Advanced Printer Question

[Logan]

I have added a printer for all users on a windows 2000 Professional
machine by running

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga /n\\mnp26fs1\ibm1

from the command prompt. The server is mnp26fs1 and the share name
for the printer is ibm1. When I go to the properties of the printer
on the General tab the printer name is Upstairs Printer. But when I
add the printer for all users on the machine with the line above
instead of adding it with the wizard the printer is named "ibm1 on
mnp26fs1" instead of the General name of the printer which is
"Upstairs Printer". Is there a switch or any way I can modifty the
rundll32 command above to set the name of the printer or use the
General name of the printer for all the users on the computer?

Thanks in Advance,
Logan

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

When you add a printer that way, that's what you get. However, on the print
server, you can make the Share Name the same as the Printer Name, if that
helps. If the Share Name has spaces in it, put the /n option inside quote
marks - e.g.

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga "/n\\mnp26fs1\upstairs printer"

You can also put text into the Comment or Location property of the printer.
This will show up in Printers (and Faxes) folder on the clients when View,
Details is selected.

Note that you can add printers this way remotely (e.g. from the print server
or an administrators workstation) by including the /c option. Thus, if the
client computer's name is Client1, using a Command Prompt window on mnp26fs1
(or any other computer for that matter), use the command:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga "/n\\mnp26fs1\upstairs printer"
/c\\client1

Note that if you have spaces in the Share Name of a printer, older clients
(e.g. Windows 9x) will not be able to connect to that printer.

The page at http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/NetPrinterAllUsers.htm has some
additional information about using this technique.