Registry Security

Most printing-related Registry settings reside in the following subkey


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print 

An administrator can use the Registry Editor to assign read-only access to these subkeys. Users with read-only access cannot add or configure printers, because the read-only access does not allow changes of these subkeys.

Windows-based applications also use the following subkey in the Registry to find information about available printers.


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\
CurrentVersion\PrinterPorts 

Users with read-only access to this subkey cannot add new printers that are recognized by Windows-based applications.