Permission Error Messages Occur When Printing with the Guest Account

When you are working on a computer that is running Windows, if you attempt to connect to a printer on another Windows computer that is part of a workgroup or a member of an untrusted domain, you may receive the following error message: This message occurs regardless of the guest account that is being enabled or disabled on the local computer.

In addition, when you log on to the client locally and install the printer, when you print a file, you may receive an error message when the print job is spooling. The system event log on the print server reports the following message:

This issue may occur if you do not have proper NTFS permissions on the Spool folder. By default, Windows sets stricter permissions on the Spool folder.

NOTE: This issue does not occur when you give the Everyone group Full Control permissions (the default NTFS permissions) on the Spool folder in Microsoft Windows NT 4.0.

To resolve this issue, use any of the following methods:

Method One

1. Enable the guest account on the computer that is hosting the shared printer.
2. On the %SystemRoot%\System32\Spool folder, grant the Everyone group Read and Execute, Read, and List Folder Contents permissions.
3. On the client computer, log on as the user and add the printer.

Method Two

1. Enable the guest account on the computer that is hosting the shared printer.
2. Add the guest account to the NTFS permissions list on the %SystemRoot%\System32\Spool folder, and then grant the guest account Read and Execute, Read, and List Folder Contents permissions.
3. On the client computer, log on as the user and add the printer.

Method Three

1. Enable the guest account on the computer that is hosting the shared printer.
2. Add the guest account to the NTFS permission list on the %SystemRoot%\System32\Spool folder, and give this account Full Control permissions.
3. Log on to the client station as a local administrator and install the printer driver locally by adding the printer as a network printer.
4. Log off of the client station as the local administrator, log on as the user, and then add the printer again.
   
   NOTE: This method may create a security issue. When you grant the guest account Full Control permissions, any user is able to manage other users' documents in the print queue.

Method Four

1. Log on to the client station as the local administrator and add the printer.
2. On the print server, right-click the printer, click Properties, and then click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Print directly to the printer check box. When you enable this option, the print spooling function is bypassed.

For additional information about NTFS Default Permissions, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: