How to Troubleshoot Net Crawl for Printers in Windows Millennium Edition (276342)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
This article was previously published under Q276342
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

SUMMARY

This article describes how to troubleshoot Net Crawl for printers if your computer is running Windows Millennium Edition (Me).

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

First, follow these steps to verify that you have installed a client, and a protocol:
  1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then click the Network icon.
  2. Click Configuration.
  3. In the box under The following network components are installed, verify that the following items are listed:
    • Client for Microsoft Networks.
    • A network interface card.
    • A protocol (such as TCP/IP).
    • File and Printer sharing for Microsoft Networks.

    If any of these are missing, or not listed, then click Add to add the missing component.
After you have verified this, follow these steps:
  1. Ensure that the printer is shared on the computer to which it is connected. If the printer is shared, a picture of a printer with a blue hand appears in the Printers folder.
  2. Verify that the printer shares are visible on the computer that is sharing the printer as well as any other computer on the network:
    1. Click Start, click Run, type \\computername (where computername represents the computer name of the target computer), and then click OK.
    2. After the window opens, verify that the printer shares are available.
  3. Verify that the Net Crawl feature is not disabled by referring to the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

    276322 How to Disable Net Crawl

  4. Install a Generic/Text Only printer on the computer, and then share it:
    1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
    2. Click the Add Printer icon, and then start the wizard. When you see the list of available printers, locate "Generic" from the list of manufacturers, and then click Generic/Text Only in the Printers list.
    3. To share the printer, right-click the icon that represents the printer, and then click Sharing.
  5. Repeat step 2.
  6. Restart one of the other computers, and then view the Printers folder to see if the driver has been installed.
  7. If the shared printers are still not available, back up the registry by using the scanreg command, or the System Restore tool.
  8. Delete the following registry key:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\NetCrawl

  9. Restart the computer, and then check the Printers folder again on the host computer, and on all clients.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/14/2006
Keywords:kbinfo kbprint kbtshoot KB276342
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