ERROR_INVALID_PRINTER_NAME returned by OpenPrinter() in Windows 8 when executed under "SYSTEM" account - windows-8

Question

My application deletes virtual printer when user uninstalls the application.
Application's installation and Uninstallation can be done using user interaction(wizard) or by setting group policy in Windows server 2003(domain admin sets the policy in server and the domain user in client PC need to update the group policy and restart the Client PC for installation or uninstallation of the application).
The follwing code in the application deletes printer and printer driver when uninstalling the application.
void CPrinterDriver::DeletePrinterIfExists()
{
// Delete old printer driver if existing
ControlSpoolService(TRUE);
HANDLE hPrinter = NULL;
PRINTER_DEFAULTS pDefaults = { NULL, NULL, PRINTER_ALL_ACCESS };
// Ignore error codes
OpenPrinter(m_driverInfo.pName, &hPrinter, &pDefaults);
if (hPrinter)
{
// deleting jobs
SetPrinter(hPrinter, 0, NULL, PRINTER_CONTROL_PURGE);
// Delete printer
DeletePrinter(hPrinter);
// Get printer driver name and delete it
DWORD dwNeeded = 0;
GetPrinter(hPrinter, 2, NULL, 0, &dwNeeded);
if (dwNeeded)
{
PRINTER_INFO_2 *pi2 = (PRINTER_INFO_2 *)GlobalAlloc(GPTR, sizeof(PRINTER_INFO_2)*dwNeeded);
if (pi2)
{
GetPrinter(hPrinter, 2, (LPBYTE)pi2, dwNeeded, &dwNeeded);
DeletePrinterDriver(NULL, NULL, pi2->pDriverName);
GlobalFree(pi2);
}
}
ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
}
}
The above code works well in Windows 7 in both cases(user interactive installation and using group policy) of uninstallation. In Windows 8, it works well using user interactive installation and uninstallation.
But in Windows 8 the above OpenPrinter() is returing ERROR_INVALID_PRINTER_NAME.
We found that the OpenPrinter() is called using the "SYSTEM" account.
Kindly help.

Answer 1

We found that during system startup, group policy is trying to uninstall the printer before the available printers list in the PC is populated (list is populated under the below registry key.If the list is not populated the below key does not exists).
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers"
Hence we added delay of 2 minutes(not less than 2 mins) before calling openPrinter().
After the delay the registry key exists and the OpenPrinter() succeeded.
Thus we are able to uninstall the printer.
Note: Microsoft claims that Windows 8 boot time is reduced to 7 secs for certain supported hardware. But inserting delay of 2 mins degrades the boot performance of the Windows 8 PC.
For more details regarding the improvement in the boot time of Windwos 8 OS please refer the below link.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/22/designing-for-pcs-that-boot-faster-than-ever-before.aspx
Hence delay of 2 mins can be terated as a workaround.
Need to check the behaviour in the Windows 8 OS release after 10/26.

Answer 2

If you suffer from the issue where:
the registry key for the shared (network) printer is missing and
the API gives you the invalid printer name error
Then you can try opening the printer by its full UNC path.
So when opening MYPRINTER does not work, then open it as \\MYSERVER\MYPRINTER .
Of course this still assumes that you can already print to this printer normally from other applications!