QuickReport throws "There Is No Default Printer Currently Selected" Exception

Question

I have created a Delphi Service which prints TQuickReports. Everything works fine if compiled and run as a Windows Application. But when converted to operate as a service trying to create a form containing a TQuickRep component throws the exception.

This service runs fine on many other boxes but not this one in particular. Here are some details:

• Using QuickReport version 4.07
• Box is a Windows Server 2008 operating system.
• Using Delphi 2007
• Printer.Printers.Count is returning a positive value. In fact I can list out all of the printers.
• I have tried running the service both using Local System Account and Logged on as an Admin.

Answer 1

Is there a default printer set up in session 0? Remember that under Vista / Server 2008 / Windows 7, services run in a separate session. Whether or not the logged-in user has a default printer set is not relevant - it's a per-session setting and doesn't affect session 0.

Can you rewrite the code to gracefully handle that exception and pick a printer to use?

Answer 2

You might give the user a way to select the printer for the service. The Windows service probably does not have a default printer set.

Set TQuickRep.PrinterSettings.PrinterIndex to set the printer number. Then, TQuickRep.Print to print the report.

Answer 3

Let me guess ... the printer reporting this error is either a Dell or a Lexmark ...

Answer 4

A colleague ended up finding the solution. I should have added these are "network" printers and not Local printers (at the time I didn't think this was related to the problem). So the service needed to be installed with "NetworkService" as the user account under the logon tab. From the Windows Help:

To specify that the service uses the Network Service account, click This account, and then type NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService

Answer 5

If using terminal services 2008, same user for multiple sessions, you should look into the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\SessionDefaultDevices\Session_ID instead of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows.