Update Printer Status

[edsamuelson]

I need to programmatically update the printer status in the Printers and Faxes Dialog in Windows XP.

The printer status there never changes from ready.
When a print is sent to the printer, the print goes to the spooler,
and then sent to the hardware driver. After 45 seconds a message box
indicates that the printer is offline, and the print queue status is Error-Printing.

My program can tell that the hardware printer is offline, and I would like
to set the string in the Printers and Faxes Dialog.

 

[edsamuelson]

I spent some time looking for this.

the file to do it was windows\system32\prncnfg.vbs

status=ready cscript prncnfg.vbs -t -p PRINTERNAME -workoffline
status=offline cscript prncnfg.vbs -t -p PRINTERNAME +workoffline