I'm pretty sure that there is no appreciable difference between Win7 and Win8 drivers. (although there is a difference between 32 bit and 64 bit drivers).
On the laptop go to the desktop open the file manager.
Scroll down the left side until you find network, and click it.
Wait for the right-hand window to refresh and you should see any network-connected devices, which should include the printer on the desktop machine (if you can see the desktop machine, but not the printer, try clicking on the desktop machine). Once you can see the printer, you should be able to connect to it by double-clicking it, or by right-clicking and choosing "use" or "connect" (can't remember which - my setup is the opposite to yours with, with the printer physically connected to my Windows 8 machine, and accessed across the network by my Windows 7 machines).