Printer properties

[lawo_nett]

Hello,
I have a problem with users that use a network printer, and the print preferences that is configured is not retrived correct from Windows. The users for printers have different BW/Color, Duplex/No Duplex settings. The settings are ok the first time, default printer, is selected. When the user select a different printer (eks: Color/Duplex), the settings are not correct. When select back to the default printer that settings are also wrong. If I exit the print window and select print, the default printer preferences are correct. The settings are OK when printing from other programs, and switch between printers. The printer is an RICOH Aficio MP C4500 that use the latest driver.

[Mofi]

Check if toggling configuration setting Load/restore printer settings at Advanced - Configuration - Editor - Advanced in UltraEdit makes a difference. Usually it is advisable to have this setting unchecked if a network printer is the default printer because of longer start-up time.

[lawo_nett]

Thanks for quick response. I have now tested with "Load/restore printer settings", but that does not work.

[Mofi]

Do you have the same printer installed several times with different settings?

I have in my company installed 4 printers: two are for creating PDF or XPS files locally and two different network printers. If I open in UltraEdit File - Print Setup/Configuration - Print Setup and switch from one printer to another one, I can see that the dialog refreshes. Also with pressing button Properties right from the printer name the appropriate settings of the currently selected printer are displayed and can be setup. The dialog is the standard Windows Print Setup dialog as coded by Microsoft and stored in MFC library.

I have a second application coded by myself using also standard Windows Print Setup dialog of MFC library and it looks and works exactly the same as the dialog in UltraEdit.

I'm using Windows XP SP3.

[lawo_nett]

Yes, the users have the same printer installed several times with different settings (Duplex/Color/BlackWhite). Under XP/Sp3 this works OK.

The users that have the problem run Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit.

[Mofi]

It's interesting that there is no problem on Windows XP, just on Windows 7 x64. Do you know the problem with long printer names as Microsoft explains in article INFO: Working with Long Printer Names. I'm quite sure that the IDM developers have not added additional code as suggested by Microsoft to workaround the printer name length limit of 32 characters in Microsoft's MFC library.

Are the first 32 characters of the names of the 4 printers on Windows 7 indentical?

Yes, then you should rename the printers on server and all clients so there is a significant difference in name of the 4 printers within the first 32 characters. This is an issue occurring most likely only when having the same network printer installed several times with different configurations.

In my point of view it does not make sense to have a network printer installed several times with just some differences in configuration. Okay, it gives the users the possibility to print with different settings by simply selecting another printer than the default. But printers also support nowadays different profiles. So instead of having multiple printers installed which in real print all on the same printer, it would be also possible to have only 1 printer and select in the printer properties a different profile when needed. For the main network printer we use in our company we have only 1 printer installed and use the profiles requiring only 2 additional clicks in comparison to having the network printer installed several times with different profiles preselected.