Disabling Printing Notification Dialog Boxes in Windows

In Windows, you can disable the Printing Notification network dialog boxes that are sent by the spooler on a print server when a print job has been completed, there is an error, or a job has been deleted.

NOTE: This option is not available in Windows NT or Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1. Also note that this setting applies globally to all the printers on a particular print server. It is not possible to set this option on a per-printer basis.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Use the following steps to disable Printing Notification network dialog boxes:

NOTE: This procedure must be performed on the server that is sending the dialog box. The only way to disable a dialog box on a client is to disable the messenger service on the client. Disabling the dialog box from the server will affect all clients.

Windows NT 3.51

1. Start Registry Editor.
2. Locate the following subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Providers
3. From the Edit menu, click Add Value.
4. In the Value Name box of the Add Value dialog box, type NetPopup.
5. Select REG_DWORD for the Data Type, and then click OK.
6. In the Dword Editor dialog box, type 0 (zero) in the Data box, and then click OK.
7. Quit Registry Editor.
8. Quit Print Manager if it is running, and then stop and restart the Spooler service from the Services portion of Control Panel so the new setting will take effect.

Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
2. From the File menu, click Server Properties.
3. On the Advanced tab, click to clear Notify when Remote Documents are Printed.
4. Stop and restart the Spooler service from the Services portion of Control Panel so the new setting will take effect. In Windows 2000, start and restart the Spooler service from the Services snap-in under Administrative Tools.

NOTE: If the print notification is turned off and the printer is directly connected by means of a parallel or serial cable, error messages will appear on the server. While the error is displayed, printing will not resume to the printer, even if the cause of the error is cleared from the printer. Someone must log on to the server and click Retry or Cancel in the Error Message dialog box. This does not affect network-connected printers.