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So I had a problem at work: a client had a pretty old printer and after a Windows 10 update they couldn’t install its driver. Let’s see how we can resolve the issue.
The printer driver is not compatible with a policy enabled on your computer that blocks NT 4.0 drivers”. After a while googling I found out that windows 10 blocks older drivers and because of that you had to set some setting in windows group police editor. This process should work also with other printers. Here are the steps I took to get it. Can your solution also work for a printserver? I have an HP JetDirect 300x printserver connected to an HP LaserJet 3150. I would like to print from a Vista 32 PC on my network without buying a new printer and printserver.
The printer in question was a Sharp AR5316E and the error message was the following: “Windows can’t install the kernel-mode print driver. To obtain a driver that is compatible with the version of Windows you are running, contact the manufacturer.“ and after this there was another message “Windows cannot connect to the printer. The printer driver is not compatible with a policy enabled on your computer that blocks NT 4.0 drivers”. After a while googling I found out that windows 10 blocks older drivers and because of that you had to set some setting in windows group police editor. This process should work also with other printers.
Here are the steps I took to get it working
Firs of all you have to delete the previous printer drivers, so because of this after this process previous printers need to be reinstalled.
The folders you have to delete are as follows:
The folders you have to delete are as follows:
NOTE: If you can’t delete them you need to stop printer spool service from service manager, and after deleting start the service again
c:WindowsSystem32spooldriversW32X86
c:WindowsSystem32spooldriversx64
c:WindowsSystem32spooldriversx64
For this purpose I also made a cmd script that dose this for you, copy the code and past it into a file and name it delprint.cmd . After this you can run it and it will delete the required files.
Start Group Police Editor pressing Windows key + R and type gpedit.msc
Next step is to set the following settings:
Local computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Printers -> “Disallow installation of printers using kernel-mode drivers” set it to disable
Local computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Printers -> Point and printer Restrictions set it to enable and set the other marked settings.
These setting have to be set also here: Local computer Policy -> User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Printers -> Point and printer Restrictions
After these settings have been set you need to restart your pc or run the following command: gpupdate, when this is done try to install the printer again.
Nt 4.0 Drivers Blocked In Windows 10 2017
I hope this will help someone.