Hi,Currently all my attempts to add an network printer will fail with error 0x0000052e (Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password), if my credentials are not matching on both the Windows7 client and the print server. On the contrary, XP- and even Vista-clients would pop up a authentication window, giving the user at least a chance to provide the correct credentials for the printer server. However, Windows7 tries the initial printer connection only with credentials of the currently logged on user and doesn't even bother to give you a second chance to authenticate with alternative credentials.What makes it worse is the fact that even valid credentials provided by the credential manager are ignored. Again any attempt to add a printer will end with the error mentioned above.So far executing "start \\printer\printername" from the cmd shell, seems to be the only possibility to get a authentication window for a second try.Since I guess that this behaviour is a bug, is there a solution out there?Thanks

Your network isn't properly setup if it is prompting for credentials. Is this printing to a secure printer that requires special privileges? Even then, you can use security groups and GPO's to handle that. Almost sounds as though these machines that a user is logged into is part of a workgroup that doesn't belong to a domain in the which the print server resides. Seems like you're leaving some of the information out that would make for a clearer picture and resolution to your problem.MCSE, MCSA, MCDST [If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

Your are right with your assumption that our clients are not residing in the same workgroup or domain. Actually our printing server is a Samba one (sorry for withholding this information in my inital post), therefore access control via GPO's is not an option for us. Our users must authenticate themselves against this Samba server during the initial printer setup on their Windows 7 clients. Since many of them are printing from their private notebooks their usernames and passwords on their clients are often not identical with the ones needed for the printing server.Why is this not very meaningful error the only reaction on such an authentication failure, instead of coming up with an login window, like on XP and Vista clients with the same issue?

I suggest you change the NTLM authentication level. Please refer the following article. Network security: LAN Manager authentication level The policy is: Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Network security: LAN Manager authentication level If the issue persists, please follow the steps below to install the shared printer on Windows 7 computer. 1. Click Start, click Control Panel and double click Devices and Printers.2. Click Add a Printer. 3. Select "Add a local printer". 4. Select "Create a new port". Choose "Local Port" as the type of the port. 5. In the box "Enter a port name", type the address as the following format. \\[IP address of the host computer]\[The Share Name of the printer] Then click Next. 6. Choose the correct driver in the driver list. If no available driver, click the button Windows Update, wait for the process finishes and then look for the driver again.7. Finish the installation. If the printers cannot be installed, or it does not work after installing, please let us know the model of the printer.Arthur Xie - MSFT

Thanks for your suggestion but to make it short it didn't solve my problem.The problem is not that I'am failing to install the printer driver (Canon iR2880/3380 PS3) in the first place. It is the complete lack to provide alternative credentials in a user friendly way, during the "add printer" procedure, given the case that the username and password of the currently logged on user does not match with the ones required for print server authentication.As already mentioned, executing "start \\printer\printername" from the cmd shell, brings up the desired authentication window and after entering valid credentials there, the installation continues and completes successfully. Here is my installation procedure and the results of different tests: Control Panel -> Devices and Printers -> Add Printer -> Add a Network, wireless... -> The printer that I want isn't listed -> Select a shared printer by name -> \\IP_printserver\printerName -> Next -> Here I normally end up with the message "Windows cannot connect to the printer (details: Operation faild with error 0x0000052e)". LAN Manager authentication levels, other settings and results:Vista client set to: Send NTLMv2 response only -> pop up authentication window appeared -> entered valid credentials -> printer installation completed successfullyVista client set to: Send NTLMv2 response only and valid credentials provided by credential manager -> printer installation completed successfully Windows7 client set to: Send NTLMv2 response only -> Installation failed with error 0x0000052eWindows7 client set to: Send NTLMv2 response only and valid credentials provided by credential manager -> Installation failed with error 0x0000052eWindows7 client set to: Send NTLMv2 response only and valid credentials provided by an forced authentication windows ("start \\IP_printserver\printerName" -> printer installation completed successfully Windows7 client set to: Send LM & NTLM response -> Installation failed with error 0x0000052eWindows7 client set to: Send LM & NTLM response and valid credentials provided by credential manager -> Installation failed with error 0x0000052eWindows7 client set to: Send LM & NTLM response only and valid credentials provided by an forced authentication windows ("start \\IP_printserver\printerName" -> printer installation completed successfully To sum things up, the LAN Manager authentication levels do not seem to be the culprit. However, I just want the user friendly way VISTA provides for entering alternative credentials also back in Windows7. I still think the current behaviour is a bug, which should be fixed for user convenience! Regards, Bertl

