Need testers for printer management tool

[Bill Stewart]

Hello all,

I have written a set of tools that I hope will help windows system
administrators with printer management.

Specifically, it deals with managing per-machine printers. For those
that have not used per-machine printers, they're network printers that
appear no matter who is logged onto a machine. The ability to add a
printer to a computer instead of just to users' profiles has saved me a
lot of time and frustration.

The package consists of two ActiveX DLLs, a GUI tool, and a set of
scripts that manage per-machine printers. Here are some of the features:

* Add, remove, and enumerate per-machine printers on the local or a
remote computer
* Enumerate print shares on one or more print servers
* Restart the spooler service on the local or remote computer
* Enumerate and remove per-user printers for the current user (in case
you only want users to access per-machine printers)
* Set the default printer for the current user, or by adding a registry
entry, set the default printer for every user that logs onto a machine

System requirements are Windows 2000 or later; license is copyrighted
freeware. Documentation is in HTML format.

I've been using it pretty successfully for a while on my own network, so
I thought I'd make it publicly available. If you are interested in
testing this software for me in your own environment, reply in one of
these newsgroups or send me an e-mail: (e-mail address removed)
(remove "do") and I'll provide you a download location.

Regards,

Bill Stewart

 

[name]

4 groups.

There are some 1000+ ms groups.

Take your time.

 

[Sabe]

Hi

I would love to test the tool, I have a network of 450 machines within a
school. There are probably around 50 printers. email:
(e-mail address removed)

Regards

Simon

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi

I would love to test the tool, I have a network of 450 machines within a
school. There are probably around 50 printers. email:

As a general rule I don't install printer connections "per machine", and
have trouble imagining why anyone would want to?

 

[Al Dunbar [MS-MVP]]

As a general rule I don't install printer connections "per machine", and
have trouble imagining why anyone would want to?

In our environment we have a few workstations whose use is limited to one or
two individuals. The rest are typically used by up to 150 different people,
each of whom typically use the one in the office where they are assigned on
that day.

We prefer "per machine" printer mappings, as this is very intuitive for the
users: "Hmmm... I'm in this office today and there is the printer...".

Some machines are mapped to a variety of printers because these are all in
the general area, and or some provide special features (i.e. colour).

Our users rarely feel a need to print to the printer near their office
regardless of where they were logging in. In those cases where this is the
case, we typically show them how to map manually.

Given the above, what would you think the most sensible approach?

/Al

 

[GobyF]

Very goo !!!
I've just tried to migrate 60 network printers from a W2K server to a
W2003 server.
Now, I test Microsoft Print Migrator 3.1 but I have some problems with
it.
I can test your tools if you want.

Fabien

 

[Bill Stewart]

As a general rule I don't install printer connections "per machine",
and have trouble imagining why anyone would want to?

Hi Gerry,

I have lots of users that move around to lots of different machines that
are geographically dispersed. It doesn't make sense for them to print on
a printer that's located 15 miles away. It's easier for me to manage the
machines' network printers centrally rather than repeatedly adding
different printers to users' profiles (and/or training them how to do
it). An additional advantage of this is that if I upgrade/replace/change
the name of a print server, everyone doesn't have to delete unusable
printers and re-add working ones.

Regards,

Bill

 

[Gerry Hickman]

We prefer "per machine" printer mappings, as this is very intuitive for the
users: "Hmmm... I'm in this office today and there is the printer...".

I see what you mean.

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi Bill,

I have lots of users that move around to lots of different machines that
are geographically dispersed. It doesn't make sense for them to print on
a printer that's located 15 miles away. It's easier for me to manage the
machines' network printers centrally rather than repeatedly adding
different printers to users' profiles (and/or training them how to do
it).
OK.

An additional advantage of this is that if I upgrade/replace/change
the name of a print server, everyone doesn't have to delete unusable
printers and re-add working ones.

But presumably you still have to update the per machine printers?

 

[Bill Stewart]

But presumably you still have to update the per machine printers?

Yes, but I only have to do it once.

Bill

 

[Guest]

Bill,
Can I be one of your testers for these Printer managemtn tools? E-mail
is: (e-mail address removed)

Thanks,
John