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Old 04-18-2007   #5 (permalink)
Dan [MSFT]


 
 

Re: Adding network printer crashes windows explorer

Alright, we're going to try a different solution here. There's a known
issue in the Active Directory search that is likely the problem you're
hitting (thanks everyone who sends in crash information).

I'm going to instruct you on how to use policies to turn off the AD search
so that the affected code doesn't run on your machine. We're currently
evaluating a fix for this for SP1 (sorry, can't promise anything) so with a
little luck folks won't continue hitting this for long.

Here's what do do on the machine that is running the Add Printer wizard.
1) Open a command prompt (Start \ All Programs \ Accessories \ Command
Prompt)
2) Start gpedit (type in gpedit & hit enter). This may require an elevation
(the UAC dialog). Accept this.
3) Navigate to Local Computer Policy \ Computer Configuration \
Administrative Templates \ Printers
4) Find the entry named "Add Printer wizard - Network scan page (Managed
network)" & double click it to open.
5) Select Enabled
6) In the entry for "Number of directory printers" set this to 0.
7) Click OK & close gpedit
8) From the command line run "gpupdate". This can take several minutes to
run.
9) The Add Printer wizard will not run the AD search on the net search page,
which should prevent the crash.

If you want to select a printer that was published to the active directory
you can use one of two methods:
1) The old active directory search should still work.
a) On the network search page, click "The printer I want isn't listed"
b) Select "Find a printer in the directory, based on location or
feature" on the next page. This search should continue to work.
2) You can always enter these printers directly by their names.
a) On the network search page, click "The printer I want isn't listed"
b) Select "Select a shared printer by name" and type in the name, for
example "\\computername\printername"

Let me know if this solves your problem. And keep sending crash logs, they
are very useful.

Thanks,
Dan

"Hugh G. Johnson" <hughgjohnsonBLAHBLAH@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:uHE$1ZRfHHA.2216@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Dan,
>
> thank you for your response. Unfortunately I can't really follow these
> directions. What computer am I supposed to do this from? The SBS03 box, or
> my Vista box? These instructions seem a bit dated. Sorry for being so
> dense. I'm a SBSer, not a rocket scientist. :-)
>
> Hugh,
>
>
> "Dan [MSFT]" <djanni@microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:%23sFYJcFfHHA.4552@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Can you try adding a location for your subnet/site. Instructions can be
>> found at:
>> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...ation_lite.htm
>>
>> Let me know if it solves the problem or not.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Dan
>>
>> "Donant" <Donant@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:646E405C-FAB4-42EB-8298-032825E985F9@microsoft.com...
>>> Same problem for me. Exactly the same.
>>>
>>> Donant
>>>
>>> "Hugh G. Johnson" wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've seen other people have this problem, but didn't find a way to
>>>> resolve
>>>> this.
>>>>
>>>> I'm running Vista Ult on a SBS03 domain. When I click add network
>>>> printer I
>>>> get a dialog box saying windows explorer has quit and is restarting
>>>> which it
>>>> does, then the printer control panel is gone and nuttin'. No dialog box
>>>> to
>>>> send a crash report or anything.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>>>
>>>> Hugh
>>>>
>>>>

>>
>>

>



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