Disappearing printer update + workaround

[Ilya Koulchin]

Thanks to everyone who reported the OneNote printer disappearing and
some luck, we (the OneNote team) have been able to reproduce the
problem. It looks like the printer is disappearing if it is loaded while
the updates are being installed. This means that if you use the printer
and then install an update, there is a chance that the OneNote printer
will disappear.

One way to prevent the printer from disappearing is to restart your
computer before applying updates if you have used the OneNote printer
since the last time you restarted the computer. If you have not used the
OneNote printer since restarting your computer you do not need to
restart before installing updates.

Dan Escapa also has some information about this on his blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/descapa/archi...-disappears-after-installing-sept-update.aspx

Ilya Koulchin
OneNote Development

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Thanks for posting this.
It's not too close to the problem discussed in here, AFAICS.

Thanks to everyone who reported the OneNote printer disappearing and
some luck, we (the OneNote team) have been able to reproduce the
problem. It looks like the printer is disappearing if it is loaded
while the updates are being installed. This means that if you use
the printer and then install an update, there is a chance that the
OneNote printer will disappear.

I for one can not confirm this.
*I* have all the updates installed (incl. Vista SP1) and never ever a
problem appeared (regardless of printing prior to or after running any
updates and booting).

One way to prevent the printer from disappearing is to restart your
computer before applying updates if you have used the OneNote
printer since the last time you restarted the computer.

This has been the case on my side.
Printing and updating and printing and no re-boot.
No problem.

If you have
not used the OneNote printer since restarting your computer you do
not need to restart before installing updates.

Dan Escapa also has some information about this on his blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/descapa/archi...-disappears-after-installing-sept-update.aspx

Daniel's blog posting is just referring to the *last* update (of Sept
09, 2008).
So far there have been no postings in this NG referring to THIS *recent*
update.
So I think that Daniel just has not got a proper view on the
*PERSISTING* problem (pls see my comment in Daniel's blog).

AFAICS it's necessary that the team would go a bit deeper into
researching on how and why the problem appears and what might be done to
cure it.

Thanks for the effort to provide the info.
IMHO it's anything but close to the point, however!

Rainald

 

[michtho_ms]

Hi Rainald - a few more updates on this issues. First, I want to clarify
that we have indeed been trying to reproduce this issue within the test team
for quite a long time now but until recently, we weren't able to track down
the exact issue.

Thanks to some great detective work by a person on the OneNote Test team,
yesterday we were finally able to get a very good indicator of what the
problem is. You are indeed correct that it is not just this security update
that causes the issue. We now think it is related to how Microsoft
setup/patching works in conjunction with whether OneNote is booted when the
patching occurs or your printer session is still in use when the patching
occurs. So this combination together helps reproduce this issue.

We'll have more info soon, but we feel much more confident about tracking
and fixing this issue permanently.

Mike
OneNote Test

 

[mitchell]

Hi Rainald - a few more updates on this issues.  First, I want to clarify
that we have indeed been trying to reproduce this issue within the test team
for quite a long time now but until recently, we weren't able to track down
the exact issue.

Thanks to some great detective work by a person on the OneNote Test team,
yesterday we were finally able to get a very good indicator of what the
problem is.  You are indeed correct that it is not just this security update
that causes the issue.  We now think it is related to how Microsoft
setup/patching works in conjunction with whether OneNote is booted when the
patching occurs or your printer session is still in use when the patching
occurs. So this combination together helps reproduce this issue.

We'll have more info soon, but we feel much more confident about tracking
and fixing this issue permanently.

Mike
OneNote Test











- Show quoted text -

Hey guys,

I have definitively identified one thing that will cause the OneNote
printer to disappear. Download and install KB950130 and you can watch
the printer disappear from the Printer and Faxes window. This applies
to XP SP2. I think that the installation of Office 2007 SP1 will also
cause the printer to disappear. (The above KB is probably part of
Office 2007 SP1) I haven't been able to verify this yet but several of
our students have said that their OneNote printer disappeared after
installing SP1. As far as fixing it is concerned, we have been either
uninstalling and reinstalling OneNote 2007 or running a repair of
OneNote 2007 using a OneNote 2007 install CD. However, when you do
this, it screws up the installation to the point that the next time
you do Windows Update, Windows Update thinks that the above installs
have not been done, so it reinstalls the very updates that break the
OneNote printer. A catch 22 if I've ever seen one. We have decided
that the only way to safely get around this is to turn off automatic
updates altogether and manually install updates after carefully
selecting the above KB not to ever install. Any other fix would have
to come from Microsoft.

 

[mitchell]

Hey guys,

I have definitively identified one thing that will cause the OneNote
printer to disappear. Download and install KB950130 and you can watch
the printer disappear from the Printer and Faxes window. This applies
to XP SP2. I think that the installation of Office 2007 SP1 will also
cause the printer to disappear. (The above KB is probably part of
Office 2007 SP1) I haven't been able to verify this yet but several of
our students have said that their OneNote printer disappeared after
installing SP1. As far as fixing it is concerned, we have been either
uninstalling and reinstalling OneNote 2007 or running a repair of
OneNote 2007 using a OneNote 2007 install CD. However, when you do
this, it screws up the installation to the point that the next time
you do Windows Update, Windows Update thinks that the above installs
have not been done, so it reinstalls the very updates that break the
OneNote printer. A catch 22 if I've ever seen one. We have decided
that the only way to safely get around this is to turn off automatic
updates altogether and manually install updates after carefully
selecting the above KB not to ever install. Any other fix would have
to come from Microsoft.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Oh, I forgot to mention that when the culprit updates install, they
may or may not delete the OneNote Printer port. If the printer port is
deleted, it is difficult to just insert a new OneNote printer because
then you have to create a new Send To Microsoft OneNote Port: (Notice
the : at the end. All Microsoft installed ports have a : at the end.
If you try to create a port with a : , you get a message that says, "
'Send To Microsoft OneNote Port:' is an invalid port name.) If you
leave off the :, the new printer may or may not work. Remember when
you are just installing a new OneNote printer, that the names of all
of the elements that are used to set up the printer must be named the
same as they are when Microsoft installs them. The printer port I've
already covered. The printer must be named Send To OneNote 2007. The
driver is named 'Send To Microsoft OneNote Driver. The Print processor
must be OneNotePrint2007 and default data type is 'raw'. If all of the
elements needed to set up the printer are available, then you can
create a generic printer and select all of the elements for the
OneNote printer. If all of the elements are not present, you will
probably have to repair or reinstall OneNote.