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Cannot access printer's preferences even when logged in as an admin

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by sonyman7

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I believe that someone permanently sabotaged the printer settings on one of the computers at the office I work at. The computer is a windows pc running windows 2000 sp4. The person suspect not only removed all the permissions blocking anyone from accessing that printer through the security tab, but somehow also disabled the printer properties from ever displaying. Even if I log in as the computer Built-in Administrator's Account, I cannot access the printer's preferences page that displays the security tab. I cannot even re-create this scenario on another windows system. I have never seen this before in my 8 years of being in this industry. What's even more perplexing, is that I recently did a fresh install on this system to avoid it from giving any problems during income tax season. It's my fault for allowing the user to have administrator privileges but that is solved so that they cannot tamper with the system anymore. But, I need to undo what they did. Is there something in the registry that they modified to disable the printers dialog from appearing? and if so where? I've looked all over the net for it and this is the only forum that I know of that I may find some answers. Please help, I don't want to re-install everything all over again. And P.S. I've also re-installed the print driver and named it (copy 2) but it conflicts with the frist one! And it won't let me delete it because It says access denied. Please Help.

11 replies

by older mycroft

But what does this user have to say for themselves? Have you actually spoken to them?

Does this unnamed computer have internet access? It may not have been them at all. This may be attributable to some form of Malware.

[i]Call me naturally suspicious but although your membership reads 2 years - this is your FIRST EVER POST, which doesn't auger too well to 'educating' anyone in the wiles of a computer registry.[/i] ;)

by sonyman7

1. When I first signed up to this site I picked random selections just so I can sign up and see the answer to one of the solutions provided. Since then, I haven't actually updated my job role. I am a network administrator for a small law firm.

2. They do have internet access, but I've never heard of malware modifying the printer permissions, malware is usually associated with pop-ups and internet explorer issues. I did speak with the person and they deny everything.

3. Just because this is my first post doesn't mean I don't know anything about this field. But thanks for asking.

by older mycroft

If you want to be taken seriously, perhaps you could allocate a few moments out of your evidently hectic life as [i]"a network administrator for a small law firm"[i] to edit your TechRepublic Job Role, so's I (and everyone else!) don't assume that you work in HR - as your continuing Profile still proclaims.

I mean, if you can't be bothered to present a clear technically proficient image of yourself, I can hardly be held legally accountable for misinterpretation, can I ? ;)

by sue t

any other printers or programs to see if the security tab still exists on those? Is printer and file sharing turned on? did you try restoring a previous version of the registry? I have learned to make images of hard drives after doing a setup so if things happen I can just reimage the hard drive and be up and running in less than an hour.

by sonyman7

I have checked, and I can access the security tab on other printers on the same machine, but not the one giving me the problem. I get the following error message: Printer properties cannot be displayed. Access is denied. Printer file sharing is turned on. It would be a good idea to restore the registry to a previous state, but I do not have a recent version of it for this machine.

by kenone

When you go to Start\Settings\Printers and Faxes and right click a printer "Preferences" is not there? is "Properties"

by sonyman7

properties is there: but when I click on it, I get the following error message: Printer properties cannot be displayed. Access is denied.

by taskmasterdan

Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\ in the registry and copy the security data from a working printer to the printer that you cannot access. Then net stop and start the spooler service.

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