Mike H. - Another Geek In Need...

WebLog

  Home  |   Contact  |   Syndication    |   Login
  58 Posts | 6 Stories | 216 Comments | 293 Trackbacks

News

Archives

Post Categories

Image Galleries

Development

Favorite Blogs

Hosting

User Groups

As a developer, one of the first things I did to my notebook (running Vista) is disable the UAC - I can't stand it - it keeps me from installing things like Virtual Server (which is not supported on Vista - but works perfectly fine), and is basically something I'm not worried about.

Until I want to add a printer that is a network resource on my LAN. I get the error that the printer cannot be added - "The specified print monitor is unknown."

Very informative - I know.

Well, believe it or not - this occurred because I set the value for the UAC to zero - or basically disabled it. The issue pops up because the network printer resource MUST install a driver on your local workstation - and if UAC is turned off, by default - MSFT has written into this - DO NOT install any foreign device - period.

To resolve - I open the registry HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and set EnableLUA to a value of ONE "1" - reboot - and the printer adds just fine.

The question I'm sure you're asking yourself... "Do I have to leave UAC enabled???" - NO NO NO - and that's the nice part.

So, re-enable UAC - add the printer - disable UAC - and enjoy.

Hopefully this helps some other unsuspecting Vista lover...

posted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 1:46 PM

Feedback

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 5/9/2007 1:39 AM ShatterGhost
You can also just add the printer as a local printer then once the printer driver is installed you can add the network printer without the error coming up then just delete the local printer you installed. Seems to work without having to reboot or enable UAC.

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 5/17/2007 6:39 PM Alex
Thank you very much, you DID end up helping a random Vista user!

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 6/26/2007 10:26 PM Shannon
Thank you SO much - i had to do a little digging before i came across your very helpfull post.

Cheers

Shannon

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 7/5/2007 12:52 PM Beth
Thank you sooo much from me too ! took me all day until i found your post! It worked!!!!

thanks again

Beth


# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 7/5/2007 10:34 PM Robert
Thank you so much.. This really helped. It's this kind of BS that makes Vista almost unusable for the average user. Can I imagine my mom and dad using this OS? Heck no-- MS may be more security minded, but they are not smart with this OS release. I think they are going to continue to lose market share.

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 7/10/2007 9:08 AM Jeff
Thank you!!!!!!
That’s got to be the stupidest thing, if I disable the UAC I obviously don't care about installing network printers. Having it default to a non-seneschal error message is just plain stupid.


# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 7/23/2007 7:08 PM castro
helped me thanks

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 7/24/2007 11:37 AM Eddie M.
Thanks for this... I know a lot of people will get help by finding this page through the Internet.

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 8/8/2007 4:50 AM Mark
Helped me too, thank you for posting this!

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 8/8/2007 12:31 PM Dustin
Another one helped. The funny thing is, I was able to install my all-in-one printer with no problem, but I couldn't install the laser jet without this.

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 8/11/2007 2:36 AM Richard Pope
And another one helped!. Dell support has taken 3 hours to get nowhere on this but it took me 10 minutes with your help. Mino point, but if the printer is initially shown off-line, just switch it off then on to kick it into action.

# re: Adding a network printer to a Vista workstation / desktop / notebook - The specified print monitor is unknown. 8/29/2007 4:59 AM Andy Janes
For those who don't know about it yet, Microsoft have released a patch (although there not calling it that) which resolves this issue directly...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979

Post Feedback

Title:
Name:
Email: (never displayed)
Url:
Comments: 
Please add 7 and 3 and type the answer here: