Error: “Operation could not be completed (error 0x000006d1)” when adding a Samba based network printer to Vista

If you are getting the following error while adding a Samba based network printer to Vista:

Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation could not be completed (error 0x000006d1).

And you have a Samba server (version 3.0 and above) consider using the following technique to add the printer:

• Add a local printer (not a network one!)
• Select “create a new port”
• Select “Local port” as type of port
• In the port name enter the printer’s SMB path, i.e. \sambaserver\printer_name
• Select the right driver

That’s all. Works like a charm!

If you have an older version of Samba (< 3.0) know that Vista uses NTLMv2 by default. Follow these instructions to revert back to NTLMv1 by default (also true for regular shares).

Also note that since this is a local printer that prints to a print queue on the Samba server, you might not be able to delete print jobs that were completely sent to the Samba server print queue, since we essentially created a local queue.