HP Enterprise, HP Managed printers - Cannot print in Windows Server 2008 SP2 (64-bit)

Cannot print to an HP Enterprise or HP Managed printer in Windows Server 2008 SP2 (64-bit) after installing the printer-specific, XPS-based driver either from the CD provided in the box or an HP PCL 6 V3 file downloaded from HP.com.

note:

If running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, go to Cannot print in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

The HP PCL 6 V3 driver installs without an error message but the server cannot print to the printer.

This symptom might occur on newer HP printers (released 2015 and later) that support XPS-based, printer-specific discrete drivers including the following HP printer families:

• HP LaserJet Enterprise
• HP LaserJet Managed
• HP PageWide Enterprise
• HP PageWide Managed

The HP EasyColor feature was added to the HP PCL 6 driver which can result in an issue with XPS drivers in newer HP color printers released after Spring 2015.

For printing to work with the EasyColor feature in the print driver, the following Microsoft application programming interfaces (APIs) must be installed on the server:

• XPS OM API (For XPS object model creation)
• XPS OPC API (For XPS packaging interface required for output stream creation)
• WIC API (Windows Imaging Component, for image decoding and encoding)

Install both of the available Server 2008 SP2 (64-bit) patches that include the APIs. For downloads and instructions, go to the following Microsoft support documents:

• (KB971512) Description of the Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library and scroll down to the Download information section.
• (KB2117917) Platform Update Supplement for Windows Vista and for Windows Server 2008