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USB Printing

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by webwoef

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Hi,

We're having troubles with printing in Windows XP.
We use a USB connection between printer and PC.
We have this problem with HP 3420 and Canon I550.

We install the usb-printer as usual. And for a short period, everything works well.
Then sudden, windows finds the same printer again, and installs it.
The drivers are already on the disk because presence of the initial printer we installed.

When XP does install the second printer (Canon I550-copy 1) the original goes offline.
This is bad 'cos the users (in our stores) have no rights to change printer properties, ...
and can't print anymore.

We can't trigger this situation ourselves. It seems winXP has a mind of his own.

How can we avoid installing / discovering off new printers / other hardware ????
We use a group policy on a Win2K server.

Thanks,

Wim Heirbaut.

3 replies

by sgt_shultz

yes, this is an annoying thing that xp does... it 'discovers' network resources on its own. you can turn it off...i don't have xp in front of me right now, check in help and i will see if i can find out how to turn it off...

by sgt_shultz

ok. here it is. excerpt follows from mskb article 320138
--------------------------------------------
Disable the Automatic Search for Network Printers and Folders
To disable the automatic search for network printers and folders:
Click Start, click Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes, and click Folder Options to open the Folder Options dialog box.
Click the View tab.
In the Advanced Settings list, click to clear the Automatically Search for Network Folders and Printers check box.Click OK.
----------------------------------
that's intuitive, eh? (not) who does MS get to test their user interface, anyhow??! ahem.

by webwoef

it's not a network printer. but i did check the setting and it's cleared.

Exists (or should exists) a registry key that indicates that this printer is already installed ?
Or a registry key that says not to look for new hardware ?
Or is it maybea service ?

Thanks already.

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