Knowledgebase

Symptoms

I have created a printing profile that I want available to all users on my multi-user system but I don't want that profile to be changed by users.

Cause

User profiles are typically stored in HKCU and as such can be modified by users.

Resolution

Use the command line to install a printing profile to HKLM that is then available to all users as a read only profile.

For an overview od how printing profiles work see here: KB#499

Make a profile available to all users as Read Only

We have a command line feature that will put the profile into HKLM. This will make the profile available to all users.   Users then need only go to the Printer Preferences and switch to the new profile. 
 

The profile will be available to users on first login after running the following command line action:

C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange Standard\drvui.x64.dll",DUI30_Command /InstallProfile:"C:<path to profile>\ProfileName.pxpp" /PrinterName:"PDF-XChange Standard"

Where :

• C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange Standard\ is the path to drvui.x64.dll (C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange Standard\ is the default).
• C:<path to profile>\ is a valid path to your Profile pp5 file.
• ProfileName matches your saved profile file name.
• PrinterName is the name of the printer already installed "PDF-XChange Standard" is the default.  If you have renamed the printer you must use that new name)

The command should return with no feedback, no success but definitely no errors.

One can check if the profile was added by looking in the registry for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange Standard\Printers\PDF-XChange Standard\Profiles\My Printer Settings



With that in HKLM it is available to all users and is locked.  Users will not be able to change that profile.  They will, however, after loading the profile be able to make changes that get applied when printing but those changes can not be applied to the profile.  Loading the profile again through the GUI will return things to the state defined in HKLM.

After running the above as Admin, logging in as a standard user shows the new profile is available:


Each user can then select this available profile and load it and as long as it was the last active profile they can expect this profile to be loaded every session moving forwards.

Make a Read Only profile the default
There is a way to make the profile the default for all users except those who have set the profile themselves as above.
As Admin go to the PDF-XChange Printer in the Control Panel and select Printer Properties --> (NOT Printing Preferences)

 
 
Advanced [Tab] --> Printing Defaults -->



You can select and load the profile there.  Then any changes you make will go into HKLM.  This is a Windows feature for any printer.  Having selected the profile this way users logging into your multi-user machine will get this profile by default unless they have manually chosen a different profile.

Additionally use the rundll option with the switch /AsDefault:

rundll32 "%ProgramFiles%\Tracker Software\PDF-XChange Standard\drvui.x64.dll",DUI30_Command /InstallProfile:"\\UNC\path\to\MyPrinterSettings.pxpp" /PrinterName:"PDF-XChange Standard" /ForUser /AsDefault

/ForUser will put the profile in HKCU and be available for the user applying the command.   No special privileges should be required.  If /ForUser is not specified it will go into HKLM and be available to all users.  This requires Administrative rights.