Power users unable to install printer drivers

[MX140]

Members of the Power users group on my servers used to be able to install
printer drivers. Now when they try, everything goes ok in the the Add
printer wizard until they click on the Finish button. Then a message box
saying "Printer driver was not installed. Access was denied" is displayed.
This only happens when installing print queues which need new drivers,
adding queues which use drivers that are already installed is fine.
I've tried giving Power users full control on c:\winnt, c:\winnt\system32,
c:\winnt\system32\spool and sub-folders.
I've also set the registry value 'Addprinterdrivers' in key
HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\ Providers\Lan man Print
Services\Servers to 0, which I think allows any user to install drivers, but
that made no difference.

Administrators can install drivers, but there's a lot of servers and
printers and not many admins, hence the use of the powers user group to
allow non-admins to add the drivers.

The servers are all W2k sp4 and use Software Update Services to keep patches
up to date.

I've run out of ideas. Can anyone offer any advise ?

Thanks,

M

 

[Aretak]

In order to give a Power User the ability to load a local printer, you
need to set the policy *Load and Unload Device Drivers* and give your
users and/or groups rights to it.

Here is a Microsoft article that tells you how to do it.

http://tinyurl.com/6dosh

Here is the part that concerns your problem:

To install local printer drivers, you need to be a member of the Power
Users or Administrators group and have the Load and unload device
drivers privilege assigned to you.

To add the Load and unload device drivers privilege for Power Users

In Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, click
Administrative Tools, and then double-click Local Security Policy.
In the console tree, double-click Local Policies, and then double-click
User Rights Assignment.
In the right pane, right-click the Load and unload device drivers
policy, and then click Properties.
Click Add, enter the Power Users group, and then click OK.

Hope it helps

 

[panda]

Could you please tell me if power users can set their own default printer?

panda

 

[Alan Morris\(MSFT\)]

Yes. The setting is a per user setting in the user registry

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

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