Cannot add network printers

[GoldenWonder]

I've used the "rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry" script to add printers to PCs (printers are all on a Windows 2003 Server) and it works fine with XP.

 

Doesn't work at all with Windows 7 x64 though. Even though I've put the 64bit drivers on the print server I just get an error running the script saying the 'printer is not available check your network connection'

 

If I try to manually add the printer using the control panel I always get the error '0x000000a Windows cannot connect to the printer'

 

Does this when I try to install a printer with a 32bit driver or a 64 bit driver.

 

As the script and the manual method fail I'm guessing MS haven't got a way for a 64bit clients to use printers shared on 32bit servers?

[Admiral208]

have you tried installing the drivers on the clients first?

[GoldenWonder]

Yes - I installed on the client. Then I used printmanagement.msc to copy the drivers over to the server. I can see the drivers as being installed on both client and server but the client cannot access the networked printers on the server.

 

EDIT - got this working but manually. Using Add Printer, local printer, local port and specifying the port as \\server\printer. The specifiying the driver manually works fine!

 

Shame the script won't work anymore. It does seem to have worked on our 32bit W7 machines though

Edited January 5, 2011 by GoldenWonder