Wint-64 SP1 Unable to share a local printer

I have a USB attached inkjet printer that was always shared with a Vista PC on my network. Suddenly the Vista machine cannot see the printer on the Win7 system and on Win7 I am unable to set the printer to shared status.

When I try to set the printer properties to Shared I get this message: Printer settings could not be saved. Operation could not be complete (error 0x00006d9).

Here is what I've tried so far, all to no avail:

1. Turned on Security Essential Real Time Protection (I read somewhere that this has to be on for printer sharing to work, but I don't know if this is true.)

2. Tried to start Windows Firewall service (I read that this has to be started for printer sharing to work) but my system has no Windows Firewall service to start.

3. Renamed the printer and tried to share it using it's new name (same failure)

4. Removed the Win7 system from the Homegroup (same failure)

The printer works fine on the Win7 system. My user ID has Admin privileges. Rebooting Win7 has no effect.

What else can I try to get the printer shared?

bbinnard said:

I have a USB attached inkjet printer that was always shared with a Vista PC on my network. Suddenly the Vista machine cannot see the printer on the Win7 system and on Win7 I am unable to set the printer to shared status.

When I try to set the printer properties to Shared I get this message: Printer settings could not be saved. Operation could not be complete (error 0x00006d9).

Here is what I've tried so far, all to no avail:

1. Turned on Security Essential Real Time Protection (I read somewhere that this has to be on for printer sharing to work, but I don't know if this is true.)

2. Tried to start Windows Firewall service (I read that this has to be started for printer sharing to work) but my system has no Windows Firewall service to start.

3. Renamed the printer and tried to share it using it's new name (same failure)

4. Removed the Win7 system from the Homegroup (same failure)

The printer works fine on the Win7 system. My user ID has Admin privileges. Rebooting Win7 has no effect.

What else can I try to get the printer shared?

Do you have the printer drivers installed on both systems?

Do you have printers drivers that are made to work on both systems?

It's important to point out that Homegroups is made for Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems only so you should have a common name "Workgroup" set up on both machines. :)

Do you have the printer drivers installed on both systems?

Yes

Do you have printers drivers that are made to work on both systems?

Yes

It's important to point out that Homegroups is made for Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems only so you should have a common name "Workgroup" set up on both machines. :)

The other system is Vista; I have a Workgroup set up in Win7 named Workgroup.

After several hours of research I found that my real problem was with Windows Firewall. Apparently the Firewall software got wacked at some point but the standard monthly Windows Update system scan was unable to detect this. At any rate, I found the solution in the 3rd post here:

Unable to start Windows Firewall

Making these 2 registry updates fixed the problem. I now am able to share my printer.