FIX: Setting Printer to Item in the Printers Collection Fails (167735)

SYMPTOMS

Attempting to set the default printer to an object variable has no effect. For instance, given a system with more than one printer installed, the following code will not change the default printer:

   Private Sub Form_Load()
       Dim Prt As Printer
       For Each Prt In Printers
      If Not Prt Is Printer Then
            Set Printer = Prt
         Exit For
      End If
       Next

      Printer.Print "Hi, Mom"
      Printer.EndDoc
   End Sub

The expected behavior is that the document should print to the first non- default printer found in the printers collection.

The actual behavior is that the document prints to the original default printer.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, upgrade to Visual Basic 5.0 Service Pack 2 or later.

To work around this problem, progammatically change the default printer for the system. For additional information about how to change the default printer, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

266767 HOWTO: Set Which Printer Is the System Default Printer

NOTE: This workaround changes the default printer for all applications that are running. It is recommended that you change the default printer back to the original setting after you finish printing.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

This bug was corrected in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2.

For more information on the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

170365 INFO: Visual Studio 97 Service Packs - What, Where, and Why

For a list of the Visual Basic 5.0 bugs that were fixed in the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

171554 INFO: Visual Basic 5.0 Fixes in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

266767 HOWTO: Set Which Printer Is the System Default Printer

For additional information on determining which 32-Bit for Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 95, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

189249 HOWTO: Determine Which 32-Bit Windows Version Is Being Used