You may need to download the latest driver from the following website and install it. Then follow the steps in my previous post to add the network shared printer. Canon U.S.A Support Important Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.Arthur Xie - MSFT

You may need to download the latest driver from the following website and install it. Then follow the steps in my previous post to add the network shared printer. Canon U.S.A Support Important Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information. Arthur Xie - MSFT Alright might have stumbled across something. When doing a config for the port use the Client side rendoring provider...works like a charm. If the printer is located on the network then when you add the printer / select port select that port...

Finally I figured out why credentials provided by the credential manager were ignored during printer installation. Our SAMBA printer had not only an DNS A-record entry (our.server.com) but also an CName alias (print.server.com) which was actually used during the printer setup. When one was now trying to connect to "print.server.com" the DNS query returned the a-record DNS name and the authenticaton mechanism was obviously looking for an corresponding entry (our.server.com) in the credential manager. Since no such entry was existing there, but only one for the CName the authentication ended with error "unknown user or password". To give you a brief overview:VISTA: printersetup using \\A-record name\printer + Credential Manager entry using the A-record name -> Successfull authenticationVISTA: printersetup using \\CName\printer + Credential Manager entry using the CName -> Successfull authenticationWindows7: printersetup using \\CName\printer + Credential Manager entry using the CName -> No successfull authenticationWindows7: printersetup using \\CName\printer + Credential Manager entry using the A-record name -> Successfull authenticationWindows7: printersetup using \\A-record name\printer + Credential Manager entry using the A-record name -> Successfull authentication So for some reasons the Windows7 authentication mechanism via the credential manager cannot resolve or handle credentials associated with an entry, pointing to an CName. However, it is still hard to accept, that Windows7 does not come up with any authentication prompts, if invalid cedentials are provided! Futhermore, if credentials used for the printer setup are rendered invalid after a password change on Windows client, the printer state will still be displayed as conneted! You can open the printer interface and even send print jobs that will of course never reach the printing queue. All this happens in complete silence and without any error messages. The only indications that the printer might not be reachable are the facts that every access of the printer UI happens in some kind of slow motion and that the printer queue will stay empty, no matter how many jobs you thought to have sent successfully.VISTA, on the other side, is at least informing you with the short message "Acess denied, unable to connect" displayed on the printer UI. So this behaviour of Windows7 can hardly be considered as an improvement to XP or even Vista.

I had a similar experience trying to connect a laptop I had upgraded from Vista to W7. Had no problem connecting to a W2003 Server printer from Vista but couldn't connect from W7 after upgrading. Instead of typing in the \\Server\printer try the "Browse" button. Then pick the server/printer and it asks for credentials. Agree with you on the lack of meaningful login failed error message being tragic. This is hardly an unexpected error that should go in a generic error bucket...

I observed the same error whilst attempting to add a printer (using the add printer wizard) on a Windows 7 Home Premium (x86) machine. The printer was a queue on a Windows 2003 print server on a domain. I found that the Windows 7 machine would not prompt the user for any credentials when attempting to connect to the domain resource. Instead, the Windows 7 machine attempted to connect using the credentials the user was logged on locally with (which of course failed) and resulted in a cryptic 0x0000052e error. At first I thought this was related to the network type the user may have selected (eg public instead of work etc) or the Homegroups feature that may have been screwing with the authentication mechanism, but quicky ruled these out as the cause of the problem. My workaround/solution was to use Credentials Manager to store *.domain.co.uk together with his 'domain\username' and password details. This told Windows 7 that whenever the user attempted to connect to a *.domain.co.uk resource that it should use his domain credentials, and this solved the problem. This shouldn't be necessary though, something looks broken here. Surely Windows 7 should prompt the user by default, when connecting to a domain resource (as previous iterations of windows did) without having to use credentials manager to solve it. This may be by design, but this is completely non obvious to your average user, and searching the web, is not obvious to many technically competent people either. Hence it is causing a problem for a lot of people.