Skip to main content

Windows Vista and Print Wizard

With the release of Vista, we are working to identify and fix any compatibility issues, as well as to find new ways to take advantage of Vista's capabilities.

The good news is that there are no major issues. Read on for possible issues and advantages.

  • If you wish all users to access Print Wizard, the Print Wizard setup program will need to be ran as an Administrator in order to install in the default location with the necessary support files.
     
  • Some tasks require that when starting the user interface program (PWUI) or other Print Wizard programs, you "Run as administrator". This includes registering file extensions and installing services for instance.
     
  • Even running as Administrator will require you to "elevate your privileges" by replying to a dialog asking you if you wish to proceed with certain tasks in the Print Wizard user interface (PWUI).
     
  • Certain Print Wizard User Services and Windows Services may be locked out from accessing certain features, such as email, fax or printing to a user-installed printer (one not installed by the Administrator). This depends upon the restricted user the service runs as. You can correct this problem by running as a normal user rather than the default services user (see the Administrative Tools : Services dialog in Windows Vista).
     
  • Settings files can not be saved anywhere in the "\Program Files" directory tree, which is where they normally are saved. Vista's compatibility procedures work to make it appear that this happens, but the files are actually saved under "\Users", and virtualized. The Print Wizard User Interface (PWUI) works fine, the files are found the next time, but this could lead to confusion if you try to work from outside Print Wizard, such as manually editing a settings file, or if you run a service as some other user that does not have access to those virtualized files.
     
  • You may need to tell Windows to allow certain Print Wizard services to open a connection through the firewall. The prior firewall, in Windows XP SP2, blocked only incoming connections, where Vista blocks outgoing connections also.
     
  • The pathname associated with special names such as "My documents" may be changed.

Some additional notes on emailing with Print Wizard on Windows Vista:

Additional notes on emailing with Windows Vista

Due to security upgrades in Windows Vista, and some program changes as part of this, emailing is a bit more complicated.

- First, the User Access Control settings have a bearing on how emailing will behave. The UAC settings may prevent third-party applications from emailing, from accessing Internet ports and from doing any other outbound or inter-program traffic, such as with Outlook.

- Second, Vista does not support Outlook Express any more, it has been replaced by Windows Mail. The disappearance of Outlook Express means that "simple MAPI" is not supported and hence CDO, which is a wrapper for "simple MAPI", is also not available.

- Third, if you have Outlook or some Exchange client installed, you do have access to Extended MAPI. This means both the Outlook and the MAPI features do work. Permissions may be an issue in these two however. You may need to run the Print Wizard engine (printiwz.exe) with Administrator permissions.

- Fourth, unlike prior versions of Windows, Windows Vista blocks all outbound as well as inbound traffic. This means you may have to "allow" the Print Wizard engine to do outbound emailing, or otherwise allow your email program (Outlook) to do outbound emailing.

So, to summarize emailing on Vista:

/emailcdo=<>

  • Fails on Windows Vista, is OK on Windows 2003 and XP only, and some Windows 2000 configurations (if updated Outlook or Exchange is installed).

/emailoutlook=<>

  • OK on Windows Vista and other versions of Windows as long as Microsoft Outlook is installed. It does require that the user brings up Outlook in order for email to finally send (Windows 2000 or later).

/emailmapi=<>

  • OK on Windows Vista, but does require /emailprofile=<> to work. It does not require Outlook to come up, however security policies may prevent it from working or may require the users "allow" a third-party program to send the email (Windows 2000 or later).

/emailsmtp=<>

  • OK on all versions of Windows 2000 or later. The only restriction is that your firewall needs to allow this type of traffic to go outbound and your email server needs to allow your PC to relay emails.
     
  • Of course ALL of these methods require personal and corporate firewalls allow email traffic through. Check with your network administrator if you have any questions.

 

As with everything, we do provide a reasonable amount of free technical support. If you have problems or questions, you can always call us.

Copyright © 2024 Rasmussen Software, Inc. Legal Information & Privacy Policy
Send comments and suggestions to rsi@anzio.com