I had issues installing a printer for HP 5652 which was being served by my Windows 2000 server. Using the HP drivers on CD kept giving errors and HP didn't have any Windows 7 drivers. HP only had instructions for locally connected printers. I just thought that this old printer will not be able to be used.

Came across another approach, see below in installing a local port and naming it with the network name, found that the HP drivers were available and it installed. Worth a try and I haven't tested out all features - fyi.

OPTION 2:
On your WIn Vista/7 64-bit machine, go to ‘Devices and Printers’ and do the following:

Devices and Printers -> Add Printer -> Add a local printer -> Create a new port: -> Type of port: Local Port -> in the ‘Enter a port name:’ textbox type the exact path to the network based printer you want to connect to, e.g.
\\81.161.242.24\hpdj5550s
Note1: with double slashes in front!;
Note2: type in the exact name of the printer as shared on the host machine, that is ‘hpdj5550s’, not let say ‘hp deskjet 5550 series’ or something similar!

Your network printer is now added without changing anything on the host Win XP computer (the computer where the printer is physically installed)

Sourced from http://theoldestof8.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/how-to-install-a-network-printer-on-windows-7-rc-x64/