Default Printer Error

[finney_83]

A user is experiencing an issue where they have to change the default printer, before printing.

 

This particular computer has four printers installed, and usually to print, the user would just click File/Print, then chose which printer they wish to print to. Although now, in that list of printers, only the default printer shows up, and the rest are greyed out. To print to another printer, you have to go into Printers & Faxes and change the default printer to another one.

 

Anyone got any ideas why this could be happening?

[Nixphoe]

Is this issue with just one application or is it every application?

[Michael]

If you download the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, there's a utility called Cleanspl.exe or Clean Spooler. Running this, you can reset the spooler to its default state on specific machines (which will delete all printers/configuration allowing you to re-install printers from scratch). This has solved all kinds of weird and wonderful problems I've experienced with spooler.

[finney_83]

OK, slightly odd, but i've come in this morning and checked if the user is still having the default printer problems, and they aren't!

 

No idea what could of caused this fault, or what's fixed it overnight! Thanks for the replies anyway.

 

If the problem re-appears, I will come back to this thread and try out your solutions.