Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Print Driver Disappeared

[JodyWood]

OS - Windows XP Pro
Software - Office 2003, which contains the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Print Driver and I had it installed


My PC has recently installed some Windows/Office updates automatically. Somehow those updates have removed the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Print Driver from my PC as it is no longer listed in my Printers And Faxes.

Note - The Windows/Office updates are being applied automatically - this is company policy and can't be changed. I have rolled back successfully, but when the update applies the next time I am back in the same boat. I can't keep doing rollbacks.

I have searched for solutions to get it back on my machine and have come up empty handed. I have tried the suggestions that I have found, but no luck so far.

What I have tried...

Attempt 1
Uninstall and then reinstall the MODI printer driver feature
using your Office 2003 CD. Instructions courtesy of Windows MVP
Carey Frisch:
1. Close all running applications. If you have any Office
application running, the driver will not be installed properly.
2. Go to "Control Panel" and "Add or Remove Programs".
3. Click on "Microsoft Office 2003" and then click on "Change".
4. Check "Add or Remove Features" and click "Next".
5. On the bottom of the page check "Choose advanced
customization of applications." and click "Next".
6. Under Microsoft Office click on the + sign in front of
"Office Tools"
7. Locate the object "Microsoft Office Document Imaging",
click the icon and select "Not Available".
8. Click on "Update". This will uninstall the MODI driver.
9. Repeat steps 1 to 6 to go back to the same location you
were before.
10. Locate the object "Microsoft Office Document Imaging",
click the icon and select "Run from My Computer".
11. Click on "Update".

Result - No change.

Attempt 2
Type the following into a command prompt window: (unsure if you have to be admin or not)
cscript c:\windows\system32\prnmngr.vbs -a -p "Microsoft Office Document Image Writer" -m "Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Driver" -r "Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Port:"

Result - No change.
Unable to add printer Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Error 0x80041001 Generic failure
Operation PutInstance
Provider Win32 Provider
Description The printer driver is unknown.
Win32 error code 1797

Attempt 3
1. Go to Control panel - Printer and fax
2. Add Printer - select local printer attached (Unselect detect Plug N Play)
3. In the port option select Microsoft Document Image Printer Writer Port
4. Select and install a generic manufacturer and use text only printer.
5. Right-click on the generic text/only printer driver and select properties.
6. Click on ports and select "Microsoft Office Document Imaging Driver Port".
7. Click on the advanced tab and change the driver to Microsoft Office Document Image Writer.
8. Click on apply and OK.

Result - No change. Can't find port so unable to complete this option.

Attempt 4
I have attempted to Repair/Reinstall Office.

Result - No change.

Attempt 5
I have attempted to Uninstall Office and Reinstall Office and Reapply Updates.

Result - No change.

As you can see, I have tried the many options I have found, but no luck so far. I would appreciate any other ideas and hopefully one will result in success.

Thanks,
Jody Wood

[JodyWood]

I found the following work around listed here: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...11404&SiteID=1

Posted By: OnePostOnly
Posted Date: 22 Jan 2007, 4:32 PM UTC
I had the same problem and the only solution I found was to give up on Microsoft Document Imaging and install PDF Creator (http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator). You can print to PDF's as well as TIFF and other formats. Best of all . . .it's FREE! Oh, yeah, and it actually works.

I downloaded and installed PDFCreator using the MSI option. Upon installation, I found that the printer that was supposed to be created was not on my PC either. I looked on PDFCreator site for a solution. It referenced me to SetupLog.txt file in the PDFCreator folder, where I found this error - InstallPrinter [PDFCreator]: 1797: The printer driver is unknown. I then googled on that error and came up with this link... http://www.pdfforge.org/node/740/1754#comment-1754, which states to "Uninstall the msi package and use the exe setup." So, I did that. As I was installing the exe version, it noted an error with a corrupted path setting and asked to fix it. So, I let it fix the corrupted path setting, which required a reboot. Upon rebooting, I attempted to install PDFCreator again. This time it loaded as I expected and it created the Printer too.

