BleepingComputer.com: Ie7 Print Preview Doesn't Work

I have a rather frustrating problem with IE7. I don't use the browser that much, but sometimes there are websites that I need to print a page or so from and some of those webpages don't print properly in Firefox. In these situations, I switch to IE7.

Here is the problem. When I click on Print preview, the print preview window comes up, but all I see is a blank white sheet with no text or anything in it. In addition, the navigation arrows are grayed out. Is there any solution for this or should I simply uninstall IE7 and revert back to IE6?

Note: Print preview in Firefox works perfectly.

Dell Dimension 2400
Windows XP SP2 Home

Orange Blossom

Is it all websites or just some? Give me a URL so I can see!

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This was one of the solutions posted in the mdsn boards. I assume you are logged in as an administrator?

Amazing Andrew, on Jan 28 2007, 07:24 AM, said:

It has been all websites that I have tried print preview in IE7 thus far - which has been perhaps 5 sites. As I said, I usually use Firefox.

Now for a site: www.crucial.com In this case, I needed to use IE in order to use the scan function on the site which checks to see what kind and how much RAM the computer has. I wished to print out the results which contained the recommended memory for upgrading. I hit print preview and got the blank white sheet in the print preview pane. Note: I can print - though it takes a VERY long time for the printing software to react and for the document to print. In this case, I got two pages, but I didn't need the second one which I would have known if print preview were working properly.
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I don't know if there is a connection with the above problem, but another little glitch is that when I use control panel to do windows updates, Firefox opens instead of IE7. I have no idea why this happens. It didn't do this when IE6 was the browser. Thus, I've made the windows update site my homepage on IE7 in order to work around that problem.
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Fozzie: what are mdsn boards? Yes, I am often logged in as an administrator.

Orange Blossom

This post has been edited by Orange Blossom: 28 January 2007 - 02:34 PM

At this point you should probably roll back to IE6. Maybe even use some sort of Registry Cleaner to clean out some orphan reg entries before a possible reinstall of IE7. Your choice on this one. I noticed in a few posts by others that they were having issues with versions of IE7 that were installed via the automatic updates. If this applied to you as well, do a manual install of IE7 yourself if you decide to reinstall it.

FWIW: There's a fix for the print preview that applied to IE6 here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312446. It might be worth trying at least.

This post has been edited by hillbillygreek: 28 January 2007 - 05:49 PM

I never use automatic updates. I used the update interface through the Control Panel.

I think I'll try a few other options and see if it fixes the problem before rolling-back to IE6. Print preview worked just fine in IE6 by the way. Perhaps Windows Live Safety Scan may solve the problem. Worth a try anyway.

I wish there were a way of downloading the file to a flash drive on a public computer. The IE7 download is HUGE, and I'm on dial-up.

Orange Blossom

The stand-alone installer is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

Thanks for the site link Amazing Andrew.

Orange Blossom

msdn boards are the microsoft public boards where people post there problems. Have you tried my solution?

Not yet fozzie. I wasn't home, and then I was asleep, and then I was working on computer security updates etc. I'm still not done but decided to take a break. Also, I want to fully back up my registry before trying that fix.

I also want to clarify the directions:

Do I have this right?

Start --> Run. Type in Cmd.

In the command window type in regsvr32 ole32.dll

Restart computer.

Orange Blossom

Orange Blossom, on Jan 30 2007, 09:39 AM, said:

The nail on the head...Good luck

Orange Blossom, on Jan 30 2007, 09:39 AM, said:

The nail on the head...Good luck

Well, color me totally confused. I didn't try fozzie's fix or the roll-back because it has now become unnecessary to do so.

The only things I think I did that had bearing on the issue:
First: I updated windows
Second: I did a full scan with onecare.live which flagged some IE keys. I allowed the site to fix or delete the registry keys it found, making sure I had the backup option selected. I opened IE to do some other online scans and on a whim tried out the print preview and it worked just fine.

Clicking on updates in the control panel still opens Firefox though, so we can safely say the two problems are not related.

Orange Blossom