INF: How to Suppress "Local Port Error" Dialog Boxes (151770)

SUMMARY

When you have created a printer for a local port (for example, LPT1) on a computer running Windows NT, and you want to print from an application running on this computer, a dialog box appears if the printer is not connected or turned on or is out of paper. The box says that Windows NT can't write to the port and asks you to either cancel or retry the print job. This is expected behavior and is desirable under most circumstances; however, in some cases you may not want these dialog boxes to appear on the user's desktop. There are steps you can take to suppress these dialog boxes.

MORE INFORMATION

To suppress the dialog boxes, complete the following procedure:

Create a second printer with exactly the same settings as the printer attached locally and have it print to the same port as the local one.
Share this second printer on the network.
Open the Properties of the original printer.
In the "Print to" dialog box, select "Other...".
In the "Print Destinations" dialog box, select "Local Port" then press OK.
In the "Port Name" dialog box, type the UNC name for the printer you shared in step 2. The UNC name contains your computer name and the share name, for example, "\\my_computer\laserjet2".
Press the OK button twice to return to Print Manager.

The local monitor displays the dialog box advising of a printing error only for users who work at the local computer and use printers that print to local ports. If you follow the procedure described above, the local monitor does not display this dialog box for the original printer since it is not printing to a local destination, and it does not display it for the second printer because it thinks that the client is coming in from the network (that is, arriving through the print share).