Devices and Printers Dialog Box Empty

Anonymous

When I open my "Devices and Printers" dialog box, it is empty; nothing shows up and the item listing says "0 items".

The devices and printers showed up in the Devices and Printers dialog box earlier, but now are gone from the dialog box. However, they are still in the system as everything seems to work. The problem comes with trying to set the preferences for any of the devices or printers since they can't be seen or accessed.

Anyone got any ideas of how to get the devices and printers to show up again?

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Anonymous

Devices and printers will show one device when you have configured multiple printers for the same device. There is a fly out menu to get to all the other printers on the device. Use the spooler teams UI, printmanagement.msc to view all local printers on Pro and Ultimate.

The old printers folder can be launched if you are running Home versions.

Open a command prompt and paste this in.

start shell:::{26EE0668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}\0::{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1

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Anonymous

I am having the same problem. I did a clean install from Vista and the computer has worked fine for weeks. Today, my devices and printer window is empty. I can still print from some applications, but Windows Live Mail gives me an error when I select print:

'an error has occurred in the script on this page'

line:291

char: 1

error: interface not registered

Code: 0

URL: res://ieframe.dll/preview.js

Do you want to continue running scripts on this page - Yes or No?

Barry

By the way, no new hardware has been installed recently.

I found another post that solved my problem. I was about to give up and re-install Windows 7, but tried this and it worked.

Go to: http://iefaq.info/index.php?action=artikel&cat=42&id=133&artlang=en

for the CMD file and explanation.

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142 additional answers

Anonymous

2009-11-06T16:00:12+00:00

Chris:

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, it did not help. The Bluetooth Services were set to manual, so I reset them to automatic and restarted the machine. The Devices and Printers Dialog box is still empty. I am not using any Bluetooth devices.

The only hardware I installed was my HP ScanJet 8300 scanner. I had to use "install as" WinXP compatibility box to get it to install. The scanner showed up immediately after the installation of the software, but later (after restarts) the Devices and Printers Dialog box was empty. Somewhere, on another thread, I saw something about HP software problems that may be related to this issue, but I can't find that thread again. For some reason, searching this forum doesn't find that particular thread.

Now, the OS does not recognize the HP ScanJet and cannot find the driver.

I've tried "rolling it back" to before the installation of the ScanJet, without any real success.

I am using only two other devices, the HP DeskJet 6940 attached directly to this machine and the HP LaserJet P2055dn printer attached to the network. I have not installed any software for either device; I am using the drivers contained with Win7 for these devices.

I am about to the point of doing a forced clean install of the Win7 OS and starting over.

Thanks again.
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Anonymous

2009-11-06T12:52:38+00:00

Hello ZiaTexas,

Thank you for visiting the Microsoft Answers Community.

When did this issue arise? Have you installed any other hardware at the time that it started?

After some research, it looks as though a possibility could be the Bluetooth Support Service is disabled. Check in your Services to determine if this service is disabled?

   - Click Start Orb > type services in the searchbox

   - Click services in the search results above

   - Look for Bluetooth Support Service in the list of services on the right pane.

If it is set to disabled:

   - Right-click Bluetooth Support Service > click Properties

   - Under Startup type select Automatic then click OK

Hope this helps

Chris.H

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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

2009-10-31T12:14:26+00:00

I applied the net start spooler command using the command prompt and got the message that the Print Spooler was already running. When I checked the Devices and Printers Dialog Box, it is still empty.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Please note that it is not just the printers that don't appear; nothing appears. When I started, my monitors, scanner, etc. also appeared in Devices and Printers. Now there is nothing.
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