Setting the default printer programmatically in an MFC application

Download demo project - 24 Kb

Overview

In a standard MFC application the system wide default printer will be setup as default each time your application starts. This is done during your CWinApp objects initialisation, when it calls the function CWinApp::UpdatePrinterSelection(). This sets up the m_hDevMode and m_hDevNames global handles (as in global memory handles used with GlobalLock/Unlock) which CWinApp uses to manage the selected printer.

I have provided a wrapper class for enumPrinters, which is used to gather information on the locally installed printers which is needed when switching printers. It can also set the printers when called by a function in your CWinApp derived class and passing through m_hDevMode and m_hDevNames as references, so they can be changed.

When switching printers programmatically, you need to know:

The printers name e.g. HP Laserjet 4L
The port the printer is installed on e.g. LPT1:
The spooler that will dump the printout to the printer, usually winspool

Details

The class CEnumPrinters encapsulates the required functionality needed to query for the locally setup printers. This list can then be read/used to select new printers and set them as the new default printer to be used by the application.

Example list of printers

Restoring the selected printer

You can save the selected printer to the registry and restore it also. To do this, you need to place calls to CEnumPrinters::SavePrinterSelection() and CEnumPrinters::RestorePrinterSelection() in your applications ExitInstance and InitInstance procedures.

The information saved is:

The printer name
The spooling device
The port name
The page orientation (portrait or landscape)

Class interface

The following functions are used in the class:

int GetPrinterCount() ;

CString GetPrinterName(int index) ;

CString GetPrinterLocation(int index) ;

CString GetPrinterShareName(int index) ;

CString GetPrinterPortName(int index) ;

void ReadLocalPrinters() ;

The above functions enumerate the list of locally installed printers - automatically called in class constructor.

bool	SetNewPrinter(HANDLE& hDevMode, HANDLE& hDevNames, const CString& PrinterName, const CString& PrinterSpooler, const CString& PrinterPort) ;

Use the function above when switching to a printer by Name, driver, port

bool SetNewPrinter(HANDLE& hDevMode, HANDLE& hDevNames, int index) ;

Use the function above when switching to a printer in the local list by index

bool SetPrintOrientation(HANDLE &hDevMode, int mode) ;

Use the above function switch between portrait and landscape page orientations.

bool SavePrinterSelection(HANDLE &hDevMode, HANDLE& hDevNames) ;

bool RestorePrinterSelection(HANDLE &hDevMode, HANDLE& hDevNames) ;

These procedures save/restore the selected printer from the registry (key PrinterConfig)

Future enhancements or coding projects

Add functionality to query network printers

Add functionality to add a new printer

Enjoy!

Revision History

12 Jun 2002 - Initial Revision

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Roger Allen

Software Developer (Senior)
Sirius Analytical Instruments

United Kingdom

Member

A research and development programmer working for a pharmaceutical instrument company for the past 17 years.

I am one of those lucky people who enjoys his work and spends more time than he should either doing work or reseaching new stuff. I can also be found on playing DDO on the Cannith server (Send a tell to "Maetrim" who is my current main)

I am also a keep fit fanatic, doing cross country running and am seriously into [url]http://www.ryushinkan.co.uk/[/url] Karate at this time of my life, training from 4-6 times a week and recently achieved my 1st Dan after 6 years.

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EnumPrinters identifier not found

bhat vinay

2:11 20 Oct '10

Hi.. Can anyone tell me how to use EnumPrinters In MFC appliaction.. I need to get the names of all the installed printers .. In Win32 Application EnumPrinters Api works fine but m facing some problem in MFC aplication.. It says EnumPrinters identifier not found even after adding its respective .h file i.e.(windows.h).. can anyone help me out..?? thanks, vinay
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Work with job ?

PAOS

2:48 26 Feb '07

I need watch job on printer. For example name of document printing. Do you have a sample to get this. Thank very much
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Set app to use non-default printer

techjeff

10:33 21 May '06

Thanks for the write up and the code. I have a challenge: I can't control the source code for the application. I want to set this application so that it will print to a "virtual printer" I installed in Windows. The virtual printer is something my company co-develops.

Scenario:
- My printer X is my Windows default printer
- My printer Y is my weird dot matrix printer I use only with one application
- I want my one application to use only the Y printer, to make it easier for computer illiterates to just "print", and they do so with the right printer.

What do you recommend?
- Are there any utilities that can start with my one program to force it to use only this printer (the non-default dot matrix printer)?
- Can a utility be created to run and scan for a windows print event coming from the one program?
- Are there any .INI modifications I could use?
- Are there any other tweaks I can make in Windows?

