Adding printer for many users

[Rob J]

We have a Windows network with about 400 users with roaming profiles.

They have all up until now printed directly to printers using TCP/IP
ports.

We are now moving to print queues on the server i.e. \\servername
\printername.

The main problem is that printers printing directly are local printers
and once added to each machine by the administrator, they appear for
every user who logs into that machine. Printers that are printing to
shared printers are network printers and they only appear for the user
who was logged on when the printer was added.

Is there some means of making a printer that prints to a shared queue a
local printer for that machine, or alternatively is there some way of
making a network printer appear for all users on that machine?
Or perhaps of adding them to all the 400 existing users' profiles?

 

[bok]

We have a Windows network with about 400 users with roaming profiles.

They have all up until now printed directly to printers using TCP/IP
ports.

We are now moving to print queues on the server i.e. \\servername
\printername.

The main problem is that printers printing directly are local printers
and once added to each machine by the administrator, they appear for
every user who logs into that machine. Printers that are printing to
shared printers are network printers and they only appear for the user
who was logged on when the printer was added.

Is there some means of making a printer that prints to a shared queue a
local printer for that machine, or alternatively is there some way of
making a network printer appear for all users on that machine?
Or perhaps of adding them to all the 400 existing users' profiles?

There are several ways to achieve that. One is to use the WSH
AddWindowsPrinterConnection method from a logon script. How many
different methods would you like?

 

[Dave Taylor]

How many
different methods would you like?

Google Printui.dll batch file. ( I think that is what it is.)

 

[Nathan Mercer]

We have a Windows network with about 400 users with roaming profiles.

They have all up until now printed directly to printers using TCP/IP
ports.

We are now moving to print queues on the server i.e. \\servername
\printername.

The main problem is that printers printing directly are local printers
and once added to each machine by the administrator, they appear for
every user who logs into that machine. Printers that are printing to
shared printers are network printers and they only appear for the user
who was logged on when the printer was added.

Is there some means of making a printer that prints to a shared queue a
local printer for that machine, or alternatively is there some way of
making a network printer appear for all users on that machine?
Or perhaps of adding them to all the 400 existing users' profiles?

Checkout the Print Management Console in Windows Server 2003 R2

The PMC can deploy printer connections to your users through Group
Policy

It can deploy printers:
Per machine - useful for shared PCs
Per user - printers 'follow' user

To use it you right-click on a printer, select 'Deploy with Group
Policy'

http://www.microsoft.com/printserver

Cheers
Nathan

 

[Rob J]

Checkout the Print Management Console in Windows Server 2003 R2

The PMC can deploy printer connections to your users through Group
Policy

It can deploy printers:
Per machine - useful for shared PCs
Per user - printers 'follow' user

To use it you right-click on a printer, select 'Deploy with Group
Policy'

Is this in Windows Server 2003 SP1?

 

[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

The print server needs to be Win2k or greater. You will need to roll out a
schema change on the AD

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/312b10cb-73ec-40c7-a4df-63dd7248d93d1033.mspx


You will need a copy of Windows Server R2 but you can pick up some of the
admin tools for XP to better understand how this works. Not all the
functionality is there but read the technet article for full features.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f5-232a-4fb5-bc14-45bfd81b7ac1&DisplayLang=en

pmcmgmt.exe
--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.