Windows 11 - .prs settings

[ZensoftBelgiumHZ]

Are there any known issues in windows11 concerning settings in .prs-file? We have a 32bit application, developed with Openedge. The applications works fine, but not under win11. On this PC, we can't load the settings from the .PRS-file. VPE always prints on the default windows-printer. Could this be because we use the 32vpe version of VPE (v7.2) instead of 64bit?

[IDEAL Software Support]

Do you create the PRS file on the same Windows machine with the same printer driver?

If no: the PRS file contains private data of the printer driver. This data is not compatible between 32-bit and 64-bit versions of your application. It is also not compatible with other versions of the printer driver.

If yes: the printing system of Windows 11 became buggy due to recent changes. We found out that you can fix some problems by calling CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED) in the startup code of your application. Don't forget to call CoUninitialize() when your app terminates. We haven't tested, if this cures potential problems with PRS files.

[ZensoftBelgiumHZ]

yes, we create the PRS file on the same Windows machine. So we have to wait for an update of Win11 to solve this problem?

[IDEAL Software Support]

We tested now 32-bit as well as 64-bit and the new printer setup dialog of Windows 11 ignores the printer which has been selected through the PRS file.

We doubt that Microsoft is going to fix this problem in the forseeable future, if at all.

We have a very huge customer in the USA, which encountered a problem ONLY for machines, which had been updated from Win 10 to Win 11. The problem was not reproducible on machines where Win 11 was directly installed. The symptom is, that when the printer setup dialog is shown the second (!) time, the application freezes. After intensive debugging, we found out the a call to CoInitializeEx() solves the problem, because the printer setup dialog is somehow using COM. And COM is not initialized in the path of the printer setup dialog on machines that have been updated from Win 10 to Win 11.

We then made a phone conference with Microsoft tech support our customer and ourselves. Our customer has a premium support contract with MS. The result was, that Microsoft doesn't care. They said it is not a problem of our customer, but a problem with a 3rd party tool created by IDEAL Software. So they insisted, that we - IDEAL Software - create a costly support contract with them, in order to solve the problem. We told them that we don't need support. We identified the problem and reported it to MS, so MS can now fix it. They were not interested.

[ZensoftBelgiumHZ]

Ok, thanks for the info. I'll try to find out if we have customers who use WIN11 and don't have the same problems.

[IDEAL Software Support]

The only solution we see is, that we create our own printer setup dialog, which bypasses the default dialog of Windows. This is quite some work - including all tests on 32-bit and 64-bit and packaging a new version. This could only be done in the context of a paid update. We will think about it.

[davem]

We have also noticed this problem as some of our customers PC's have been upgraded by MS (running the latest 7.2).

This will only become more widespread and a bigger problem. Unfortunately we are all at mercy of MS and you would not be the only software vendor to make changes at side stepping an MS bug.

[IDEAL Software Support]

We will implement our own printer setup dialog. Update will be made available in January.

[davem]

We will implement our own printer setup dialog. Update will be made available in January.

That's a really great to hear. Thank you for your support.

[ZensoftBelgiumHZ]

Since update win11/22H2 (2022) Microsoft also introduced a new dialogue, new version (with preview included aside the list of printers) to choose a printer.
This new feature isn't compatible with VPE, it gives 'unexpected error' when the list of available printers is shown.
We could disable this feature in the registry.
https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/rest ... _article=1

[IDEAL Software Support]

This error has not been reported before, we are not aware of it.

What we can say is that this dialog is bugged. It is not compatible to the old dialog, which was there for at least 25 years. Microsoft literally destroyed what was there and made the new dialog incompatible and buggy. That's why we implement our own dialog.

[ZensoftBelgiumHZ]

This error has not been reported before, we are not aware of it.

What we can say is that this dialog is bugged. It is not compatible to the old dialog, which was there for at least 25 years. Microsoft literally destroyed what was there and made the new dialog incompatible and buggy. That's why we implement our own dialog.

For us it was also a new issue, and till now only once reported. We think it isn't the default setting, but we don't know yet how or when this feature is enabled. One of the mysteries of Microsoft.