Adding network printer crashes windows explorer

[Hugh G. Johnson]

I've seen other people have this problem, but didn't find a way to resolve
this.

I'm running Vista Ult on a SBS03 domain. When I click add network printer I
get a dialog box saying windows explorer has quit and is restarting which it
does, then the printer control panel is gone and nuttin'. No dialog box to
send a crash report or anything.

Thanks.

Hugh

[Donant]

Same problem for me. Exactly the same.

Donant

[Dan [MSFT]]

Can you try adding a location for your subnet/site. Instructions can be
found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows2000/en/advanced/help/sag_mp_location_lite.htm

Let me know if it solves the problem or not.

Thanks,
Dan

"Donant" <Don...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:646E405C-FAB4-42EB...@microsoft.com...

[Hugh G. Johnson]

Dan,

thank you for your response. Unfortunately I can't really follow these
directions. What computer am I supposed to do this from? The SBS03 box, or
my Vista box? These instructions seem a bit dated. Sorry for being so dense.
I'm a SBSer, not a rocket scientist. :-)

Hugh,

"Dan [MSFT]" <dja...@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:%23sFYJcF...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

[Dan [MSFT]]

Alright, we're going to try a different solution here. There's a known
issue in the Active Directory search that is likely the problem you're
hitting (thanks everyone who sends in crash information).

I'm going to instruct you on how to use policies to turn off the AD search
so that the affected code doesn't run on your machine. We're currently
evaluating a fix for this for SP1 (sorry, can't promise anything) so with a
little luck folks won't continue hitting this for long.

Here's what do do on the machine that is running the Add Printer wizard.
1) Open a command prompt (Start \ All Programs \ Accessories \ Command
Prompt)
2) Start gpedit (type in gpedit & hit enter). This may require an elevation
(the UAC dialog). Accept this.
3) Navigate to Local Computer Policy \ Computer Configuration \
Administrative Templates \ Printers
4) Find the entry named "Add Printer wizard - Network scan page (Managed
network)" & double click it to open.
5) Select Enabled
6) In the entry for "Number of directory printers" set this to 0.
7) Click OK & close gpedit
8) From the command line run "gpupdate". This can take several minutes to
run.
9) The Add Printer wizard will not run the AD search on the net search page,
which should prevent the crash.

If you want to select a printer that was published to the active directory
you can use one of two methods:
1) The old active directory search should still work.
a) On the network search page, click "The printer I want isn't listed"
b) Select "Find a printer in the directory, based on location or
feature" on the next page. This search should continue to work.
2) You can always enter these printers directly by their names.
a) On the network search page, click "The printer I want isn't listed"
b) Select "Select a shared printer by name" and type in the name, for
example "\\computername\printername"

Let me know if this solves your problem. And keep sending crash logs, they
are very useful.

Thanks,
Dan

"Hugh G. Johnson" <hughgjohns...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:uHE$1ZRfHH...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

[Jim]

I tried this procedure and the problem remained, so I reversed it.

What did work for me was:

1. Open the printer window.
2. Instead of clicking on the "Add Printer" icon, right click on the blank
space in the window.
3. Select "Run As Administrator" and "Add Printer" from the sub menus.

Everything has worked fine with that technique.

I appreciate the other suggestion, Dan. It introduced me to gpedit.
--
--Jim

[officedude]

My problem is almost identical, but unfortunately none of the suggested
solutions work.

I have Vista Business and when I attempt to add a new printer, and
click on Add a network...etc printer, I get the immediate message of
"Windows Explorer has stopped working".

Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks!

--
officedude
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[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

Did you refresh the local policy after disabling the AD search page? You
should be able to just browse to the remote server and add the connection
using this method.

==============================
Are printers published into your Active Directory? If not you can disable
the AD search feature

gpedit.msc
Computer Configuration / Admin Templates / Printers / Add Printer wizard -

Network scan page (Managed network)

Disable or configure for you purpose

in a cmd window
gpupdate /force

this refreshes the policies

Now run Add Printer
================================================

--
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.

"officedude" <officedu...@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:officedu...@DoNotSpam.com...

[johnp0126]

the link from microsoft support doesn't work, i also have this problem
very frustrating

--
johnp0126
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[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

The link is to the KB basic search page.

Did you configure or disable the network search page as the previous post
details?

--
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.

"johnp0126" <johnp012...@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:johnp012...@DoNotSpam.com...

[johnp0126]

i have found that if i do a start run \\printerservername\

then go into the printers folder
the open a printer
click on the first menu and connect that the driver gets installed if
needed and the printer loads and works correctly, must be something
with browsing and authentication that does not work.