Is there a way to automate (trigger) the queue properties -> configuration -> 'Update Now-Ask Printer' button? I need to pull configuration information directly from the printer itself into the queue. Driver is Lexmark Universal v2 XL if that matters... I think PrintUI only triggers specifics if they are in the registry. Not sure if Printui can be used? (Win server 2008 r2, 32bit)
I think I found a way to automatically do this, the three corresponding checkbox registry keys under configuration are DCDPrtPropOK (On Properties Open), OnPortChange and UpdateConfigurationFromPrinter. Values are 1 – ON, or 0 – OFF. Actual location is (computer\HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print(drivername)\PrinterDriverData.
Essentially, we need to change DCDPrtPropOK to 1, then run this command:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /p /n "Lexmark Universal v2 XL”
as a non adm (users if the have the rights) command prompt to trigger Printer Properties. This should force the printer to open the Printer Properties window, and ask the printers for the settings.
Related
I want to change the homepage in the Edge browser via Registry but it's encrypted and I see (Protected - It is a violation of Windows Policy to modify. See aka.ms/browserpolicy) in Registry. Please help me to edit homepage in Registry or find where it's a violation of Windows policy to modify. See aka.ms/browserpolicy
ProtectedHomepages value is not really encrypted, instead it is an obfuscated buffer which contains homepages strings and the cryptographic hash for these strings. Buffer is obfuscated using the random generated seed which is also stored as a part of the buffer. I have done some reverse engineering research and published the results here.
So, basically, reading and decrypting this value is easier than modifying due to the required crypto-hash. However, reading capability is the only required for anti-malware software. I don't know what reasons you have to modify this value, hopefully you are not writing a piece of malware...
If it is only the homepage in Edge you want to set then change the URL below to your preference and then save this as a .reg file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppContainer\Storage\microsoft.microsoftedge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\MicrosoftEdge\Main]
"HomeButtonEnabled"=dword:00000001
"HomeButtonPage"="https://www.google.com/"
Currently it is not possible to change the startpage of Microsoft Edge writing string or binary value into the registry. The entry to change is "Protected - It is a violation of Windows Policy to modify. See aka.ms/browserpolicy" -> Value "ProtectedHomepages". The value is a encrypted binary value, in which the current homepage is not readable.
When you have to set a specific homepage more than one time and you want to do it with C# here a Workaround:
Set the startpage you want via UI of the Microsoft Edge browser. After Change of it restart the browser and export the registrykey named above. Open the exported file and copy the binary data into a string constant or resource in your C# Solution. In the function to write this Setting you can copy the string into a byte-Array and than writing as binary value into the registry. This entry has effect after restart of Microsoft Edge.
The same way you should use also when you want to Change the Default Search Provider. But in this case in addition to the value "ProtectedSearchScopes" one more registrykey is to use -> "OpenSearch". This key does/should exists by third Party search Providers only. This key should be deleted or does not exist if the search Provider is Bing.
Disable your computer's network interface
Launch MS Edge. The recovery page will error out
Open a new MS Edge tab
Close the MS Edge tab containing the error message
Close MS Edge
Enable your computer's network interface
Launch MS Edge
Also...
Some malware will change the Edge homepage. You can see the malicious URL in address bar, record it.
Kill Edge with Task Manager or reboot.
Edit your hosts file in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc, from an Administrative command prompt go to that directory and type notepad hosts and hit Enter.
Add a host entry like this
127.0.0.1 bad.url (substitute the URL you recorded above for bad.url)
Save the hosts file then open Edge. This method is helpful when you are remoted in and cannot disconnect the network connection.
No need to do it in registry. You can now change the homepage via the settings in Microsoft Edge
I'd like to add an option to my application similar to the Skype's option "run Skype as my computer starts".
Skype doesnt't go on the "Auto start applications" of the start menu folder, I'd like to have the same effect.
Note, one answer to this question suggets to add a key here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
but I checekd on my machine and Skype is not there, so another way is used.
Skype installs via a registry entry, but it's in HKEY_CURRENT_USER , not HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
This allows Skype to be installed or not on a per-user basis. Using HKLM will autostart for ALL users.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
If you type "msconfig" into the run window and look at the startup tab you can see where "everthing" starts from in the Location column.
I don't use skype but my guess would it's in the registry in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
You just need to add a registry entry for your app in there (and delete it if the user unticks the box)
you can use the TRegistry class to help you reading and writing to the registry.
See this question. The question is about C#, but it only involves writing a registry value. It will be easy to convert it for Delphi.
Just run msconfig and select startup tab. You'll see the applications along side the registry key used.
Oddly, when I run regedit without elevation don't see the value HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Skype also. But if I run it elevated then the value is there (I guess that Windows is playing registry redirection).
Best
I need some help in building printer driver. The printer connects to system via serial port. I just need to grab the data that application sends to the printer, compress it (its a custom routine) and send it to printer.
I do not have any experience in developing drivers. I have all the tools, SDK, DDK. If someone could point out some link to a sample driver (that could just write to flat file instead of sending to printer) that would be great.