Your help is much appreciated. I Googled for 3 hours yesterday and couldn't find what I was looking for. I am not an expert in printing technology. Frown | :(

Run to the hills!

Great Stuff !!!

Warren Stevens

8:05 21 Aug '05

Very Nice!!! It's always nice to have a nice example in an area of windows programming that can be tricky, and is "not well" covered by most documentation/books. Warren
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need to handle WM_SETTINGCHANGE

fredwobus

4:37 23 May '05

The MSDN says "The framework calls OnSettingChange for all top-level windows when the Win32 SystemParametersInfo function changes a system-wide setting."

It is important in the context of this small project to note that this also happens when the user add/removes printers in the control panel.

You need to include this handler in your view

BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CAOMView, CFormView)

...

    ON_WM_SETTINGCHANGE()  // printers might have changed

...

END_MESSAGE_MAP()

void CMyView::OnSettingChange(UINT uFlags, LPCTSTR lpszSection)

{

    __super::OnSettingChange(uFlags, lpszSection);

	

    // printers might have changed

    if (lstrcmpi(lpszSection, _T("devices")) == 0)

		theApp.m_PrinterControl.ReadLocalPrinters();

}

However you need to fix ReadLocalPrinters() to be able to be called more than once.

Does anyone know more about this window message and its implication for the EnumPrinters thingy ?

Doesn't work in Unicode :(

VitalyTomilov

3:27 31 Mar '05

Subj.
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Use Without Document/View Framwork

rtek

6:30 3 Mar '05

Can this EnumPrinters be used in an application where the Document/View Framework is not used? I'm trying to set this up be I'm having a hard time. the variables _hDevMode & m_hDevNames are considered to be undeclared identifiers by the compiler. I am using the Printer function found on this webpage by Roger Allen to Print without the document/view framework. Where can i call the SetNewPrinter function from so that this works?

Set Default/Global Printer

DanYELL

5:08 21 Sep '04

I have two printers. The default printer is HP 3600 and
I also use a PDF995 driver.

I execute the Printer Settings demo program that you posted
and the printername shown in the printer 1 and printer 2
boxes is HP 3600 Series. I click on choose and I select
the PDF driver. In the Status box, it says

printer 1 PDF995

I click on that and then click on the Set Global Printer
button and it says

Global settings for printer1 changed!

I exit the program and go back in and the printername
shown in the printer 1 and printer 2 boxes is still
HP 3600 series. If I select the PDF995 driver again for
printer 1, click Set Global Printer and then go to a
different program, any program, and try to print something
it still wants to print through the HP 3600 printer.
Changing the printer was temporary and only through
this one-program.

How can I change the default printer that all programs
on that particular computer utilize? Is it possible?

Please, any response you can give me will be greatly
appreciated.

Sincerely,
Danielle Brina (an overworked graduate student)

Changing printers.

Jim Barrett

2:00 5 Jul '04

Please can someone help. I am trying to set a printer in the background using the
command AfxGetApp()->SelectPrinter(hDevNames, hDevMode, TRUE). I am pulling hDevName and hDevMode from the system in the usual way. My problem is that a lot of my printers usual defaults are being ignored. If, however, I go through a print dialog and just hit OK, everything is fine. I am missing something obvious but I am not sure what. Thanks.

Calling SetPrintOrientation

RtekRyan

14:34 15 May '04

How exactly do i call SetPrintOrientaion? I want to change my printer's default orientation to Landscape, but i'm not sure what to use for the HANDLE hDevMode? I think it has something to do with selecting and telling the SetPrintOrientation funcion which printer to change. Can someone please give me hand in setting this up?
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Re: Calling SetPrintOrientation

Roger Allen

22:24 16 May '04

The hDevMode handle is a member variable of CWinApp which is initialised during the construction of the CWinApp object. In later versions of MFC you have to call UpdatePrinterSelection(TRUE); in your InitInstance() to make sure the printer is initialised correctly.

So you could do:

	// create main MDI Frame window
	CMainFrame* pMainFrame = new CMainFrame;
	if (!pMainFrame->LoadFrame(IDR_MAINFRAME))
		return FALSE;
	m_pMainWnd = pMainFrame;
 
	UpdatePrinterSelection(TRUE);
	m_PrinterControl.SetPrinterOrientation(m_hDevMode, DMORIENT_LANDSCAPE);

If you set the code up like in the example application.

Roger Allen - Sonork 100.10016
Strong Sad: I am sad I am flying
_{Who is your favorite Strong?}

Re: Calling SetPrintOrientation

rtek

6:39 17 May '04

Thanks that works great, but can I use this in a Dialog Based Application, and if so, what changes do I need to make to get it running?
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Re: Calling SetPrintOrientation

Mr-X

14:47 26 Nov '05

Please, can someone who know if it is possible answer? Roger Allen? /Felix
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Great Job!