That got me to thinking, maybe the corrupted path setting is the cause of the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Printer Disappearing. So, I tried installing it again with these steps:

Uninstall and then reinstall the MODI printer driver feature
using your Office 2003 CD. Instructions courtesy of Windows MVP
Carey Frisch:
1. Close all running applications. If you have any Office
application running, the driver will not be installed properly.
2. Go to "Control Panel" and "Add or Remove Programs".
3. Click on "Microsoft Office 2003" and then click on "Change".
4. Check "Add or Remove Features" and click "Next".
5. On the bottom of the page check "Choose advanced
customization of applications." and click "Next".
6. Under Microsoft Office click on the + sign in front of
"Office Tools"
7. Locate the object "Microsoft Office Document Imaging",
click the icon and select "Not Available".
8. Click on "Update". This will uninstall the MODI driver.
9. Repeat steps 1 to 6 to go back to the same location you
were before.
10. Locate the object "Microsoft Office Document Imaging",
click the icon and select "Run from My Computer".
11. Click on "Update".

Results: Success! My Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Printer was back in place. Woo-hoo! So, it looks like the fix is repairing a corrupted path setting. Not sure how to fix the corrupted path setting other than through PDFCreator EXE install at this time. Good luck if you run into this issue!

[jdc2000]

Thanks for the update on the solution.

[sknuteson]

We ran into this problem in January and run into it periodically with updates. Usually we run this BAT file after we install Office updates which we do manually after extensive testing. Delivery method for us is through Radia. Hope this helps.

OPEN NOTEPAD, copy and paste and name file with extension (.bat) then double click and it will reinstall. This does require admin priveleges to install.

c:
cd "c:\windows\system32"

net stop msiserver

@Echo Now Repairing Microsoft Document Image Writer - this should only take a few minutes...

msiexec.exe /i {90120409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9} REINSTALL=MSPPRTDRIVER REINSTALLMODE=vomu /qn

Echo Repair Complete...

Hope this helps.
Thanks
Stephanie Knuteson

[sundaygoogle]

Jody Wood, thank you for sharing your method! I have had the same problem for long time, so I searched many ways to solve it. But they didn't work. So lucy I saw your post about this. I followed your method and got success. I'm so happy that you shared your experience. I'm from China, so I also want to thank Internet and search engine Google. Thanks again.

I found the following work around listed here: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...11404&SiteID=1

Posted By: OnePostOnly
Posted Date: 22 Jan 2007, 4:32 PM UTC
I had the same problem and the only solution I found was to give up on Microsoft Document Imaging and install PDF Creator (http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator). You can print to PDF's as well as TIFF and other formats. Best of all . . .it's FREE! Oh, yeah, and it actually works.

I downloaded and installed PDFCreator using the MSI option. Upon installation, I found that the printer that was supposed to be created was not on my PC either. I looked on PDFCreator site for a solution. It referenced me to SetupLog.txt file in the PDFCreator folder, where I found this error - InstallPrinter [PDFCreator]: 1797: The printer driver is unknown. I then googled on that error and came up with this link... http://www.pdfforge.org/node/740/1754#comment-1754, which states to "Uninstall the msi package and use the exe setup." So, I did that. As I was installing the exe version, it noted an error with a corrupted path setting and asked to fix it. So, I let it fix the corrupted path setting, which required a reboot. Upon rebooting, I attempted to install PDFCreator again. This time it loaded as I expected and it created the Printer too.

That got me to thinking, maybe the corrupted path setting is the cause of the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Printer Disappearing. So, I tried installing it again with these steps:

Uninstall and then reinstall the MODI printer driver feature
using your Office 2003 CD. Instructions courtesy of Windows MVP
Carey Frisch:
1. Close all running applications. If you have any Office
application running, the driver will not be installed properly.
2. Go to "Control Panel" and "Add or Remove Programs".
3. Click on "Microsoft Office 2003" and then click on "Change".
4. Check "Add or Remove Features" and click "Next".
5. On the bottom of the page check "Choose advanced
customization of applications." and click "Next".
6. Under Microsoft Office click on the + sign in front of
"Office Tools"
7. Locate the object "Microsoft Office Document Imaging",
click the icon and select "Not Available".
8. Click on "Update". This will uninstall the MODI driver.
9. Repeat steps 1 to 6 to go back to the same location you
were before.
10. Locate the object "Microsoft Office Document Imaging",
click the icon and select "Run from My Computer".
11. Click on "Update".

Results: Success! My Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Printer was back in place. Woo-hoo! So, it looks like the fix is repairing a corrupted path setting. Not sure how to fix the corrupted path setting other than through PDFCreator EXE install at this time. Good luck if you run into this issue!