The driver has to run on windows NT.
So basically i am looking for some sample printer driver, the DDK (with the name of winprint) has one but when i compile and link it, it generates dll file instead of sys.
Please not once again that the WDK wont work as this driver would be running on NT.
You should use the Win NT DDK. It would have sample files. Also in Windows NT, the printer driver files are actually .dll files and not .sys files. Printer drivers are a different category of drivers in Win NT and need to be installed using the Add Printer Wizard and in a package form with an INF file.
If you already have the Win NT DDK, you could use the sample TTY driver that is present. I believe this is available in %DDKROOT%\Src\Print\Mini\Txtonly.
This article talks more about some update to this driver - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289108
Once you are able to install and run this driver, you should be able to see the main code and add in your own code to get the incoming data and stream it to a file.
Hope this helps. If so, +1 :)
You don't need to modify code to get a driver that can write to a flat file.
A Windows printer driver can be connected to a variety of ports. In particular you can create a Local Port that is actually connected to a file. On the printer's Ports tab, click [Add Port] and then select Local Port and click [New Port]. In the 'Enter port name' edit-text control type the path of the file you want to be filled with PDL data. Then every time you print subsequently, the PDL from the driver will be written to the file associated with the new port, overwriting its previous contents.
I have created a Delphi Service which prints TQuickReports. Everything works fine if compiled and run as a Windows Application. But when converted to operate as a service trying to create a form containing a TQuickRep component throws the exception.
This service runs fine on many other boxes but not this one in particular. Here are some details:
Using QuickReport version 4.07
Box is a Windows Server 2008 operating system.
Using Delphi 2007
Printer.Printers.Count is returning a positive value. In fact I can list out all of the printers.
I have tried running the service both using Local System Account and Logged on as an Admin.
Is there a default printer set up in session 0? Remember that under Vista / Server 2008 / Windows 7, services run in a separate session. Whether or not the logged-in user has a default printer set is not relevant - it's a per-session setting and doesn't affect session 0.
Can you rewrite the code to gracefully handle that exception and pick a printer to use?
You can solve this problem by creating a new dword UserSelectedDefault with the value: 1 in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\SessionDefaultDevices\Session_ID
Make sure you have a local printer selected.
You might give the user a way to select the printer for the service. The Windows service probably does not have a default printer set.
Set TQuickRep.PrinterSettings.PrinterIndex to set the printer number. Then, TQuickRep.Print to print the report.
A colleague ended up finding the solution. I should have added these are "network" printers and not Local printers (at the time I didn't think this was related to the problem). So the service needed to be installed with "NetworkService" as the user account under the logon tab. From the Windows Help:
To specify that the service uses the Network Service account, click This account, and
then type NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService
We had a simular problem here. Using TS servers, Citrix and Powerfuse 9.
Powerfuse had all printers capitalized, however they were shared in a mixed case.
This combination caused Delphi/QReport to crash
When all printers are from printserver to powerfuse in the same case (not important upper or lower or even mixed), the problem was gone
Actually it is a Delphi(5) problem. The comparison of the available printers and the default printer is case sensitive (Printers.pas):
if TPrinterDevice(Objects[I]).Device = Device then
begin
with TPrinterDevice(Objects[I]) do
SetPrinter(PChar(Device), PChar(Driver), PChar(Port), 0);
Exit;
end;
Changing the comparison to:
if lowercase(TPrinterDevice(Objects[I]).Device) = lowercase(Device)
solves the problem.
If using terminal services 2008, same user for multiple sessions, you should look into the:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\SessionDefaultDevices\Session_ID
instead of
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\
I solved a similar problem: If a Delphi application (or service) uses QuickReport, it runs before the system loads the default printer (or printers).
When QuickReport executes TQRPrinter.Init, the printer.printers.count is zero,
shortly after the system loads, the printer.printers.count is the number of printers,
but tqrprinter.int has already executed, so TQRPrinter.FPrinterOK is false,
you then see this error when you try open a QuickReport.
The solution for me was wait until the printers were loaded before launching the application (in citrix and terminal server). I solved this in two ways, either by overwriting tqrprinter or delay the dpr.
I am able to get a shell registry type context menu function to work , see below . But is there a way to tell windows to send multiple files selected to the same application , perhaps instead of %1 or %L some other parameter . What happens now is that it launches the associated application for each file in the list .
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*\shell]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*\shell\sendtomyapp]
#="&Upload to (File*Pics)Mojo"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*\shell\sendtomyapp\command]
#="c:\Program Files\app_directory\App.exe -n \"%1\""
Is there a way to send an array of names like sys.args in python ?
My guess is to look into DDEExec instead of shell\open\command. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb165967(VS.80).aspx
Seems like a superuser.com question, but I think these kind of operations require a bit of code. e.g. you write a proxy program that accepts the files, and adds them to an execution queue or batch of another program (like adding several files to a media player) I don't know if what you are looking for is supported inherently in Windows
You will need a full shell extension DLL to do what you want to do here. So the answer is programming even if the question was not.