xp3. Set printer to none?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul in Houston TX
  • Start date Start date
Paul said:
xp3. Several computers.
Several Printers.
How can I set Default set to none?
Click to expand...

_Through the GUI available for Windows_

Only if you have no printers installed. "Default" means one of those
that exist is, um, the default. If you have 1 printer, it's the default
as it is the only choice. If you have 2, or more printers, you get to
choose which one is the default. If you have no printers, you cannot
choose a default from nothing. If you want to PRINT, a PRINTer must be
selected. Note: Not all applications that have a print function present
a dialog to let you choose which printer to use. Those apps just use
whatever is the default printer. You tell the app to print and it
prints. There is no intervening dialog asking you which printer to use
hence the need to specify a default printer.


_Through the registry for Windows_

Well, do you want to dig into the registry and edit the default printer
assignment there? Remember if you edit the registry that you better
have an escape route planned in case you screw it up (and perhaps so
badly that you cannot load Windows anymore). You modify the registry at
your own risk.

Read:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156212
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/registry2/where-in-the-registry-is-the-default-printer-set-.aspx

I'm guessing that deleting this data item will remove the assignment as
to which printer is the default. However, it's possible that you get
prompted at a later time to elect a default.

This is a per-user setting. If you have multiple user accounts defined
in Windows, you'll have to visit each account's settings to modify the
default printer under each one. There are only 2 real hives in the
registry: HKEY_USERS and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. The others are
pseudo-hives in that they are compiled from entries in the 2 real hives.
So HKEY_CURRENT_USER is taken from HKEY_USERS and based on the currently
logged in user. So to edit the default printer for all user accounts in
Windows, you go under each HKEY_USERS\<sid> key where <sid> is the
security identifier assigned to each user account. Some SIDs are fixed
for well-known accounts (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243330). Each
user account gets a random and unique SID assigned to it when it gets
created (i.e., when you create a new user account, a unique SID gets
assigned to it to track it in the SAM database). To figure out which
SID is for which user account: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154599.
 
Despite what "VanguardLH" wrote, you may well be able to "fool" Windows
into not maintaining a default printer be deleting the following registry
value (then logoff / logon for the change to take effect) :


REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
"Device"=-


....but if after your logoff / logon , a default printer is still set
(denoted by the "tick" next to it in the Printers folder in Windows
Explorer) and the registry value re-appears - then it hasn't worked.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

What I would like is to have the printer option
of "None".

Especially for the laptop that moves
to different locations every now and then.
Excel has a hard time with no printer attached
or it tries to find the last printer and locks the
system for a minute or two before giving up.

Have not tried the reg edit yet. I will later.
 
Tim said:
Despite what "VanguardLH" wrote, you may well be able to "fool" Windows
into not maintaining a default printer be deleting the following registry
value (then logoff / logon for the change to take effect) :

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
"Device"=-
Click to expand...

Thanks for reinforcing what I *did* say which was to use the registry.
Glad to know you see the same registry key that I mentioned is what you
repeated in your recount of my post.
 
VanguardLH said:
_Through the GUI available for Windows_

Only if you have no printers installed. "Default" means one of those
that exist is, um, the default. If you have 1 printer, it's the default
as it is the only choice. If you have 2, or more printers, you get to
choose which one is the default. If you have no printers, you cannot
choose a default from nothing. If you want to PRINT, a PRINTer must be
selected. Note: Not all applications that have a print function present
a dialog to let you choose which printer to use. Those apps just use
whatever is the default printer. You tell the app to print and it
prints. There is no intervening dialog asking you which printer to use
hence the need to specify a default printer.


_Through the registry for Windows_

Well, do you want to dig into the registry and edit the default printer
assignment there? Remember if you edit the registry that you better
have an escape route planned in case you screw it up (and perhaps so
badly that you cannot load Windows anymore). You modify the registry at
your own risk.

Read:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156212
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/registry2/where-in-the-registry-is-the-default-printer-set-.aspx

I'm guessing that deleting this data item will remove the assignment as
to which printer is the default. However, it's possible that you get
prompted at a later time to elect a default.

This is a per-user setting. If you have multiple user accounts defined
in Windows, you'll have to visit each account's settings to modify the
default printer under each one. There are only 2 real hives in the
registry: HKEY_USERS and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. The others are
pseudo-hives in that they are compiled from entries in the 2 real hives.
So HKEY_CURRENT_USER is taken from HKEY_USERS and based on the currently
logged in user. So to edit the default printer for all user accounts in
Windows, you go under each HKEY_USERS\<sid> key where <sid> is the
security identifier assigned to each user account. Some SIDs are fixed
for well-known accounts (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243330). Each
user account gets a random and unique SID assigned to it when it gets
created (i.e., when you create a new user account, a unique SID gets
assigned to it to track it in the SAM database). To figure out which
SID is for which user account: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154599.
Click to expand...

I assume you want to keep the installed printers but as they're not always
available it's a pain that there's a Default one which I assume it takes
awhile to figure out isn't available when you go to print.

Perhaps simply adding the "Print to text file" printer may be an easy
solution, e.g. make it the default printer. Only problem with that is (or
used to be if memory serves me right) some programs (Word for one) restrict
formatting documents as the printer can't do squat :)

Therefore perhaps one of the free (Bullzip I believe was the name) Print to
PDF printers would be better.
 
xp3. Several computers.
Several Printers.
How can I set Default set to none?
Click to expand...

1. Default Printer is set individually for each PC
(not the network.)
2. The simplest possible configuration may be
to have a PC (or all PCs) make "Print to File"
the default printer.
 
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