Knowledge Base

Error Message: The Server on Which the Printer Resides Does Not Have a Suitable Printer Driver Installed

Article ID: 180545

Article Last Modified on 2/25/2007

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q180545

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to connect to a Windows NT server or workstation print share and automatically download a printer driver that is known to be installed on the share, you may receive the following error message:

The server on which the printer resides does not have a suitable
<type of printer> printer driver installed. Click OK if you wish to
install the driver on your local machine.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the %SystemRoot%\System32\Spool\Drivers folder (or a folder below it) does not have the correct NTFS file system permissions to allow you to access the printer driver files. Instead of receiving an error message stating that access is denied, you receive the error message listed above.

RESOLUTION

The system administrator must assign you sufficient permissions to access the files. The system administrator may also need to check the share-level permissions for the printer share if the default permissions were changed. The default permissions are:

%SystemRoot%\System32\Spool\Drivers (and subfolders)

Administrators - Full Control
Creator/Owner - Full Control
Everyone - Read (RX)
Server Operators - Full Control
System - Full Control


The Print$ share contains the Everyone group by default and has read permissions.

Keywords: kbbug kbnofix kbprint KB180545


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