FAQ: Access is denied to a shared printer

Question: We have installed RPM on a Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, or Server 2003 operating system. When printing to a locally attached printer, everything is fine. When the printer is shared from another Windows PC, a message is logged that reads, in part, access is denied.

Answer:

For RPM 5.0:

Microsoft recommends that vendors support user credentials as the preferred way to get access to a shared resource, from a Windows service. This is why RPM offers optional credentials for any action that uses a printer, folder or file path.

To assign user credentials to a device, in the action settings dialog (for whatever action you are using) locate the Credentials field in the dialog and click the Update button, then enter your domain, user and password where indicated.

For RPM 4.5 and prior:

First, we suggest upgrading RPM to the latest version for your available platform. To determine which version of RPM is right for you, consult the version differences page.

Secondly, printing to shared resources requires permissions greater than those given to RPM during installation. Follow our Installation Guide for more information. More specifically, follow the section titled Configure RPM to Run as a User Account.