Terminal Server Does Not Support User Mode Printer Drivers (230168)

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

When you use a third-party printer driver to print, no output is generated and the server may stop responding (hang). When you print to a file, the resulting file size is 0.

CAUSE

This problem occurs because Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition does not provide support for this type of extension.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, Service Pack 5.

MORE INFORMATION

User-mode printer drivers can be used for modification of the data to be printed. Other uses may be for additional security checks for submitting a print job.

You can find out if a particular printer driver uses a user-mode printer driver when you look into the registry under the following registry setting:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\<printer driver name>\PrinterDriverData

There should be a SPLUserModePrinterDriver entry with the name of the DLL file containg the user-mode printer driver.