Vista error: “The specified print monitor is unknown”
Yesterday, I tried mapping 2 new network printers at work on my Sony VGN-SZ381P Notebook running Windows Vista RTM. When it connected to the printers, it attempted to install new print drivers but failed with the error message “The specified print monitor is unknown”. The install would fail and I was left printer-less.
After trying a variety of things, I finally stumbled upon the solution. Turns out that when User Access Control (UAC) is disabled, you cannot install print drivers from a remote server. To the solution is to re-enable UAC, reboot and re-map the printers. Bingo, everything now works!
Note: To re-enable UAC, go to Control Panel | User Accounts | User Accounts and click on “Turn User Account Control on or off”.
Update: The just released Performance and Reliability pack for Vista includes a fix for this!
If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.
God, I HATE Vista. It was the exact same thing with Adobe Reader 8 - some error about the temp folder when you try to install it with UAC turned off.
Anyhoo, thanks for the solution. It worked great.
Thank you!!! I actually like Vista, but yes, it is a pain at times!!!
Your a life saver. Thanks this fix it worked great.
Thanks for posting this, needing all the help I can get with Vista at the mount.
Thanks
Adrian
It’s not quite this simple. I could add a xerox printer (once via Vista; once via BonJour wizard from Apple) … but can’t add the LexMark Optras on our LAN. It must have something to do with the driver requiring an OS executable installation or something of that sort?
Greg, I haven’t had any issue with drivers for local or network printers after re-enabling UAC. If the drivers are installed using a manufacter’s own EXE, it may be required to run their exe explicitly as Administrator.
Thanks very much for the information, I had a similar problem and searching desperately for a solution when I found a link to your blog in a Microsoft official forum
Would you, by any chance, have any idea for a workaround adressing the reason I had desactivated UAC in the first place?
The reasons why I have done that are as follow:
- all these confirmation prompts are really painful, especially on a quite new machine you are in the process of customising to suit your needs,
- thinking that it was sometimes useful to have such a control as UAC, though its default settings were a bit irritating for me, I first tried to fine tune it,
- but, when I tried to apply the tuning process described in Microsoft KB, I could never get access to the secpol.msc MMC file which is supposed to allow doing that,
- some comments on the forums even seem to indicate that it could be that this possibility is restrained to certain Vista versions (I am running Vista Home Premium),
- so, I had no choice other than completely turning UAC off…
Christophe,
I like UAC but agree the prompts are annoying especially when you’re already part of the administrators security group.
A better way of doing it is to go to the Group Policy editor (type “gpedit.msc” in START|RUN), then go to:
Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Local Policies | Security Options
Underneath there, scroll down until you see the option “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators”. Set this to “Elevate without prompting”.
I’ve found this to be the perfect balance of security and usability.
Trevin,
Is there a way to change the settings without gpedit.msc? I am running Vista Home addition which does not include gpedit.msc.
Thanks,
Chris Edwards
Chris: Unfortunately I don’t know of any way to do this without Group Policy editor (gpedit.msc).
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!
Thanks a lot.. I guess Vista is still a bit buggy. I have a love/hate relationship with it.. hopefully Microsoft starts releasing service packs soon.
Anyway, that worked, now I just need to disable UAC again because it annoys the hell out of me.
(You’re sharing derogatory opinions about Vista, Cancel or Allow? ALLOW.)
You are the man, so simple yet so hard.
Thanks a million
Thank you!
Windows Vista has a purely dehumanizing effect. By the time I’ve gotten this setup to work properly I will have enough bitterness to commit genocide.
Again, thank you!
Holy Crap I can’t believe that was the problem!!
This whole thing has caused me to much stress.
Thanks alot!!!
It worked but after that again i found another error i.e. (error 0×000006be) looking for solution on this id jainsusheeljain@yahoo.com
My UAC was already on so the above didn’t help. An alternative solution which allowed me to install a networked HP3700 printer to a Vista laptop was to download the PCL6 drivers from the HP website http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=uk&prodNameId=315860&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=315849&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2093 - the installer creates a PCL6 printing driver in your PRINTERS list. Right click on this - choose properties and you will be given the option to search for printers. I was then able to install the 3700 and print from it.
Help!! cannot get my laptop vista to connect to my samsung ml1755 printer no matter what! tried all above. installed driver from web site pcl6, changed UAC, in Network, printer is listed but it WILL not connect! now says not enough memory to connect when nothing else open! has had no problem picking up my hp col printer so it’s not the wireless connection. any clues?
[...] http://trevinchow.com/blog/2007/01/27/vista-error-the-specified-print-monitor-is-unknown/ [...]
