Description of the Technique
Users can easily change Internet Explorer printer settings for the page margins, the header, and the footer through the Internet Explorer user interface. However, Internet Explorer and the WebBrowser control do not include methods to change these settings programmatically.NOTE: You cannot use the ExecWB command to set the page margins, the header, or the footer. These values are stored in the registry.
If you need to programmatically change the printer settings for Internet Explorer or the WebBrowser control, you can only change the page margins, the header information, and the footer information. You cannot programmatically change other settings such as the page orientation or the default printer.
The following steps outline how Microsoft Internet Explorer accesses the printer settings:
- Internet Explorer tries to obtain the values from the following registry key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PageSetup
- If the key in step 1 does not exist, Internet Explorer tries to create this key by copying the values from the following key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PageSetup
- If the key in step 2 does not exist, default values are provided.
Visual C# .NET Code to Modify Registry Key
Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.This sample Visual C# .NET code illustrates how to modify the required registry key:
using Microsoft.Win32;
//...............................
public void IESetupFooter()
{
string strKey = "Software\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\PageSetup";
bool bolWritable = true;
string strName = "footer";
object oValue = "Test Footer";
RegistryKey oKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(strKey,bolWritable);
Console.Write (strKey);
oKey.SetValue(strName,oValue);
oKey.Close();
}