My problem is that the printer is attached to the
Ubuntu machine, not the Windows machine. I wouldn't
have a problem if it were the other way around. I
believe there is a Linux tool to allow this but don't
know which one.


You missed my point which was that I did not have to do anything in Linux for
Windows Vista to find my printers. One is attached physically to my Ubuntu
desktop and the other is a network printer attached to a print server. Neither
is a attached to a Windows machine. When Vista searched for printers, it found
both the attached one and the print server and I never intended to share either
one. However, my daughter wanted the laser attached to the print server. It
would have been just as easy to install the HP photo printer attached to Ubuntu
8.10, since both turned up when Vista searched. As it was, Vista could not find
the print server using its static ip address and, this is the kicker, it found
it as a printer attached to ubuntu-desktop (which it wasn't). I thought that it
was worth a try so I set it up as an attached printer anyway and it worked.

My point was: a) I have not tried to share either printer in Ubuntu, but Windows
Vista detected them anyway
b) I did not have to do anything on the Ubuntu machine to make them available to
Windows. That just happened naturally.

This was a Windows Vista laptop (not XP) and it may be better than XP at
detecting printer shares, but it was able to do it without any problem, despite
my not intending to share these printers through Ubuntu.

I have no Vista experience beyond helping my daughter from time to time. I have
a couple of XP machines in the house, but don't personally use them. I plan to
try to install on one of the XP machines the printer that is attached to my
Ubuntu desktop and see how it goes. If it went as easily as it did with Vista
then I would be surprised as Windows is not always predictable, in my
experience.