Hi again. Over the past months, I have been challenged to create a remote server design. After many brainstorming activities with several IT groups, we sold the idea for Windows Server 2008 Ent. 64-bit. From DFS replication (which is awesome; good job Microsoft), to a local DHCP server, the design is going very well. Until the print server came into scope.
Server 2008 has some new really useful feature when pertaining to print services. The only fault is as follows:
Microsoft must think if your server is 64-bit, your clients will be. (lol; not a chance)
Now, we have several Xerox and HPs at each remote site. This is a great chance to pilot the new Xerox UPD (Universal Print Driver). This software claims it can be used for almost every print manufacturer (yeah right)
We obtained the latest x86 and x64 Xerox UPD drivers, launched the Print Console to install x64 and x86 drivers. Of coarse. the x64 installed flawlessly. The x86 on the other hand, asked for the x86 Windows Server 2008 media. I popped the disk in and pointed to the media, but was unable to locate the ntprint.inf. Great, now what??? I attempted to use the x86 media for Server 2003, and the install complained again.
After some trial and error, I came across a few docs that helped.
First, to locate the proper ntprint.inf, we had to pull the info from the install.wim from the Server x86 media, stage the drivers on the network, and try again. Wouldn't you know, it worked.
To accomplish this, you need to install Windows AIK. I used my laptop and the install went fine.
Click here to download from MS
Next, input your 2008 x86 media in and browse to \Sources folder. Copy the install.wim to your local drive. I copied it to C:\Temp
Create a folder to mount the image. I used C:\mountedimage
Next CMD and path to the Windows AIK directory were the imagex tool is located :
C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\tools\x86
Use x86 if you are mounting the x86 install.wim
Input the following command: imagex /mount C:\Temp\install.wim 1 C:\mountedimage
Press Enter. The image will mount to the folder. You can now read the install.wim in Explorer.
Browse the mountedimage folder to this location:
\Windows\System32\Driverstore\Filerepoitory\ntprint.inf_xxx
xxx is a custom hex value
Copy the contents to a network share for later use
Next, try to install the x86 driver again. When prompted, point to the location where you saved the ntprint.inf_xxx information.
The install should continue without error. Pain in the arse but doable.
I hope this helps others to apply the x86 drivers to the x64 server.
