Lexmark Print Driver/Software causing registry creep

[Rick]

I have a W2K TS farm utilizing a Lexmark Optra Ep driver
for users connecting into the farm. I've noticed that
this driver has caused a "Lexmark Printer Software
Uninstall" program to be installed on each application
mode server. In addition, I've found that Lexmark is
writing log/printer information to a
HKLM\Software\Lexmark\Unstlog key in the registry.

I automatically delete user profiles at logoff, but this
logged information remains static in the registry & builds
up over a short amount of time.

Has anyone had this problem? Is there a way to prevent
this logging to the registry in lieu of changing the
driver? If a driver change is the only way, what type of
driver should I be using so the registry creep doesn't
occur. I have a couple thousand users who log into these
servers weekly, so this small registry creep issue easily
becomes a big problem for me.

Thanks-

Rick

 

[Guest]

Rick, this is probably because someone installed a Lexmark Driver or Printing System on your application servers, instead of mapping the Optra to a built in driver. Instructions on how to setup a user defined inf file for printer mapping here

http://www.workthin.com/tsp.ht

the compatible built in drivers for each Lexmark printer are here
http://www.printingsupport.com/mappings/lexmark.ht

Patrick Rous
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Serve
http://www.workthin.co

----- Rick wrote: ----

I have a W2K TS farm utilizing a Lexmark Optra Ep driver
for users connecting into the farm. I've noticed that
this driver has caused a "Lexmark Printer Software
Uninstall" program to be installed on each application
mode server. In addition, I've found that Lexmark is
writing log/printer information to a
HKLM\Software\Lexmark\Unstlog key in the registry

I automatically delete user profiles at logoff, but this
logged information remains static in the registry & builds
up over a short amount of time

Has anyone had this problem? Is there a way to prevent
this logging to the registry in lieu of changing the
driver? If a driver change is the only way, what type of
driver should I be using so the registry creep doesn't
occur. I have a couple thousand users who log into these
servers weekly, so this small registry creep issue easily
becomes a big problem for me

Thanks

Ric

 

[Guest]

I actually thought this was a built-in driver. It is listed in the default ntprint.inf file under the [Manufacturer] section of the W2K SP4 Server CD. Is there some other way to tell whether a driver is "built-in"? When I originally deployed these terminal servers, I installed only 3 print drivers that were needed to support the client printers of users connecting in from our retail stores & auto centers. Immediately after installing the 3 drivers, I renamed the ntprint.inf file, so no other drivers could be ever be installed unless I renamed the ntprint.inf file back

To date, no other drivers have been installed on the system. However 2 of the 3 drivers actually are writing static information to the registry. The Lexmark Optra Ep driver is logging to HKLM\Software\Lexmark\Unstlog, and an HP LaserJet 3300 PCL6 driver is writing log data to HKU\.DEFAULT\Printers\DevModes2

Is this a known behavior with certain types of print drivers running in a Windows 2000 Terminal Services environment? Perhaps would it be more appropriate for me to post this question in the Terminal Server Newsgroup

Regards

Rick