Fix: Windows Cannot Connect to the Shared Printer (0x00000002 – Printer Connectivity Error)

 Error 0x00000002 can occur when trying to connect a shared network printer (from the Print Server or the local TCP/IP port) in both Windows 10 and Windows 7. After you have opened the list of shared printers on a remote computer (via UNC path \\computername), and clicked the Connect button, an error appears

The error 0x00000002 means that the driver of this printer installed on the computer is corrupted. First of all, you should try to remove this driver from the driver store (if you get an error 0x00000057).

Run this command:

printui.exe /s /t2

In the list of installed drivers, find the printer driver you want to reinstall and remove it by clicking Remove and select the Remove driver and driver package option.

Restart the spooler (net stop spooler & net start spooler) and try to connect your printer again.

It is likely that the driver will be installed and the printer will connect successfully.

Otherwise, try the following:

1. Remove this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations;
2. If there are any subfolders with the names from 1 to 499 in c:\Windows\System32\spool\prtprocs\x64, delete all of them except winprint.dll;
3. Delete all Print Processors and drivers (except winprint) from the reg key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments;
4. Restart your computer and connect to the shared printer.

As a workaround, if the previous methods haven’t helped, connect your printer via UNC path following the instructions in the article How to Print on Windows 10 Network Printer from XP.