So I'm sick in bed and decided to take the opportunity to write a blog post or two I've been meaning to do for a while now. If I manage to complete writing them in between dozing off, that is.
I ran across this issue at work a while ago while setting up a new print server. The server is running Windows 2008 R2 (same codebase as Windows 7 so the same problem and solution applies). After the server was all set up and ready to go, all we needed to do was share the print queue in question. Except all we got was "Operation could not be completed" (error 0x000006d9).
The reason for this is that, like many other organizations, we've traditionally run a GPO that disables the Windows Firewall service (Officially named Windows Firewall with Advanced Security) on Windows Servers, instead relying on rigidly configured, dedicated firewalls between network segments, etc. Simply put, Windows 2008 R2 really, really doesn't like having its firewall service stopped. One of the issues you'll run in to is not being able to share the printer.
The simple solution is start the Windows Firewall service, share the printer - and if you have to - stop the service again.
A better solution than disabling the service is to turn off the firewall part of Windows Firewall with Advanced Security as described in this Technet article.
The basic steps are as follows
To disable the firewall portion of Windows Firewall with Advanced Security from a command prompt
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Open an Administrator: Command Prompt. To do so, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
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If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
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At the command prompt, type the following command:
netsh advfirewall set profiles state off
where profiles is AllProfiles, CurrentProfile, DomainProfile, PrivateProfile, or PublicProfile.
To disable the firewall portion of Windows Firewall with Advanced Security by using the Windows Firewall Control Panel program
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Click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet, and then under Windows Firewall, click Turn Windows Firewall on or off.
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On the General tab of the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box, select Off (not recommended), and then click OK.
To disable the firewall portion of Windows Firewall with Advanced Security by using the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security MMC snap-in
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Click Start, click All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and then click Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.
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In the navigation pane, right-click Windows Firewall with Advanced Security on Local Computer, and then click Properties.
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On each of the Domain Profile, Private Profile, and Public Profile tabs, change the Firewall state option to Off (not recommended).
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Click OK to save your changes.
