Problems with Printer Sharing

Jeff Zylstra · April 26, 2013, 01:05:10 PM

First of all, this is "charity work" that I am doing for a neighbor who is down and out and can't afford a "real" IT person to fix her computer. She works from home and desperately needs to get printer sharing working between her work and home computers. The work computer is an XP computer that is owned and controlled by her employer. Her computer is running Vista Home Basic, and she is sharing the printer off from that computer on to her work computer.

The problem is that I cannot turn on printer sharing in the network and sharing section. I had to turn on file sharing by editing the registry. I am using an administrator account, so permissions are not the issue (I think). You can change the setting from off to on, but it won't stay. And when you check the box to "share" the printer, it gives you an error (s

There is no GPEDIT (probably because this is a HOME version), but it sure acts like there is a group policy that is prohibiting me from changing the printer sharing option and having it save. And obviously, it won't share this printer because of it. Does anyone know the registry entry that would prohibit me from simply checking the box to turn printer sharing on? I've searched, but can't seem to find much on Vista registry, and I'm not really sure if it is the same as XP, or Windows 7. Thanks in advance.

Jeff Golas · April 26, 2013, 01:19:35 PM

You can do gpedit by running MMC from start-> run and adding the "local security policy" console to it.

I would think you can do printer sharing on Vista Home Basic, but if the opposite end is connecting to/from a network with a domain, probably won't work (because of the "home basic" OS).

I'm sure you found this but I'll link it anyway:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/enable-file-and-printer-sharing

Jeff Zylstra · April 26, 2013, 01:30:45 PM

Quote from: Jeff Golas on April 26, 2013, 01:19:35 PM
You can do gpedit by running MMC from start-> run and adding the "local security policy" console to it.

I would think you can do printer sharing on Vista Home Basic, but if the opposite end is connecting to/from a network with a domain, probably won't work (because of the "home basic" OS).

I'm sure you found this but I'll link it anyway:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/enable-file-and-printer-sharing

Ooh! I hope that you're correct. I did try the local security policy snap in, but I didn't see anything relating to printer sharing. I will look again, though. And yes, I did see that website, but the setting won't "stick". It just reverts back, leading me to believe that something in group policy or the registry is restricting me. I got the file sharing to work, and the "lights" in Network setup indicate that they are turned on, but printer sharing will NOT work.

Also, the "search" function in Vista must be messed up. When I type command.com, cmd.exe, or the names of other core system files in the "run" box, it says they don't exist. Is this a PATH issue, or a defective search function in Windows? As you can tell, I intensely dislike Vista.

Jeff Golas · April 26, 2013, 02:08:49 PM

Even in 7 the start menu search (awesome when it works) is here and there sometimes.

To be honest I looked a little more and its possible Vista home basic doesn't allow printer sharing, but that said I did see one article where someone had Norton Internet Security installed and that actually blocked/disabled the printer sharing functionality. Once they modified settings in Norton it enabled that functionality in Windows again.

Jeff Zylstra · April 26, 2013, 03:38:58 PM

Quote from: Jeff Golas on April 26, 2013, 02:08:49 PM
Even in 7 the start menu search (awesome when it works) is here and there sometimes.

To be honest I looked a little more and its possible Vista home basic doesn't allow printer sharing, but that said I did see one article where someone had Norton Internet Security installed and that actually blocked/disabled the printer sharing functionality. Once they modified settings in Norton it enabled that functionality in Windows again.

It is running Microsoft Security Essentials, and I have turned off the Windows Firewall completely to rule that out. It was working, and then suddenly it stopped working for some reason. Her work computer is bolted down tight, and I can't change anything on that machine. I have a feeling that a Windows update may have changed something and overwritten a registry entry somewhere. I was able to find something that talked about a "NoPrinterSharing" registry key to disallow printer sharing. Not sure if that is for Vista or not, but I will find out this weekend. Thanks, Jeff

Jeff Zylstra · April 29, 2013, 02:33:21 PM

OK. Just looked at this again yesterday for a bit. It appears that what I had was not the "local security policy", in group policy snap in, because it doesn't exist there. There was a security database type of snap in, but it was blank. There are a limited number of snap ins available in Vista Basic, so it looks like a registry hack might be the key, or something has been corrupted in either the print spooler or network.

I took the machine home so that I could work on it more, but I'll only have it for a while. Again, I can change the printer sharing setting and hit "apply", but it just reverts back to "off". I briefly tried Process Monitor, but the only thing it showed for SpoolSvc.exe was a "Buffer Length Overrun" at about the same time that I tried to change the setting. Does anyone have any ideas?