Frank Kobs

22:47 8 Mar '04

Just what I needed! It's really a plug & play class. include it, compile, and it works. Just had to add some NULL handle checks. Keep up your good articles about printing
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Great Stuff !!

Vijay Bansal

5:30 5 Feb '04

Thanks for sharing this code ! This worked out just fine !
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Great Job

JohnLI

5:55 3 Oct '03

Hi, Roger Allen, You have done a great simple code. I have tried many MFC books, but no one tell any useful info about printing. Thanks Roger Allen. John Later
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God job

GodSaveMe

3:07 3 Jul '03

Very nice,This is what I want. --------------------- http://www.aooa.net http://thexstudio.yeah.net
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Geting max paper

Pezhvak

23:39 29 Jan '03

hi I want to get the maximum size of paper(millimeter) that my printer suport it.I used "DeviceCapabilities" by "DC_MAXEXTENT" value ,but I did not successful. !!! please help me and send to me ur code by this address : p_kh807@yahoo.com thank u P-KH
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UNICODE support

erand

5:49 19 Dec '02

I was wondering if we have to support UNICODE strings for DEVNAMES structure? eran
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set pagesize?

wxzhao@gpi.com.cn

16:20 12 Dec '02

b>why can't it setting pagesize?<</b> =SigSize
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EnumJobs cannot see multiple copies in Word2000

rasho

21:47 13 Oct '02

I made simple program for geting information about printing jobs. It is work fine on all programs but not on Microsoft Word 2000 (or MS WORD 2002) when I select option "Copies" and put more then "1". How can I solve this? If there is no normal way maybe you now how to DISABLE option for printion multiple copies since it gives me faulty results.
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servant of printers

Xjenny_6

1:31 2 Oct '02

Hi. That I need to know how to make a program that receives all requests of impression of several machines in network and administers these like for example whichever leaves imprimio, etc. Thanks.
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Addional functionality

Roger Allen

0:26 30 May '02

Someone posted a question about how to identify the currently selected printer, but the message seems to have disappeared. Anyway, I developed this additional function for the CEnumPrinters class:

// header file
int IdentifyCurrentPrinter(HANDLE &hDevMode, HANDLE& hDevNames) const ;
 
// this procedure returns the index of the currently selected printer, or -1 if the
// printer could not be identified
int CEnumPrinters::IdentifyCurrentPrinter(HANDLE &hDevMode, HANDLE& hDevNames) const
{
	// extract the name and port of the selected printer
	if (hDevNames == NULL || hDevNames == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
		{
		if (hDevMode != NULL && hDevMode != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
			{
			// just in case one handle is valid when the other is invalid
			// we need to release it
			ASSERT(::GlobalFlags(hDevMode) != GMEM_INVALID_HANDLE);
			UINT nCount = ::GlobalFlags(hDevMode) & GMEM_LOCKCOUNT;
			while (nCount--)
				::GlobalUnlock(hDevMode);
 
			// finally, really free the handle
			::GlobalFree(hDevMode);
			hDevMode = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE ;
			}
		// no current printer is selected, get the system wide default
		// printer using the CPrintDialog
		CPrintDialog pd(TRUE);
		pd.GetDefaults();
		hDevMode = pd.m_pd.hDevMode;
		hDevNames = pd.m_pd.hDevNames;
		}
	// to identify the current printer we need the info from the hDevNames object
	LPDEVNAMES	lpDevNames = (LPDEVNAMES)::GlobalLock(hDevNames) ;	// lock it
	// we only need the name of the printer to identify it
	CString		name((char*)((char*)lpDevNames + lpDevNames->wDeviceOffset)) ; 
	//CString		port((char*)((char*)lpDevNames + lpDevNames->wOutputOffset)) ;
	//CString		spooler((char*)((char*)lpDevNames + lpDevNames->wDriverOffset)) ;
	GlobalUnlock(hDevNames);											// unlock it

	for (int i = 0 ; i < GetPrinterCount() ; i++)
		{
		if (name == GetPrinterName(i))
			return i ;													// this is the printer
		}
	return -1 ;															// failed to identify
}

Roger Allen
Sonork 100.10016

If I had a quote, it would be a very good one.

Networked Printers?

Paresh Solanki

0:35 8 May '02

Good Article, with one possible enhancement... I may have missed something, but this appears to work only with local printers. How can it be modified to allow networked printers? Paresh Solanki There is no substitute for genuine lack of preparation.
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