Shared Printer Naming Convention

[Bryan Linton]

By default Windows 2000/2003/XP append the server name to the shared printer
name. In our case, that means a printer called "Rec - Color Savin on
celebrity2". Nobody on our network needs or wants this server name as part
of the printername (including myself) since we have about 10 printers in our
office. I want to standardize on descriptive but short printer names that
do not include the server name to make it easier for our users to scan the
list; in short, I want full control over the names of my network printers.
Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks,

Bryan

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

No known way to do that. On Windows 2000 and XP clients, "Network Printers"
are essentially pointers (connectoids?) to the shared printer on the server
and don't have their own properties or names.

The only way around it is to install the printers as "Local Printers" on the
clients - see for example
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/NetPrinterNoPP.htm.

However, this will make your life more complicated in the long run, so I
don't suggest doing it unless you are really desperate. Pick good names for
the printers on the print server and live with it. You can also set useful
values in the Description and Location properties of the printers on the
servers to help your users know which printer is which.