Printing after "Print to file"?

In notepad (or any other application)I chose to "print to
file" rather than actually print the file. I saved the
file to disk. Later, I selected the file and
then "dragged and dropped" it onto the default printer in
Printers and Faxes.

I got a message like "The application must be opened
before the file can be printed" If I open the print file
in notepad (which defeats the whole purpose of printing
to file) all I see is what looks like printer control
language. Obviously I don't want to print that - I can't
read it.

I called HP (on a Pavilion) and they could not get it to
work on any of their PC's and said "sorry, we don't
know." It tried it on a Toshiba laptop with the same
results. A friend was successful on an IBM pc. I couldn't
find anything in the MS knowledge base except for Win 3.1
and MS-DOS.

How do I print a file created by "print to file?" HELP!