Disabling XP's photo printing wizard?

[DaveJ]

I've tried finding the solution to this elsewhere but have never been able to yet.

Now it's more important because I need to print a drawing that must be the right size (a draft of a faceplate). Photo Printing Wizard is popping up though, and always seems to want to expand and reduce the size of drawings however it pleases.

It seems to pop up randomly in different applications. In this case, I'm using Paint .Net but I'm not sure if that's relevant in this case, since it seems to be a system thing.

Thanks for the help.

[Gore1FL]

1. Try this

To Disable: Start - Run - regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll

To Re-Enable: Start - Run - regsvr32 shimgvw.dll

[DaveJ]

2. I tried that... it doesn't work.

After I run the command it says it's successful, but even after restarting Paint.Net PPW still pops up. I assume restarting the computer won't help. Maybe this trick worked in past versions of XP? I wish I could just uninstall PPW completely. I'm not ever going to be printing photos.

[Gore1FL]

3. That is an option.

I think it is a free download should you ever want to use it in the future.

[DaveJ]

4. What option?

From what I've seen, I have no options, other than to use another graphics program that doesn't use Photo Printing Wizard.

I get the weirdest information when Googling the topic. Apparently it's an issue that concerns few people. So I've come to conclude is that there is no way around it... if an app uses PPW, and I don't want PPW, I need to use another app.

Maybe I'm just nuts. But why doesn't PPW annoy other people as much as it does me, I wonder? Some apps use it, some don't. But when it's used, it totally destroys the intended size of the drawings. I need to use another app to print, I guess.

[DaveJ]

5. That does it, I'm using Gimp.

I tried to be forgiving by trying Paint.Net, but GIMP is clearly better, based on he fact that it doesn't use Photo Printing Wizard alone.

Thanks for the help. I don't think there is any solution other than to change applications.

[Gore1FL]

6. That's what I mean-- to kill off ppw

I am not really familiar with the software at all Are you just using the viewer part of it and then printing? I am assuming ms-paint isn't an option.

One kind of stupid, but often effective work around is to paste the image into word. You can increase the size proportionally there, but still keep the aspect ratio the same.

I looked for photo "printing wizard" "aspect ratio" in google and found things, but I don't know if any would be useful.

Unfortunately, my PC is sort of jacked up, because my son was trying to be cute and set me up with memory consuming desktop themes and (inadvertantly) about 3000 pieces of spyware that I am cleaning up right now, so my web searching (and hard drive use) is extremely slow and unnerving.

Help me to understand, though: You have pre-made drawings on a file and want them printed, and need to accomplish this without the aspect ratio being jacked up. Is my understanding correct?

[canetoad]

7. I wonder if you are using a hammer

to crack a walnut! For everyday cropping, resizing, basic adjustments, I don't think there is anything more efficient than Irfanview. I can't say I've ever seen the Photo printing Wizard but it seems like a nightmare.

Irfanview has a particularly pleasing print function, where you see a preview of the printed page, with the positioning, aspect ratio and size of the picture.

[ConsAreLiars]

8. A second recommendation for using Irfanview.

It is free (although you can send a few appreciative bucks as I did), a fully mature product, and does far,far more that most casual users will ever need, and very easily.

[DaveJ]

10. Have you used Gimp?

I spent the day learning Gimp. I'm halfway through creating my logo now and would hate to have to switch again...

[hunter]

9. I've had trouble with that loathsome wizard too.

I was helping my kid with their schoolwork the other day, trying to print out a photo exactly the size we wanted it to be printed, and the damned XP wizard simply refused to do that. So I quickly downloaded and installed Irfanview and it just worked.

On my own machine I use the gimp, but I'll be honest, that thing is confusing to new users, especially those who are familiar with the Microsoft or Adobe way of doing things.

My kids use Photoshop at school, but we haven't got it on their home machines. They run XP for their iPods and for Microsoft Word... Microsoft Word isn't such a dealbreaker, but iTunes is. For a lot of teenagers iTunes gift cards are almost a kind of currency for birthday parties and such.

[DaveJ]

11. Glad I'm not the only one... thought I was losing it.

I'm surprised more people don't complain about PPW. I guess most people don't care if their images change sizes. And it appears if an app uses it, there's no way to disable it.

I started using Gimp today and had trouble moving things around at first, but now I'm past that learning curve. I just need to cut or copy my selection then paste them back in, then I can move stuff.

Would you say Irfan is better or worse? At the moment I think Gimp is pretty good.

[canetoad]

12. Apples and oranges

Irfanview is not for creating graphics, but for manipulating ready made ones. It has a few basic tools such as being able to draw, add text or arrows to a picture, but other than that it is a great tool for batch processing, adjusting, cropping, resizing, rotating etc.

Gimp is more in the order of Photoshop - for creating and manipulating images on a pixel level.

[DaveJ]

13. Thanks

They do color printing where I work so it's good to know these things.