Nothing happens when printing to a virtual printer

When configuring a File Processor channel you can specify a printer as output. In some cases this printer is actually a virtual printer.

If you print to your virtual printer, in our case we'll use Print&Share, it is possible that Print&Share does not pop-up or doesn't start up.

A possible reason for this could be the user who prints. In this topic we will give info for troubleshooting that might be useful in case nothing happens when printing from the File Processor to the Print&Share virtual printer driver or another one.

Troubleshooting

First we'll try to find out under which usernames the File Processor and Print&Share virtual printer driver are running.
Follow these steps to find out:

1. Start Windows [Task Manager]. Or simply press Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
2. Go to the tab page [Details]
3. Find and locate the Winking File Processor service.
4. In the column [User name] you will find under which user this is running. For example LOCAL SERVICE.
5. Now find and locate the Print&Share application in the same dialog.
6. The column [User name] should give you the user name under which Print&Share is running. For example Jeffrey.

As you can see the File Processor service is running under a different user name than the Print&Share application.
When the File Processor tries to print to the Print&Share virtual printer it will fail.

In a next step we will change the File Processor so that it runs under the same user as Print&Share. Which is most of the time the current logged-in user.

1. Right mouse click Windows Start menu and select [Run]. Or press WINDOWS KEY + R.
2. In the Run dialog type: services.msc and click OK.
3. In the Services dialog find the Winking File Processor service
4. Double click the Winking File Processor service to open the Properties dialog (or right mouse click and select Properties).
5. Select the [Log On] tab in the Properties dialog.
6. Now select the option [This account] and fill in the username and password under which it should run. In our case this was the user Jeffrey, because Print&Share is running under this user.
7. Click [Apply] and [OK] to close the Properties dialog.
8. Now with the Winking File Processor service still selected stop the service and start it again (Restart).

Try to run your File Processor channel again, if the user name mismatch was the problem, you should see your documents appearing again in Print&Share.

Extra

If you are installing File Processor for the first time, you will need to fill in the user name and password for the user. This is the user name that the File Processor service will run under. Make sure you have defined it correctly.