I have a printer (Canon i9900) that works fine under Windows 7 x64 (through a USB Print Server) but is "not supported" in Windows 8.1 (on a Surface Pro 3). I have installed on the Surface Pro 3 a Win7 x64 virtual machine using the free version of VMWare, but have been unsuccessful in installing the USB Print Server (Arkview). The (latest) printer driver seems to install, at least no error messages are displayed. I have not yet tried installing the printer using a direct USB connection, since that is a sub-optimal configuration for my network.
Am I spinning my wheels in thinking that what I am trying to do is not possible. If possible, do I need an upgraded version of VMWare to do this? If I need a Host-compatible USB print server, any suggestions? Most of the ones I seen do not indicate support for my (older) Canon i9900 printer.
Thanks for any suggestions. I'm just trying to extend the useful life of this (wide format, expensive-to-replace) older printer.