Ditto to the “your a life saver” comment. Thanks.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!
You are really life saver!
you’re the f-ing MAN!! thanks!
Thanks much. I just found this after trying to get my Canon Pixma drivers installed to my laptop. Canon didn’t have an answer.
Cheers.
Tony
Thanks for posting this, really helped me out.
Trevin, I can not connect my Vista Home Premium notebbok an an HP 970C in my home network (it is working OK on the desktop). HP says in its site that the drivers for 970c are already builtin in Vista. I had UAC disabled. I enabled UAC, booted, and still I cannot connect. I get to INSTALL PRINTER, continue, but Vista tells me: Windows can’t install the hp deskjet 970c print driver… Contact the manufacturer. Any help, please?
thanks bro!! u save my day!! :-*
This Problem has Been Fixed!!
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070807-vista-performance-and-compatibility-packs-released.html
This update fixes the problem, according to their description.
Daniel, coincidentally I just updated my blog post to give a pointer to the Performance and Reliability pack that contains the fix (among many others!).
I don’t believe it, but re-enabling UAC got a printer working for me as well.
Thank you!
Things like this also make me want to mow down shoppers at a mall with a machine gun.
NO! No! No! Mowing down innocent shoppers is NOT the solution! However, mowing down Bill Gates and his programmers might be. (Only kidding).
Would it be too much to ask Microsoft to consider the end user in their OS’s? How many years of development and they didn’t know about this?!
Thank goodness for finding the info on this site. No one from either MS or my printer company (Canon) seemed to know about the problem. I ended up sending this info to Canon in case any one else called them. I guess the number of people trying to network a printer with Vista is really small — sort of like the number of mosquitoes in Louisiana in the summer !
Cheers.
Tony
OK. I can go with that. Mow down every short-sighted programmer at Microsoft! (Also kidding.)
I’m now finding a slew of other problems that arise with UAC disabled. Until clear guidance from MS is given (how about a hotfix, Bill?), I’m now going with a general rule: whenever anything that provides a service is installed, have UAC enabled.
I played with Vista Beta about a year ago and thought for sure that this UAC would become more seamless and intuitive by the time Vista went retail. At the time, I thought UAC was so annoying that disabling it will be the first thing that many people will do after they install Vista. This seems to be exactly what is happening.
…and the funny thing is that it is only a matter of time before UAC is used against the people the whole concept is trying to protect. UAC exists to protect soccer moms from installing malware when they blindly install every screensaver they can find. It is only a matter of time before malware USES UAC to prevent soccer mom from being able to fix her own computer.
Sad…
You are a true champion for finding the fix, Nice work.
Thanks
Jason
Wow… after almost reinstalling xp I found this site. Thanks! I HATE UAC!! Ok now that I got that out… I have had Vista for a week and am VERY frustrated with it, but that was the only option for my new laptop. It will get better though, I hope! I wil be leaving XP on my desktop and old laptop for a while longer than I expected though.
Thanks so much for sharing the fixes!!!!!
all the Vistas desktops works with minolta photocopier, execp one PC, it print one and stops the second, the message is “spooler SubSystem App stopped working and was closed” every time i start the spooer and again get stoped, what can i do?
Atef: Try this:
1. Go to your services and make sure the “print
spooler” is started. If not, then start it manually.
2. Delete all your printers from your machine. It may prompt you to reboot if you have any print jobs spooled before it will let you delete the printer.
3. Reboot.
4. Go back to the Printers section in control panel (Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Printers). Right click with your mouse somewhere in the dialog, and click on the last option, “Server Properties” in the context menu.
5. Click on the “Drivers” tab.
6. Find the driver for your printer in the list and left-click it. Now click the “Remove” button to remove the driver from your PC.
7. Reboot your computer.
8. Once you have rebooted, go back to Printer settings (Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Printers) and re-add your printer. When you click “Add Local Printer,” make sure to choose the correct port your printer is connected to.
9. When instructed to install your driver, browse to the location of your driver (.inf) and open it. This will install your printer.
10. Done!
Do a test print to see if that works. Let me know if this solves your problem and I’ll likely make a separate blog post about it to help others.
thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…
Thanks for the help… nice to see that Microsoft is its usual helpful self.
i am using laptop with vista installed in it.autocad is working very slowly,sound from the speakers are low,”gpedit.msc” is not working.Is there any ways to solve these problems.whats the way to increase the speed of broad band internet connection.
im a vista user.some times internet explorer cant be closed but can be minimised.what should i do to close the page
You are really save my life.
Very big thanks for this information. Great information