Printer will only work in Admin Account

[Libra]

To Bruce Sanderson,
Thank you for your reply. I used the "cut" method to move a progra
I installed in my Admin account to the All Users Program files and i
worked.

I have the Dell 920 all-in-one printer which is only shared on the X
Home computer among the Admin and 2 limited users. The work-around I'v
used is to make a limited user an admin, let them scan once and the
change the account back to a limited user again. The scan will wor
until the user logs out.

When I installed this printer Lexpps.exe asked for server rights i
ZA, so I gave them although everything I've read about Lexpps.ex
indicates it is needed for a Network Shared printer. In the past, whe
I disabled Lexpps.exe in Zone Alarm the printer wouldn't work anymor
and I got errors. I don't know if this is coincidence or not, but
gave Lexpps.exe rights now. Do you know if it's necessary to run th
printer?

Thank you.

Sincerely, Libra

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

No, I don't know if lexprss.exe (lexpps.exe?) has to be able to communicate
over the network for the printer to work.

Sounds to me like the "Dell 920" is really a Lexmark multi-function device
that Dell has re-branded. From the pictures on the Dell and Lexmark web
sites, the 920 looks very much like the Lexmark x1150 PrintTrio.

The folks that build the drivers for Lexmark printers seem to have their own
strange way of doing things. See for example
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm#LexmarkDriver.

If the printer is actually connected to a USB port on the local computer,
there should not be any need for the printer driver to communicate over the
network, which is what firewalls like Zone Alarm control. But, like I said,
printer driver writers sometimes do strange things.

Unfortunately also, some of the people that design and build software expect
every user to be an administrator and don't even think about making it
possible to use their software/hardware with non administrative user
accounts. It's difficult to determine this without actually trying to use
the stuff.

Sorry, but I could not find any information on either the Dell or Lexmark
site about what you can do to allow limited users to use that particular
multi-function device.

About the only way this is going to change is for enough customers to
complain loudly enough to the vendors so they pay attention. Maybe, whoever
you bought the printer from will take it back/exchange it for one that does
not have this limitation.

----------------------------------------

When you change a user account from administrative to limited, what you are
actually doing is changing what "Groups" that user account is a member of.
Administrative user accounts are members of the Administrators group;
limited user accounts aren't. Group membership is only read when the user
logs on. Any group membeship changes affecting the user account made after
that will only have an affect on the users rights and permissions when they
logoff and logon again. This is normal behaviour for all Windows operating
systems.