clicking Find Printer shows error "The Active Directory Domain Services is currently unavailable" i am on a home network

Anonymous
2010-05-21T12:33:03+00:00

When I try to "Find Printer (in MSWord, e.g.) I get the message: The Active Directory Domain Services is currently unavailable.

I'm running Vista Ultimate (SP2) on a home network; and I'm the Administrator.

How do I make the ADDS available?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2010-05-28T03:56:59+00:00

Hello Dick Bard,

Thanks for posting in the Microsoft Answers forum! To add to Lorie – One’s suggestion, please try following the steps below:

>Go to Control Panel

> Select Printers

> Right-click on Add Printer

> Select Run as Administrator

Now try to add your network printer.

Please let me know if this helps J

Adam

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-08T12:31:47+00:00

    I had the same problem, The Active Directory Domain Services is currently unavailable.

    I went to Services and Print Spooler was stopped. I started it, made sure it was set to start automatically and closed Services.  Open Devices and Printers and my installed printers were back and working. I don't know what caused the Print Spooler to stop but starting resolved the issue. After rebooting it still works. ???

    Weird, This was a new problem, I've tried most things in this forum thread, but I looked at the the Print Spooler, which was running, I restarted it by right clicking within administrater rights , ANd Lo and behold my PC can now find the printer again!

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-29T21:50:36+00:00

    Good to see Microsoft have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to resolve this problem in the last four years. They're just not interested in users anymore - just money in the bank and then we can all go hang, rather than getting answers and solutions to these half-baked programs.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-22T22:42:49+00:00

    Thanks a lot for the help AsifWaheed

    You fix my printer issue. I had the status on automatic but it was turned off. I will keep your message somewhere in case the problem comes back again.

    Thanks a lot again for your help

    Regards

    Patthipag

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-05T20:45:25+00:00

    I managed to fix this by going into the printer properties, choosing the 'ports' tab and selecting the WSD port (it was previously set to Microsoft XPS Document Writer for some reason).

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