The hanging due to lack of a default printer is a pvx thing. Since Level 3.0x just clicking pvxwin32.exe will hang if there's no default printer or there is one but it can't read the printer properties.
Also of note is the paper size of that default printer correlates to the size of the preview window when you preview a report. E.g. if you're sitting at a warehouse computer and preview say the S/O Open Order by Item report and it looks like the size of a label, you might realize the Windows default printer is a Zebra (true story) and since there was no other printer to make the default except XPS Document Writer (which Wayne gets auto-installed with Windows for o/s's after Server 2003 and XP SP2) , chose that and all was well.