DOCUMENT:Q154007  11-JAN-2001  [vbwin]
TITLE   :HOWTO: Connect to a Network Printer with the Win32 API
PRODUCT :Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
PROD/VER:4.0
OPER/SYS:
KEYWORDS:kbVBp400 kb32bitOnly

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Visual Basic Standard Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
 - Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
 - Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

Using the Win32 API, it is possible to bring up a predefined Windows Dialog box
for connecting to a network printer. The ConnectToPrinterDlg Win32 API works
under Windows NT. However, it is not accessible by Visual Basic programs running
under Windows 95 because the user interface is so different. Therefore, you must
use a Command line equivalent statement to invoke the "Add Printer Wizard" under
Windows 95. Below is a code sample showing how to implement both methods of
displaying the Dialog.

MORE INFORMATION
================

1. Create a new project with Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add a CommandButton, Command1, to the form.

3. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:

      Option Explicit

      Private Type OSVERSIONINFO
        dwOSVersionInfoSize As Long
        dwMajorVersion As Long
        dwMinorVersion As Long
        dwBuildNumber As Long
        dwPlatformId As Long
        szCSDVersion As String * 128
      End Type

      Private Declare Function GetVersionExA Lib "kernel32" _
         (lpVersionInformation As OSVERSIONINFO) As Integer
      Private Declare Function ConnectToPrinterDlg Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
         hwnd As Long, ByVal flags As Long) As Long

      Private Sub Form_Load()
        Command1.Caption = "Press Me"
      End Sub

      Private Sub Command1_Click()
        Dim osinfo As OSVERSIONINFO
        Dim iReturn As Integer
        Dim lReturn As Long
        osinfo.dwOSVersionInfoSize = 148
        osinfo.szCSDVersion = Space$(128)
        iReturn = GetVersionExA(osinfo)
        If osinfo.dwMajorVersion = 3 And osinfo.dwMinorVersion = 51 And _
          osinfo.dwBuildNumber = 1057 And osinfo.dwPlatformId = 2 Then
          lReturn = ConnectToPrinterDlg(Form1.hwnd, 0)
        ElseIf osinfo.dwMajorVersion = 4 And osinfo.dwMinorVersion = 0 And _
          osinfo.dwBuildNumber = 67109814 And osinfo.dwPlatformId = 1 Then
          Shell "rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHHelpShortcuts_RunDLL AddPrinter"
        Else
          MsgBox "Your Operating System has not been detected successfully !"
        End If
      End Sub

4. Press the F5 key to run the project. Click the buttons to see the results.
   Depending on which operating system you are running, you will see that one
   dialog works and one doesn't:

                          NT 3.51          Win95
      ---------------------------------------------

      dwMajorVersion           3              4
      dwMinorVersion          51              0
      dwBuildNumber         1057       67109814
      dwPlatformId             2              1


REFERENCES
==========

The Win32 SDK.

Additional query words: ConnectToPrinterDlg

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Keywords          : kbVBp400 kb32bitOnly 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbVB400Search kbVB400
Version           : 4.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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