Microsoft KB Archive/257688

= FIX: Printer Object Fails to Track Default Printer After Orientation Is Changed =

Article ID: 257688

Article Last Modified on 8/7/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q257688



SYMPTOMS
When you try to select a printer in the Printer dialog box and then change a property of the Printer object, such as orientation, the Printer object does not retain the selected default printer setting.



RESOLUTION
You can work around this problem by following either one of the two methods outlined here:

Workaround #1 (for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me systems only)

Use the GetProfileString function to obtain the default printer information.

On Windows 9x and Windows Me systems, the default printer setting is stored in the Registry and in the [Windows] section of the win.ini file in the windows folder. The code line starting with "Device=" shows information about the default printer. The [Devices] section has information about all installed printers in the system.

On Microsoft Windows NT and Microsoft Windows 2000, this information is stored in the Registry. The GetPrifileString function retrieves the default printer information on any of these systems because the win.ini file entries are remapped to the Registry. However, selecting a printer from the Common dialog box under Windows NT and Windows 2000 does not make it the default printer. See the "References" section of this article for more information.

Workaround #2

Set Printer.TrackDefault=True after changing the printer in the Printer dialog box as follows:

Private Sub Command1_Click CommonDialog1.ShowPrinter Printer.TrackDefault=True MsgBox Printer.DeviceName End Sub



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This bug was corrected in the latest service pack for Visual Studio 6.0.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This bug was corrected in the latest service pack for Visual Studio 6.0.

For additional information about Visual Studio service packs, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

194022 INFO: Visual Studio 6.0 Service Packs, What, Where, Why

194295 HOWTO: Tell That a Visual Studio Service Pack Is Installed

To download the latest Visual Studio service pack, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/Aa718353.aspx



Steps to Reproduce Behavior
 Create a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default. From the Project menu, select Components, check Microsoft Common Dialog Control 6.0, and then click OK. Add four Command buttons and a Common Dialog control to Form1.  Paste the following code into Form1's code window: Option Explicit Private Declare Function GetProfileString Lib "kernel32" Alias _ "GetProfileStringA" (ByVal lpAppName As String, _ ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpDefault As String, _  ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long) As Long Private Sub Command1_Click CommonDialog1.ShowPrinter MsgBox Printer.DeviceName End Sub Private Sub Command2_Click Dim DeviceName As String Dim s As String Dim size As Long Dim p As Printer CommonDialog1.ShowPrinter size = 255 s = Space(255) size = GetProfileString("Windows", "Device", vbNullString, s, size) DeviceName = Left(s, InStr(1, s, ",") - 1) For Each p In Printers If p.DeviceName = DeviceName Then Set Printer = p               Exit For End If       Next p        MsgBox Printer.DeviceName End Sub Private Sub Command3_Click Printer.Orientation = vbPRORLandscape Printer.Print "x" Printer.EndDoc End Sub Private Sub Command4_Click CommonDialog1.ShowPrinter Printer.TrackDefault = True MsgBox Printer.DeviceName End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load Command1.Caption = "Broken" Command2.Caption = "Fixed (Win 9x)" Command3.Caption = "Orientation" Command4.Caption = "Fixed" End Sub  Run the project and use the buttons named Fixed and Broken to display the Printer dialog box. Change the printer selection each time. Note that the message box displays the name of the printer that was selected. Click the button named Orientation.

Try using the Fixed and Broken buttons again. Notice that the message box displayed by the Broken button does not reflect the printer selected in the Printer dialog box. The message box displayed by Fixed reflects the printer selected in the Printer dialog box. On Windows 9x and Windows Me systems you can also see that the Fixed (Win 9x/Me) button works.</li></ol>

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