Unable to load client print control

When you search the post title on your preferred search engine (mostly Google or Bing) there are scores of blogs, websites and talks about resolving this issue.

"client print control" What is this anyway?

Well, when you open a report, you have a little control for printing the report. When you (from a client machine) click this for the first time, the report server installs an ActiveX component which is called the Client Print Control. This control helps the client machine send a print command which will then print you the page.

This might fail to load for a lot of reasons:

• The ActiveX Print control is of an older version.
• Is not installed on the client machine (Due to not enough security permissions)
• Is installed but couldn't load (Due to not enough security permissions)

Now, you will find a lot of resources talking about how to resolve this issue. Could be to manually install the print control, push install the control on all clients, create exceptions, edit registry and more.

If you are still reading this, it clearly means none of the above mentioned solutions worked for you. It din't for me either.

My client is using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. To cater his database needs, he's on SQL Server 2005 SP4 (Build version - 9.00.5057) sitting on one box. The Reporting Services, since you know is a separate component was SQL Server Reporting Services SP2 (Build version - 9.0.3042) sitting on another box.

While it doesn't matter if they sit on the same box or different, I'm only mentioning the environment. (Can be ignored)

My persistency in pursuing the solution lead me to few websites.

SQL Server requirements and recommendations for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
How to determine the version and edition of SQL Server and its components
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Compatibility List

And hence a decision to upgrade SQL Server report server to a similar build as of SQL Server. So we went for a Report Server upgrade from SP2 to SP3 (at first).

The issue was resolved, even though the build versions are still not same (Report Server build was 9.0.4035). I'm hoping that other things should be fine as well. If not, we will consider upgrading Reporting Services to SP4 then.

As of now, I'm sipping coffee :)