Windows 7 No printer ports are showing up

ksingle · Nov 6, 2009

I recently bought the best buy package of a desktop, laptop, and netbook and I am having problems installing my printer on the desktop. It installed fine when connected to the laptop. I have called Canon support for the printer and they referred me to HP which was of no use. Here is what it looks like is going on. I have no existing printer ports showing up. If you click on add printer and select use existing printer ports, there are none there. If you look at the printer properties for the microsoft xps document writer and look under ports, there are no ports listed there. On the netbook, which I have not tried to install a printer on, there are existing printer ports. HP would not even listen to this as a possible problem for the printer install. They kept insisting that the printer is not compatable with Windows 7 even though I told them I have it connected and working on the laptop running the exact same operating system. Is it possible that somehow something happened to these ports while using the windows transfer cable. How do I get them back without restoring the entire system.

printerfixed · Jun 10, 2022

ksingle said:
Thanks for trying to help me out. I did fix the problem and contrary to HP's support, it was a windows issue. Here is what I did. I exported the usb monitor and Local Port registry keys from my Netbook and imported them onto my desktop machine. Rebooted the computer and what do you know. I can print now. I still do not know what the MRI_Disabled key is. But hopefully it will not cause my any problems.

Here it is June 2022 (13 years later) and this problem still exists in Windows 10 21H2.

I had the exact same problem and, thanks to your suggestion, I exported the "Monitors" key from a working laptop, and imported them on my desktop that had the printing issue, and now all my printing ports re-appeared and I can print...

printerfixed · Jun 10, 2022

ksingle said:
Thanks for trying to help me out. I did fix the problem and contrary to HP's support, it was a windows issue. Here is what I did. I exported the usb monitor and Local Port registry keys from my Netbook and imported them onto my desktop machine. Rebooted the computer and what do you know. I can print now. I still do not know what the MRI_Disabled key is. But hopefully it will not cause my any problems.

Here it is June 2022 (13 years later) and this problem still exists in Windows 10 21H2.

I had the exact same problem and, thanks to your suggestion, I exported the "Monitors" key from a working laptop, and imported them on my desktop that had the printing issue, and now all my printing ports re-appeared and I can print again. Even my "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer re-appeared and worked again.

Just wanted to add this in case anyone else experiences this issue.

procc · Sep 20, 2024

printerfixed said:
Here it is June 2022 (13 years later) and this problem still exists in Windows 10 21H2.

I had the exact same problem and, thanks to your suggestion, I exported the "Monitors" key from a working laptop, and imported them on my desktop that had the printing issue, and now all my printing ports re-appeared and I can print again. Even my "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer re-appeared and worked again.

Just wanted to add this in case anyone else experiences this issue.

This solved my problem.
Exported all Monitor keys from another computer and imported to my computer, and everything was fixed. Probably some buggy software deleted them at some point.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors

Windows 7 No printer ports are showing up

ksingle

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printerfixed

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procc

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