Sometimes you just can’t get around using old API calls. One of the things (unless I’ve missed it) that is not found in the .NET Framework 2.0 is a Printers class that contains methods for enumerating printer objects, setting properties, etc. You can read 99% of the properties using the PrinterSettings class in System.Drawing.Printing, but you can’t set the properties there. In VB6 we had to call the WriteProfileStringA method in Kernel32. In .NET 1.x or 2.0, we can use WMI script with the System.Managment namespace to make similar calls. One of the tasks I had earlier was to set the default printer using a function. Here is what it would look like using the System.Managment namespace:

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Public Shared Function SetDefaultPrinter(ByVal PrinterName As String) As Boolean  
    'Declare WMI Variables  
    Dim MgmtObject As ManagementObject  
    Dim MgmtCollection As ManagementObjectCollection  
    Dim MgmtSearcher As ManagementObjectSearcher  
    Dim ReturnBoolean As Boolean = False  

    'Perform the search for printers and return the listing as a collection  
    MgmtSearcher = New ManagementObjectSearcher("Select \* from Win32\_Printer")  
    MgmtCollection = MgmtSearcher.Get  

    'Enumerate Objects To Find Printer  
    For Each MgmtObject In MgmtCollection  
        'Look for a match  
        If MgmtObject.Item("name").ToString = PrinterName Then  
            'Set Default Printer  
            Dim TempObject() As Object 'Temporary Object for InvokeMethod. Holds no purpose.  
            MgmtObject.InvokeMethod("SetDefaultPrinter", TempObject)  

            'Set Success Value and Exit For..Next Loop  
            ReturnBoolean = True  
            Exit For  
        End If  
    Next  

    'Return Success Value  
    Return ReturnBoolean  
End Function