Disabling Printer Notifications

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 19, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


When I sent a job to the printer, a balloon popped up from the System Tray announcing that I sent a job to the printer. This was irritating because I didn't need the computer to tell me I'd sent a job to the printer and I couldn't do anything on my computer until I clicked that balloon or the print job was complete.

Then I found out this notification could be disabled, but it wasn't where I thought it was going to be. This notification is actually controlled in Windows. I use Windows XP, and here's the steps I used to disable it:

  1. From the Start menu, choose Printers and Faxes. Windows displays the Printers and Faxes window.
  2. Within the window, choose Server Properties from the File menu. Windows displays the Print Server Properties dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Advanced tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Advanced tab of the Print Server Properties dialog box.

  5. Make sure the Show Informational Notifications for Local Printers check box is cleared.
  6. Make sure the Show Informational Notifications for Network Printers check box is cleared.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Close the Printers and Faxes window.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (457) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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