printer install (remotly)

[Bartek]

Hi
Problems look as follows:
We have domain users wich of course has normal users rights (no admin
priviliges)
We are preparing their laptops in office and they are going home (home
office).
In home office they usualy have got some USB printer. How to install that
printer without giving an admin password for the user? We are connected via
VPN and using pcanyware or netmmeeting soft to remote access the user
computer.
Is there any solution for giving admin priviliges for only printer
instalation. Or using "run as a different user... ", but what exacly has to
be run?

Bartek

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

A couple of possibilities:

1. use the command to add a printer remotely

rundll32 printui,PrintUIEntry /if /c:computername ...

I've used the PrintUIEentry function for adding network printers globally
(the /ga function) but not local printers, although I know that others have
done so.

2. use a RunAs packaging utility (such as the free RunAsUser from PalmerSoft
http://www.palmersoft.co.uk/Runasuser.htm) to package a command file in an
executable under a specific user account. Put the following command into a
..cmd file, then use RunAsUser to package it into an executable.

start /wait rundll32 printui,PrintUIEntry /il

This will launch the Add Printer Wizard using whatever username (local or
domain) and password you specify when you create the package. The user
should then be able to add their local (home) printer. I tried this in a
small domain I have at home and it seemed to work OK.

In the rundll32 ... command, PrintUIEntry is case sensitive. rundll32 is a
generic command for executing functions inside dlls. printui.dll is the dll
that implements the printing user interface. PrintUIEntry is the function
in prinui.dll that interprets a string of parameters and takes the
corresponding actions. Unfortunately, the documentation for this thing
leaves a bit to be desired. If you use the command:

rundll32 printui,PrintUIEntry /?

you'll get a list of the available functions and options, including a few
examples.