Alice Mooney · April 29, 2013, 03:58:40 PM

Is there a way to remove the spooler then add it back? When we started using XP, many a users spooler got corrupted and I think that's how it was fixed. I know it's not Vista, but thought I'd mention anyway.

Bob · April 29, 2013, 04:03:41 PM

Quote from: Alice on April 29, 2013, 03:58:40 PM
Is there a way to remove the spooler then add it back? When we started using XP, many a users spooler got corrupted and I think that's how it was fixed. I know it's not Vista, but thought I'd mention anyway.

If had luck too when odd things happen to go into services.msc and restart the print spooler.

Jeff Zylstra · April 29, 2013, 04:38:12 PM

I've had some success with the following batch file that clears the spooler, but not in this case. I will try it again when I get home, but something networking wise is keeping it from sharing. It's almost like something isn't installed, or got corrupted that way. I've tried adding registry entries to allow printer sharing but so far no joy, so I think I am going to download a fresh network card driver and try uninstalling it, and reinstalling a new one. I hope that does it, because I'm quickly running out of ideas. And I HATE working on Vista! It might be the Home Basic version, but it seems like many, many Windows utilities that I am use to working with are not present in this version, and typing the names for known utilities like regedt32.exe in the "run" box doesn't work! Hence my comment about path environment not working.

By the way, the batch file below is harmless, and does not require re-installation of any print drivers or the like.

@echo off
@echo clearing spooler directory...
net stop spooler
del c:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\printers\*.shd del c:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\printers\*.spl /F /Q
net start spooler
pause
@echo Finished.

Jeff Zylstra · April 30, 2013, 01:00:10 PM

I ran Process Monitor on the machine last night, and noticed that the machine was showing "Name Collisions" in the registry. Apparently this is a known problem with Vista and maybe other operating systems as well.

When the printer name is the same as the share name, the registry "gets confused" because it is trying to write data with what it believes is the same registry key. I uninstalled the Dell printer software and rebooted last night, but until I can connect to the printer again, I cannot re-install the software. I will choose the same share name (because the other machine is looking for that share), but rename the printer next time when it is installed. Apparently changing the printer name AFTER it is installed does not work. We'll see....

Jeff Golas · April 30, 2013, 01:37:36 PM

Intawesting...keep us posted!

Jeff Zylstra · April 30, 2013, 03:39:25 PM

Quote from: Jeff Golas on April 30, 2013, 01:37:36 PM
Intawesting...keep us posted!

Will do. This is certainly one of the most challenging games of "whack a mole" that I've played in a long time. I will keep you posted on what it turns out to be. Even if I have to do a "repair" of Vista. Although getting down to that level scares me since I know little of Vista, other than to stay away.

Mark · April 30, 2013, 03:41:47 PM

Vista is one big game of whack a mole.

Jeff Zylstra · April 30, 2013, 03:47:37 PM

Quote from: Mark on April 30, 2013, 03:41:47 PM
Vista is one big game of whack a mole.

You've played this game, huh? I've never seen an OS that is so "dumbed down" with so many missing and/or barely functional utilities. It doesn't even have Regedit on it! I just hope I can get it fixed and never see it again.

Jeff Zylstra · May 02, 2013, 09:57:09 AM

OK, now for the "punchline" to this joke of an OS. I have been working on this machine with the Windows Firewall turned OFF for this entire time. I checked the firewall logs and nothing showed up, so I assumed (don't say it

) that the firewall was not causing an issue. I was wrong.

Last night stopped the service for the firewall, and was immediately able to turn on printer sharing, file sharing, and all of the 6 options in the networking and sharing center in Vista. I restarted the firewall service and turned on the firewall, and it SEEMS to be working fine. I say "seems" because the computer is not connected to the same network in order to share the printer yet.

I guess the moral of this story is not to trust the Vista firewall, but to disable the service. Now, I did uninstall (along with a cleanup utility) and reinstall the printer again, so I'm not sure that the firewall exception for the printer program is still any good anymore. Even though the file installed in the same location with the same file name, I'm not sure if the exception is working or not. We'll see.

I seem to remember issues with the UAC not doing what it was told on Vista. Not sure what I will do if I have to mess with that.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered their help. This poor lady doesn't have a pot to pee in, so your help was definitely needed and greatly appreciated. Thank you and +1.