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Article ID: 282011 - Last Review: December 3, 2007 - Revision: 6.5
Printer Driver Is Not Compatible If a Policy Is Enabled on Your Computer
This article was previously published under Q282011
When you run the Add Printer Wizard, you may receive the
following error message after you click
Finish at the end of the wizard:
Unable to
Install Printer. The printer driver is not compatible with a policy enabled on
your computer that blocks Windows NT 4.0 drivers. If you want to use this
driver, contact your system administrator about disabling this policy.
This behavior occurs because Windows Server 2003 does not
support Kernel mode print drivers by default.
NOTE: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 print drivers are Kernel mode drivers.
To resolve this behavior, update the print driver on the
print server so that it is not using a Kernel mode print driver.
To work around this behavior, use either the appropriate
method:
Method 1
If you are installing a Windows NT 4.0 print driver, contact your
network administrator to have the policy removed.
Method 2
If you want to install a non-Kernel mode driver locally for a
remote network printer:
- In Control Panel, double-click Printers and Faxes.
- Double-click Add Printer to start the Add Printer Wizard, and then click Next.
- Click Local printer, click to clear the Automatically detect and install check box, and then click Next.
- Click Create a new port, and then under Port type, click Local Port.
- For Port Name, type the path to the printer in the form of
\\server\printer, where
server is the name of the print server and
printer is the name of the printer.
- Click Next, and then choose a Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 driver for
your printer.
- Click Next, and then follow the instructions to finish the
wizard.
Note: If you use method 2, you will not get printer updates from the
print server when the printer driver is later updated on the server.
When you print to a network printer, Windows NT, Windows
2000, and Windows Server 2003 always use the print driver on the print sever if
you are not using the local port workaround (method 2).
Kernel mode
drivers are monolithic drivers that hook into the operating system at the
kernel level. Windows Server 2003 and later versions include a policy that
blocks Kernel mode print drivers because Kernel mode print drivers can cause
the computer to display blue screen errors.
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition
- Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition
| kbdriver kbenv kbprb kbprint KB282011 |
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