The following was lifted from the MS forums about 8 years ago, but still applies today, obviously a few of the menu items changed naming conventions, but you should be able to figure that out. Essentially you use one 32 bit platform and connect to the server per the usual method, when it fails, point it to the local driver, when it installs it will push the required files to the server. Be careful with the wording as it is backwards, the 32 bit in this case is the server not the client and vice versa.
Cross platform print driver install on server
Issue - When installing 64bit drivers directly to a 2003 32-bit server, you get the error "It asks 'Please
provide path to Windows media (x86 processor)". Complete error message is "The folder you specified
doesn't contain a compatible software driver for your device. If the folder contains a driver, make sure it is
designed to work with Windows for x32 based systems."
Solution -
1. Install the printers 32bit (yes, install the corresponding 32-bit driver) driver as a local printer on the
2003 32bit server.
2. Go to a 64bit Windows client.
3. Open the Run dialog box and type "\\<servername or ip address>
4. Open the "Printers and Faxes" or "Printers" folder.
5. Right-Click the printer and go to "Properties"
6. This will prompt you to install the driver if it is not already installed. (If you need to install it, point it to
drivers of the same make and version on your local PC)
8. In the "Properties" menu that should pop up, go into "Sharing" and then click on "Additional Drivers"
9. Click on X86 drivers, and click Ok.
10. The upload to the server will start and will show the copy process. This will copy the 64bit ntprint.inf
and all the other required files to the 32bit server.
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Joe Arseneau
