Re: Win98 printer share is perpetually offline after rebooting Vista

"SlickRCBD" <> wrote in message
news:74c67c5c-bd31-477c-bb8d-...
> For years, I've had an HP DeskJet 812C connected to the parallel port
> on my Win98SE computer. The printer is shared, and I've had no
> problems printing from Windows XP.
>
> Enter Windows Vista. I set up Vista to use client-side rendering by
> adding a local printer and having it point to the port for the
> printer. Everything works fine when I set it up, until I reboot the
> Vista computer. When that happens, Vista lists the printer as
> "offline" and NOTHING I do will allow it to print again. The only
> thing I can do is add another printer, have it point to the same port,
> and delete the old printer.
>
> How do I fix this problem, or alternately, how do work around the
> problem by making a script to automatically add a local printer set to
> print to the shared port on bootup and delete it on shutdown? I have
> no idea how to make such a script or if it is even possible.
>
> I'm using Vista 64-bit home premium.
>
> I should mention that this is definitely a Vista problem, because I
> have Virtual PC installed on that same computer to run Windows XP Pro
> (32-bit) and the virtual machine on the same hardware with the
> troublesome Vista as the host OS has absolutely NO problem with the
> printer or file shares as far as the Win98SE computer is concerned.
> As a consequence I'm resorting to doing all my Office Suite work with
> Virtual PC as I don't want the hassle of forgetting to reinstall the
> damn printer every time I want to print.


Although it doesn't say specifically Vista, the command is available...

How to add printers with no user interaction in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q189105/

More extensive list of printui.dll commands
http://www.robvanderwoude.com/2kprintcontrol.php

To delete network printer

rundll32 printui.dll,printuientry /dn /n"\\user-pc\HP DeskJet 812C"


To add network printer

rundll32 printui.dll,printuientry /in /q /n"\\user-pc\HP DeskJet 812C"


I only played with it a little bit. Add network printer maybe missing port
information. I couldn't quite get it to work, but it should get you
started.

Let me know how you get it to work.

"SlickRCBD" <> wrote in message
news:3592479b-2ce0-45b8-a747-...
> On Oct 11, 6:32 am, "Tae Song" <tae_s...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> "SlickRCBD" <slickrcbdn...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:74c67c5c-bd31-477c-bb8d-...
>>
>>
>>
>> > For years, I've had an HP DeskJet 812C connected to the parallel port
>> > on my Win98SE computer. The printer is shared, and I've had no
>> > problems printing from Windows XP.
>>
>> > Enter Windows Vista. I set up Vista to use client-side rendering by
>> > adding a local printer and having it point to the port for the
>> > printer. Everything works fine when I set it up, until I reboot the
>> > Vista computer. When that happens, Vista lists the printer as
>> > "offline" and NOTHING I do will allow it to print again. The only
>> > thing I can do is add another printer, have it point to the same port,
>> > and delete the old printer.
>>
>> > How do I fix this problem, or alternately, how do work around the
>> > problem by making a script to automatically add a local printer set to
>> > print to the shared port on bootup and delete it on shutdown? I have
>> > no idea how to make such a script or if it is even possible.
>>
>> > I'm using Vista 64-bit home premium.
>>
>> > I should mention that this is definitely a Vista problem, because I
>> > have Virtual PC installed on that same computer to run Windows XP Pro
>> > (32-bit) and the virtual machine on the same hardware with the
>> > troublesome Vista as the host OS has absolutely NO problem with the
>> > printer or file shares as far as the Win98SE computer is concerned.
>> > As a consequence I'm resorting to doing all my Office Suite work with
>> > Virtual PC as I don't want the hassle of forgetting to reinstall the
>> > damn printer every time I want to print.
>>
>> Although it doesn't say specifically Vista, the command is available...
>>
>> How to add printers with no user interaction in
>> Windowshttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/q189105/
>>
>> More extensive list of printui.dll
>> commandshttp://www.robvanderwoude.com/2kprintcontrol.php
>>
>> To delete network printer
>>
>> rundll32 printui.dll,printuientry /dn /n"\\user-pc\HP DeskJet 812C"
>>
>> To add network printer
>>
>> rundll32 printui.dll,printuientry /in /q /n"\\user-pc\HP DeskJet 812C"
>>
>> I only played with it a little bit. Add network printer maybe missing
>> port
>> information. I couldn't quite get it to work, but it should get you
>> started.
>>
>> Let me know how you get it to work.
>
> Ok, I got the add printer part to work so far.
> The Vista computer is named Gateway, which reflects the brand rather
> than it being used as an internet gateway.
> The Win98SE computer is named Slickswintel, which reflects my attitude
> at the time being forced to ditch my Mac in favor of a Wintel because
> I needed to run Visual Studio 6 and Excel for school.
>
> The printer is shared as hp812c and hp812g, one for color & one for
> B&W.
> Here's how I got the command to work:
> rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "HP DeskJet 812C" /c\
> \GATEWAY /f "%windir%inf\ntprint.inf" /r "\\slickswintel\hp812c" /m
> "HP DeskJet 812C"
>
> I'm going to try seeing if sticking it in my startup folder will make
> me able to printer after I shut down and turn the computers back on.
> The only problem I can see is if I don't have the win98 machine booted
> up when I turn the Vista comptuer on, since oddly enough Vista tends
> to boot slightly faster.

Cool, thanks!