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, and you don’t want to log off because you’re updating your latest post in Blogspot and it’s taking some time and you don’t want to restart the process.

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 XP | Comments