Hello. I'm experiencing problems with my domain users not being able to install printer drivers from our print management server. Apparently, I'm not the first, but I have not yet found a definite solution to the problem. I have implemented all the steps from this post: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7hardware/thread/b21aa72b-5a7f-485d-999e-f844e7d4a550 Which actually got me quite far. However, the installation always comes to a halt in what seems to be a final step (the driver is downloaded from the server). The UAC pops up asking for elevated privileges on ntprint.exe. How come? Is there any way to get past this? I don't want to use GPO to push printers, as I would like my users to add only those printers they want to use. Best regards, Chocolate Eater

Have you properly configured the policy “Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Driver Installation”? If so, standard users should have the permissions to install printer drivers. However I would like to clarify that some driver installation packages, most of them are *.exe files, which are from manufacturers may need high privileges to run. This behavior is defined via the manifests of the installation files and you cannot change it. Therefore, if you are trying to use third party *.exe installation files, you may encounter this issue. In this case, you can download drivers packs *.cab files from manufacturer website, or from Windows Update Catalog. After downloading, extract to local hard drive. Then you can install the driver in the Devices and Printers wizard. When you are prompted to select driver, click the Have Disk button and point to the correct *.inf file in the extracted folder.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi, Arthur. I have configured according to what I believe should be right. I have set the GUID for printer install, according to the link in my initial post. I am not using any .exe files for installation. The driver should be downloaded from a print management server in my domain. As I said initially, the driver starts to download. It is on the final step that this error occurs.

Most of this kind of issues are caused by driver compatibility problems. The driver you obtain from the server is not compatible with Windows 7. Similar issues usually occurs if the printer server is Windows Server 2003/Windows XP or Windows Server 2008/Windows Vista. In this case you need to install the driver manually. Forum FAQ:How to manually add a printer with shipped driver Another way to resolve this issue is install the printers in Windows 7, then open Print Management in Windows 7 and deploy the printer in it.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.