Solutions for Common PDF and DMS Printing in Remote Desktop and Terminal Server Environments (Not Lacerte Hosting)

Printing to PDF in Lacerte when in Remote Desktop or Terminal Services (not our Hosted Lacerte offering) may encounter error: Printer Not Activated Error Code -41

There are two solutions for this error. The first is to use the PDF Repair tool to repair and re-license the PDF printer, and the second is to manually license the printer.

To Use the PDF Repair tool to Resolve.

The PDF printer that comes packaged with Lacerte, the Amyuni Document Converter, requires a license to use. This error can generate if the current user's PDF printer is missing said license. To create the license, that user should run the Lacerte PDF Repair Tool. Click here to go to the PDF and Component Repair tools for Lacerte knowledge base article that will explain how to download and use the tool.

To Manually configure the printer driver

1. Close Lacerte and go to the Start menu.
2. Click on the Control Panel.
   • For Windows Vista, choose Printer(s).
   • For Windows 7, 8 and 10 choose Devices and Printers.
3. Right-click on the Lacerte PDF printer (likely proceeded by the terminal user's profile name) and choose Printing Preferences...
   • For the 2009 Lacerte tax year and newer, choose Lacerte Tax PDF 4.0
4. On the Configuration tab at the bottom click on the gray box with 3 dots next to Licensed to line.
5. Type Intuit Inc. under Licensed to.
6. In Activation Code, copy and paste the following code:
   • 07EFCDAB01000100CC84AC581282824C32A0944C3CE5CACA1509E3EDB3B8A8B75CE7ED37B486C9906518B76D6267D666CB1CA1196FBFF0A5D5511E001E4D
7. Click OK, then OK again.
8. Try printing to PDF again

If the error persists, delete the Lacerte PDF printer and reinstall the program.
This same process can also be used for the DMS PDF Printer.

When I try to print to PDF from my Lacerte tax software, no document is produced.

This can occur when the Lacerte PDF Printer located on the Terminal Server machine itself is damaged or corrupted. There are two different ways to get the Lacerte PDF Printer reinstalled, both of which need to be done directly on the server machine. You will need to be sitting at the server computer and be logged in under the Administrator account. It is highly advised to have your server's IT administrator do this for you. The exact steps may change depending on what version of Windows Server you are using.

1. Run the Lacerte PDF Repair tool:
   1. See this article for instructions.
2. Manually reinstall the printer:
   1. Open the Lacerte program.
   2. Press the F10 key on your keyboard.
   3. Locate and note the System File Path.
   4. Exit the Lacerte program.
   5. Go to the Start menu.
   6. Click on Control Panel.
   7. Go to Printers.
   8. Right click on Lacerte's PDF printers; there are two:
      • Lacerte PDF
      • Lacerte Tax PDF 4.0
   9. Select Remove device or Delete.
      • If you are unable to delete the printer from here, it must be removed from within the Windows Registry, which will need to be done by your server's IT administrator.
      • Please note: Steps 10-13 are for Lacerte 2007 and forward. For 2006 and earlier, you would need to run the installer from CD.
   10. Browse to the System File Path from Step 3.
   11. Go into the SetupYY folder.
   12. Locate the TaxSetup file and double-click it.
   13. Click Install.
   14. Reopen Lacerte and verify that it is working.

If the issue persists, the issue may be due to Printer Redirection, as described below.

When I try to print to DMS while using Lacerte through my terminal server, the program appears to go through the print process normally, but no file is created in DMS and there are no error messages.

This can occur when DMS PDF Printer located on the Terminal Server machine itself is damaged or corrupted. There are two different ways to get the DMS PDF Printer reinstalled, both of which need to be done directly on the server machine. You will need to be sitting at the server computer and be logged in under the Administrator account. It is highly advised to have your server's IT administrator do this for you. The exact steps may change depending on what version of Windows Server you are using.

1. Run the Lacerte PDF Repair tool:
   1. See this article for instructions.
2. Manually reinstall the printer:
   1. Go to the Start menu.
   2. Click on Control Panel.
   3. Go to Printers.
   4. Right click on the DMS PDF Printer.
   5. Select Remove device or Delete.
      • If you are unable to delete the printer from here, it must be removed from within the Windows Registry, which must be done by your server's IT administrator.
   6. Once the printer is removed, go to the Start menu.
   7. Go to Computer.
   8. Go to the C: drive.
   9. Go into the Program Files (x86) folder. If this folder does not exist, go into the Program Files folder.
   10. Go to the Intuit folder.
   11. Go into the DMS folder.
   12. Double click on DMSSetup.
   13. Select Repair from the list and click Next.
   14. Click Next again.
   15. Click Finish once the repair is complete.
   16. Open Lacerte and verify that the issue has been resolved.

If the issue persists, the issue may be due to Printer Redirection, as described below.

Client Printer Redirection may be enabled on the server. Printer Redirection can cause the print job to be sent to the Lacerte and DMS printers on your local computer instead of the printers on the server. This can cause PDFs to not appear in the correct location, or the print job to not complete.

Have your server's IT administrator look at this article for further information. While this article is specific to Windows Server 2008, other versions of Windows have a similar setting for them to locate and configure.