File and printer sharing with group policy

[Guest]

hi,

Is there way to enable file and printer sharing via group policy?

We have discovered that a number of machines "in the field" haven't got this
installed.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan.

 

[Chris Malone]

No. And doing it programmatically will probably be a complete
nightmare (see the Windows DDK). I've taken regmons before attempting
to track the location that File/Print Sharing and Client for MS
Networks write to - its fairly impossible. Even trying to do this in
C#, I believe you would have to use pinvoke to call unmanaged classes,
etc. Unless someone else knows of a magic bullet method for this, that
is unfortunately where it ends.


Chris Malone
Microsoft Directory Services

 

[Guest]

thanks - much appreciated

 

[Andrew Mitchell]

(e-mail address removed) (Chris Malone) said

No. And doing it programmatically will probably be a complete
nightmare (see the Windows DDK). I've taken regmons before attempting
to track the location that File/Print Sharing and Client for MS
Networks write to - its fairly impossible. Even trying to do this in
C#, I believe you would have to use pinvoke to call unmanaged classes,
etc. Unless someone else knows of a magic bullet method for this, that
is unfortunately where it ends.

There is actually sample source in the DDK for a utility called snetcfg that
will do this.
A compiled binary for Windows 2000 and a separate one for Windows XP, along
with instructions on how to use it are available from the links at the top of
this page:

http://www.jsiinc.com/subj/tip4700/rh4705.htm

You could simply use the utility from a startup script in a GPO to install
file and print sharing.