XP Home printing by non-admins

I have XP home, with a cpl of printers. What I've found is that non-admins
can't print. While it doesn't generate any error msg, the output just never
appears.
Over the years a cpl of folks told me that "it's by design", I'm wondering
if anyone has any thoughts about it ?
Thanx, Joe Auerbach

It depends on the printer driver. If the driver requires a resource that
only the admin has access to then non admin printing fails.

All the drivers that are included on the XP CD (seven years old I realize)
work for non admin. Any print vendor can write a driver that requires admin
access to registry keys and file locations that prevent the non admin from
successfully printing. Most vendors do not intentionally do this but when
they do it's by design until they fix the driver.

Only times, particularly on managed networks, security lock downs are
created that block non admin access to settings and file locations the
driver needs thus cause the same problem.

There's a couple way to verify that the non admin is hitting an access
issue.

1) check the event log. Error 5 is access denied.

2) if the job goes into the queue but never prints until the next time the
machine reboots, this typically indicates that the user does not have access
to a resource, but on spooler restart the job is scheduled in the spooler
security context rather than the user security context your are left posting
for answers thinking no one will respond, then you get a long dialog from
some guy who's waiting for the next build of the next OS so he can kick off
some tests and go home.

I hope this helps.

Lexmark has had issue with some of their older models but most of the recent
devices worked out the kinks on XP.

Konica Minolta has/had an issue with Vista but they know where the error was
and were releasing a new driver.


No matter what the vendor, look for the lasted driver from the vendor. If
they have a readme they may explain the fixed issues.

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

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

"Joe Auerbach" <JoeAuerbach@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:84847A60-3DD4-4BB8-AF7B-0437D40B51A6@microsoft.com...
>I have XP home, with a cpl of printers. What I've found is that non-admins
> can't print. While it doesn't generate any error msg, the output just
> never
> appears.
> Over the years a cpl of folks told me that "it's by design", I'm wondering
> if anyone has any thoughts about it ?
> Thanx, Joe Auerbach

Alan, thanx for the detailed response, I'll do some checking as to event log
entries. The print job shows in the queue and then goes away, as if it had
worked, but nothing shows on the paper. The specific printer that I have now
is an Epson C88, altho I've had this issue with others previously.

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:

> It depends on the printer driver. If the driver requires a resource that
> only the admin has access to then non admin printing fails.
>
> All the drivers that are included on the XP CD (seven years old I realize)
> work for non admin. Any print vendor can write a driver that requires admin
> access to registry keys and file locations that prevent the non admin from
> successfully printing. Most vendors do not intentionally do this but when
> they do it's by design until they fix the driver.
>
> Only times, particularly on managed networks, security lock downs are
> created that block non admin access to settings and file locations the
> driver needs thus cause the same problem.
>
> There's a couple way to verify that the non admin is hitting an access
> issue.
>
> 1) check the event log. Error 5 is access denied.
>
> 2) if the job goes into the queue but never prints until the next time the
> machine reboots, this typically indicates that the user does not have access
> to a resource, but on spooler restart the job is scheduled in the spooler
> security context rather than the user security context your are left posting
> for answers thinking no one will respond, then you get a long dialog from
> some guy who's waiting for the next build of the next OS so he can kick off
> some tests and go home.
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Lexmark has had issue with some of their older models but most of the recent
> devices worked out the kinks on XP.
>
> Konica Minolta has/had an issue with Vista but they know where the error was
> and were releasing a new driver.
>
>
> No matter what the vendor, look for the lasted driver from the vendor. If
> they have a readme they may explain the fixed issues.
>
> --
> Alan Morris
> Windows Printing Team
> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
> "Joe Auerbach" <JoeAuerbach@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:84847A60-3DD4-4BB8-AF7B-0437D40B51A6@microsoft.com...
> >I have XP home, with a cpl of printers. What I've found is that non-admins
> > can't print. While it doesn't generate any error msg, the output just
> > never
> > appears.
> > Over the years a cpl of folks told me that "it's by design", I'm wondering
> > if anyone has any thoughts about it ?
> > Thanx, Joe Auerbach
>
>
>