Cannot see printers

[Dan Oetzel]

I recently encountered the same behavior. For me, I
cannot see any of my installed printers in Explorer, and I
can't even add a printer there anymore. However, I can
see everything via any application's print dialog, and I
can execute the Add Printer Wizard that way, too. This
behavior just started recently for me, perhaps as a result
of a recent Microsoft update. Have you heard anything
about how to correct this?

By the way, I seem to have the same problemw with it not
showing my camera anymore, too. Applications can use it,
but Explorer doesn't show it just like the printers. I'd
be very interested to know what you've tried to fix this.
I was thinking I would have to reinstall Windwos from
scratch, but it sounds like you already tried this and it
didn't work.


>-----Original Message-----
>Windows XP Pro. When I click START/SETTINGS/PRINTERS AND
>FAXES the windows opens and I see nothing (and there are
>two printers installed (a Lexmark (which I need to
>delete) and an HP 600). I cannot see any printer so that
>I can set the HP as the default (which would happen if I
>could delete the Lexmark). I have jobs that need to be
>cancelled, but there is no printer icon in the task tray.
>
>How this happened I don't know, but it's irritating. Once
>group told me to rename all my DLL files in the SYSTEM32
>directory (1297 files) and that some programs may not
>work after doing that. MUST BE A BETTER WAY!
>
>BTW, I just reloaded XP Pro to fix another major problem,
>and hoped that it would fix this one. Fixed several
>problems, but not the printer problem.
>
>Hints, suggestions, solutions. And I'd like to see
>something other than just format and reinstall with XP.
>
>Thanks
>
>James
>
>.
>

[Robert Orleth [MSFT]]

Pray, tell, who is giving out the advice to rename all DLLs in system32 ?
That will positively render your machine unusable.

As to a real fix, try running "sfc /scannow" from a command line. There are
installers out there that replace printui.dll that hosts the printers folder
and the add printer wizard (and the command above will put the originals
back, except in one completely whacky case), and you describe almost the
typical symptoms except for being able to kick off the Add Printer Wizard
from a common dialog, that is usually not the case, as far as I can tell.

If that fixes the problem, I'd appreciate it if you could take a look in the
event viewer, see which files got restored to the originals and post it
here.

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


"Dan Oetzel" > wrote in message
...
>I recently encountered the same behavior. For me, I
> cannot see any of my installed printers in Explorer, and I
> can't even add a printer there anymore. However, I can
> see everything via any application's print dialog, and I
> can execute the Add Printer Wizard that way, too. This
> behavior just started recently for me, perhaps as a result
> of a recent Microsoft update. Have you heard anything
> about how to correct this?
>
> By the way, I seem to have the same problemw with it not
> showing my camera anymore, too. Applications can use it,
> but Explorer doesn't show it just like the printers. I'd
> be very interested to know what you've tried to fix this.
> I was thinking I would have to reinstall Windwos from
> scratch, but it sounds like you already tried this and it
> didn't work.
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>Windows XP Pro. When I click START/SETTINGS/PRINTERS AND
>>FAXES the windows opens and I see nothing (and there are
>>two printers installed (a Lexmark (which I need to
>>delete) and an HP 600). I cannot see any printer so that
>>I can set the HP as the default (which would happen if I
>>could delete the Lexmark). I have jobs that need to be
>>cancelled, but there is no printer icon in the task tray.
>>
>>How this happened I don't know, but it's irritating. Once
>>group told me to rename all my DLL files in the SYSTEM32
>>directory (1297 files) and that some programs may not
>>work after doing that. MUST BE A BETTER WAY!
>>
>>BTW, I just reloaded XP Pro to fix another major problem,
>>and hoped that it would fix this one. Fixed several
>>problems, but not the printer problem.
>>
>>Hints, suggestions, solutions. And I'd like to see
>>something other than just format and reinstall with XP.
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>James
>>
>>.
>>