New versions of the HP Universal Printer Drivers are actually working well for such difficult situations as an older USB laser printer shared from an XP box to Windows 7 ×64. Here are elements:

1. The HP web page for your printer, may list only HPU PCL 5 or PCL 6. That’s the version you will need to have.
2. Copy the appropriate downloadable to both the host PC and the client PC. If the host is 32-bit and the guest is 64-bit, put the 32-bit downloadable on the host and the 64-bit downloadable on the guest. If different, do accordingly :-)
3. Do NOT run the downloadable. Install 7zip or equivalent, and unpack to a folder.
4. Make sure simple file sharing is off, and make sure both host and client have identical logins set up if this is not a domain network.
5. If you are running a non-universal driver on the host, you can keep it if you want; but you do need to install an instance (or a second instance) of the printer using the appropriate HP Universal driver. Use the Windows printer add dialogue, not the HP Universal’s application. Share it to the network.
6. On the client, again unpack, don’t run the downloadable.
7. Don’t use the printer add dialogue on the client! Browse to the host, e.g., by putting “\\HOSTNAME” in the Explorer address area. Your printer will be visible. Right-click on it and choose “Connect”. If you chose to keep an original non-HP-Universal driver object, there will be two printer objects, and be sure to pick the right one!
8. Eventually Windows will ask you for a driver if it needs one. Browse to the location at which you have unpacked the appropriate HP Universal driver, and tell it to go.