Software Deployment

Well this may work. Stop the spooler service then install the package. Start the spooler service then test.

That is an Acrobat workaround so maybe it'll work for you.

Thanks, but no, that doesn't work. Basically, how do you capture a Printer Driver installing. It is strange because Wise or Installshield does not record all of the registry keys that get modified. I have manually searched and found any related to my project, created the reg file, merged it to my registry, started and stopped the spooler, but still something is missing.

Well I think the PDF capture in Adobe is not truely a print driver. If you know you are installing a print driver you can try to find the inf / cat files but watching the C:\windows\inf directory. When you install the software look for a new inf and cat file in that directory. If you get a signed cat file and the inf file then all you need are the supporting files which were likely copied into system32. You can then put them all together in the same directory and try to install them using Microsoft's Driver Installation Framework but that's only if the print driver is signed. If it's unsigned then you get into some more complex fun.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;189105

There is also an XP article as well.

I've had these problems with PDF writers, CutePDF and Amyuni make one too,.. if you can't get it by capturing in Wise 5 (remove all reg and file exclusions for this capture, and clean it up later), try using MasaiEditor, this has worked for me for PDFwriters. They seem to always require a restart, stopping and starting Spool won't always do it either, but this was within our requirements so didn't investigate further.

It's not a good idea to capture the installation of a printer because the captured printer could be installed on a port/parameter that is allready in use on the client computer. You can use a batch/command/vbs file to install a printer runtime with the printer driver.

this is the syntax:

rundll32 PRINTUI.DLL,PrintUIEntry /?

The command above will show you the options you can use.
In short terms: use this phrase with a printername, driver inf and printer model name to install a printer.

You can use embedded Visual Basic in your MSI or you make a procedure call to the cmd/batch/vbs file.