS-5-for-x86-x64.zip
MD5 : 151e15fc884ea6b5c8e641fc01a20fd4
[step 4] Double-click Airprint-Installer.exe to launch the program. Click Install AirPrint Service.
[step 5] Enable the Guest Account, then click update and restart the AirPrint Service or your computer.
[step 6] Try printing a page from your iPad/iPod/iPhone device. Your new shared printer should now get auto-detected in the iOS select a printer dialog.
Troubleshooting: Printing will only work in IOS 4.3 and lower. IOS5 is no longer supported by the AirPrint Service for Windows.
If you’re looking for printing from IOS 5 devices, please see my article about FingerPrint (a $10 windows app for sharing a windows printer with IOS5 devices).
| File Name : | AirPrint.zip |
| File Size : | 979980 byte |
| File Type : | Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract |
| MD5 : | 961866c0c11c04a9ab55be433f3937cd |
| SHA1 : | d88615ed5a446e4908f6e9eee5d643b6b318d273 |
Comments
14 responses to “Print from iPad/iPhone using AirPrint”
Okay I can see how this works and it is free, but for $10 you can buy an app called printcentral that works with any printer I have so far come across and prints from any airprint app. It is a heck of a lot easier than this esp if you have a few different printers and don’t want to have you PC on.
Message: Can you help?
I can’t seem to find the aireprint.exe file to download. Where can I obtain
the link.
thanks
It’s listed on the page above. I guess the link might have gone bad, but that’s fixed now. Here To download the zip containing airprint.exe click the link below:
AirPrint.zip
C:Windowssystem32>sc.exe start AirPrint
[SC] StartService FAILED 2:
The system cannot find the file specified.
C:Windowssystem32>sc.exe start AirPrint
[SC] StartService FAILED 2:
The system cannot find the file specified.
C:Windowssystem32>sc.exe start AirPrint
[SC] StartService FAILED 2:
The system cannot find the file specified.
C:Windowssystem32>
Vivian,
You are correct. The service fails to start with any version of iTunes greater than 10.1. I have updated the post to that effect. You’ll have to either scale down to iTunes 10.1 and try to see if that resolves your issue or scour the Internets for another solution.
Thanks for posting this update and letting others know.
Cheers,
David
To solve
error: [SC] StartSrvice Failed 2: The System cannot find the specified file
Have to check the service path. run services.msc look for AirPrint service 2 click on it and check service path.
In my case i install in windows 2003 spanish and Program Files is Archivos de Programas in spanish then i have to change the service path with sc.exe config AirPrint binPath= “C:Archivos de programaAirPrintairprint.exe -R _ipp._tcp,_universal -s”, becasue service was install in C:Program FilesAirPrintairprint.exe -R _ipp._tcp,_universal -s
or create the file C:Program Files and copy into it the file AirPrint, because was install in C:Archivos de programaAirPrint
This worked thanks!
[…] I spent quite a bit of time analyzing alternatives, but none really did what I wanted. As mentioned AirPrint for Windows (as previously covered) no longer works on IOS5 and AirPrint Activator for the mac never worked from the […]
Very nice, worked like a charm!! Thanks a Million!
Im having a different problem my iPad and my iPod 4g running 5.1 with teathered jailbreak use AirPrint fine but all the phones in the house are 5.0.1 with untether jailbreaks they fail to use the AirPrint they do send the pics/docs whatever but nothing goes in the print job list any ideas why this might be
I’m sorry, but I’ve stopped using AirPrint because of various issues I found with it. I am now using FingerPrint…just google it or search for it on this site. It’s easy to setup, works on iOS 4.3-5.1.1 and only costs $10 bucks. Considering how many hours I had invested in getting AirPrint to work, $10 is a bargain!
FingerPrint worked well for me with iOS5, but it stopped working when I upgraded to iOS6. Going back to the FingerPrint web site (collobos.com), they have a new version, 2.1, that supports iOS6 but costs $20. They were offering upgrades for existing users at a discount through 8/1/2012, but that was before iOS6 was released. Now they are asking full price. My question is am I looking at $30 for a version 3 upgrade that will be required when apple releases iOS7???
Yea. I’m not excited about the price increase either. On the other hand, it is good software and the guys who wrote it have to make a living somehow. I haven’t upgraded to its 6 and I’m still using my original v1 I paid $10 bucks for…so things have paid for themselves and then some in my opinion.
one word, printcentral! brilliant app no messing around 😉