Using Third-Party Windows 95 Drivers for Point and Print (172289)

SYMPTOMS

When you connect to a Windows NT 4.0 print server from a Windows 95 client, you may encounter the following error:

This printer cannot be installed now because its driver (<driver.drv>) could not be loaded. The driver or the INF file may be damaged. Restart Windows and try again.

CAUSE

The Windows NT printer is shared out to Windows 95 clients using a third- party printer driver which resides on the server. The printer .INF file used by the third-party manufacturer may not be written to the Windows95 or Windows NT .inf specification.

RESOLUTION

Use either of the following methods to resolve this problem:

Remove the third-party Windows 95 print driver from the server so that the Windows 95 client will be prompted to install the third-party printer driver locally when connecting to the server.

For more information about removing Windows 95 printer drivers, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
162258 How to Remove Cross-Platform Printer Divers on Windows NT
NOTE: For ease of driver availability, a share point may be setup on a server for the third-party driver. The Windows 95 workstation can then point to the share to install the third-party printer driver.

-or-
Use a Microsoft-supplied Windows 95 printer driver that can be found on the Windows 95 CD or disk.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows NT 4.0 provides the ability to load printer drivers for earlier versions of Windows NT and for Windows 95 downlevel clients. Printer .INF files that do not comply with the current Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 specifications may not install correctly under Windows NT. The basic design for Printer.inf can be found in the Windows Device Developers Kit (DDK) and Microsoft Windows 95 Resource Kit Appendix C, ISBN 1-55615-678-2. Please contact the manufacturer. In addition, the Readme.txt file supplied with the driver may also contain information on whether or not that driver is supported for point and print.