Run cmd.exe as Administrator and then run:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /il

from the elevated cmd.

Go to your Start Menu, Type Print, Right-Click "Print Management", Select "Run as administrator",

In Print Management; Expand "Print Servers" and Select "Ports".

Right-Click in the "Ports" pane (on the right hand side) and Select "Add Port...".

I d also recommend configuring a Port from Print Management, as opposed to trying to do it in a Printers Properties. ;)

Adam Reed describes a workaround in his blog: http://borntoidentify.blogspot.com/2010/09/configuring-virtual-printer-using.html Not very comfortable, but works for me ...

EDIT: This link appears broken, but here s the content: https://web.archive.org/web/20120628120209/http://borntoidentify.blogspot.com/2010/09/configuring-virtual-printer-using.html

The gist is that under Win7, you need to run explorer with elevated rights. This can be done using another browser, or, as mentioned in the comments on the original post:

1. Open a CMD window by right clicking and running as administrator
2. Kill the process explorer.exe from the task manager
3. Run explorer.exe from the command prompt window, now as an administrator.

Be very careful when running explorer as an administrator.

You need to enable Admin mode OR log with the Admin account!

This is cause by the new Vista/Win 7 security system.

Try reseting the firewall (Windows 7) (be warned tho, the firewall will reset to the default setting) *go to Control Panel *go to Windows Firewall *on the left choice pick "Restore Defaults"

It works for me, i hope it works for you.

F3lix s rundll32 method works but after you ve created the port you most probably would need to configure its settings. Elsewhere in the net there are instructions to open Port management as Administrator, but in Windows 7 Home that seems to be very much impossible. One can only view the virtual port settings. The only workaround I found is to edit registry directly with the Registry editor at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintMonitorsRedirected PortPortsRPT1:

(Replace your port name in the end.)

It seams to be tricky. In my case it only works, after creating an new User account with the name "admin" / group " Administratoren" (de). Before with my real Nickname User "Nick.." / group "Administratoren" (de) it dosent work´. Takes several hours to discover ...

Accepted solution did not work for me...I found an other command line that worked well (I m on windows 10):

%systemroot%system32printmanagement.msc

It opens the print management in administrator mode, and I was able to create the port with no problems.