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General discussion

Whenever I print, all I get is pages of html code

Jul 7, 2010 12:43AM PDT

I am running Vista on my HP Pavillion desktop computer. I somehow messed up the drivers because it does not matter which printer I connect to this computer, all I get is html code. Below is an example of what I get whenever I try to print.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
<HTML__IE_DISPLAYURL=" .....

and it goes on and on and on. The entire document is pages and pages of HTML code.

I think I may have screwed up the Vista print drivers when I installed some software. I cannot find any resource to tell me how to fix this. The HP printer drivers are fine. I think it is the operating system print drivers that are messed up.

Please help me fix this. It is impossible to print anything without copying it first into Word and even sometimes that does not work.

Thank you.

Discussion is locked

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Printing problem.
Jul 7, 2010 11:48PM PDT

I suggest deleting all the printers at the Printer
folder at the Control Panel, and also at Device Manager, if found. Reboot and reinstall the prinnter, making sure it is compatible with the OS.

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whenever i print, the result is tons of HTML code
Jul 9, 2010 8:01AM PDT

Thank you for the suggestion but that did not work at all. i uninstalled everything, deleted all printers from my printers folder. Again when I tried to print, it came out in HTML code. Any more suggestions? I am willing to try anything and everything until I can print like a normal person!!

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HTML Code printing!
Jul 8, 2010 8:55AM PDT

This is an answer I found that helped someone else that had a similar problem!

Step by step? I don't even remember all that I did over the past four days. But here's the reply from the Partners forum that finally did it. In step 1, I assumed he meant to tell me to go into Internet Options. Regedit has no such tab. Wink

From the problem description of the post you submitted, my understanding is: IE7 prints HTML codes rather than the actual page contents.

If I have misunderstood your concern, feel free to let me know.

Based on my research, the problem may occur if IE7 is not the default web browser. I understand that you have tried setting IE7 as the default. At this point, please follow the steps below to verify it:

Step 1: Set IE7 as default in IE options
========
1. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box and press Enter.
2. Switch to Programs tab, click "Make default" under "Default web browser" if IE is not currently the default web browser.
3. Click OK.

Step 2: Set IE as default in Set Program Access and Computer Defaults
========
1. Click Start and click Default Programs.
2. Click "Set program access and computer defaults".
3. Select Custom and click to expand the options.
4. Select "Internet Explorer" as the default web browser and click OK.

Step 3: Verify the related registry key
========
1. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box and press Enter.
2. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\Shell\print\com mand

3. In the right pane, make sure the (Default) value data is set as below:

"C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe" "C:\Windows\System32\mshtml.dll",PrintHTML "%1"

4. Quit Registry Editor.

Then, restart the computer to check the result.

Source: http://www.technibble.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-6882.html

I hope this helps!

Brett M,
Windows Outreach Team