Windows XP: Launch the Add Printer Wizard from the Command Line

Why would anyone want to launch the Add Printer Wizard from the command line? Wouldn’t it be easier to just click Start –> Control Panel –> Printers and Faxes –> Add a printer? Well, not if you’re logged in as a user without administrative privileges, and you can’t click Start –> Log Off –> Switch User and log in as Administrator because you’ve hidden the Administrator from being displayed in the Welcome Page, and pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del twice in the Welcome Page doesn’t seem to work.

So, what you do, is to click Start –> All Programs –> Accessories, then right-click Command Prompt, select Run as…, select “The following user” radio button, and key in the Administrator password. Then, at the command prompt, type:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /il

(PrintUIEntry is case sensitive)

And you’re on your way.

29 September 2006 | Windows | Comments

3 Responses to “Windows XP: Launch the Add Printer Wizard from the Command Line”

  1. 1 rochi 3 April 2007 @ 2:18 am

    good tips

  2. 2 Paul N 11 December 2011 @ 2:53 pm

    Thanks so much for publishing this. Trying to do administrative tasks while logged in as regular users is such a pain! Tips like this really help.

  3. 3 Karen 11 January 2012 @ 3:28 am

    Thank you! This was exactly what I was looking for. I used it in a VB script for our Helpdesk folks.

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