Configuring Printer On All Roaming Profiles

[Bluemagic]

I help administer an old domain at work; I have no access to create or modify accounts however I do support the end users and what they have access to. I keep getting requests to set people up on the printer (shared off an old computer on the network until it gets a dedicated NIC) and I'm wondering if there's a way to set this in GPO so that every user has the same printer settings? I've looked in gpedit.msc and I can't find anything that applies really.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SJConsultant]

I help administer an old domain at work; I have no access to create or modify accounts however I do support the end users and what they have access to. I keep getting requests to set people up on the printer (shared off an old computer on the network until it gets a dedicated NIC) and I'm wondering if there's a way to set this in GPO so that every user has the same printer settings? I've looked in gpedit.msc and I can't find anything that applies really.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Setup a login script that connects the printer everytime they log in to a computer.

 

[Bluemagic]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did some poking around Google and found a logon script that adds a printer. Problem is all of the users have limited access and they receive 'access is denied' upon logging into their profile referring to the script I set to load. I can't find anywhere in GPO that lets you change if users have access to a printer or not. Any ideas?

 

[enforcer17]

you'll have to change the share permissions for that printer so everyone has permission to print.

 

[Bluemagic]

you'll have to change the share permissions for that printer so everyone has permission to print.

Everyone does have permission to print. The problem is giving people permission to add a printer.

 

[enforcer17]

what are their local permissions? are they users, power users or admins?

 

[Bluemagic]

They are basic users. I guess I could change them to power users and then restrict what I need to, but I'd have to go to each PC and do it for each login I would think...?

 

[enforcer17]

well just test it on one to see if that actually does help.

 

[rcplez90]

If you dont want to change their current permissions (i.e. change them from users to power users or administrators) Try adding them to the Print Operators group.

 

[rcolbert]

If you can get the print drivers installed on all the systems, the users should be able to connect without additional permissions. It's likely that they just don't have the rights to install the driver.

 

[Bluemagic]

Where is the Print Operations Group?

Installing the printer drivers is an interesting idea...do I just have to drop a DLL in a folder and register it I wonder?

 

[rcolbert]

Microsoft's print migrator utility is one way to get a consistent set of drivers installed across multuple machines.

http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003/techinfo/overview/printmigrator3.1.mspx

 

[Jadejaws]

Actually users (just regular old users) can add network printers, just not local ones.
If the machine the printer is on is an older or different OS than what they are using, it should be as easy as adding additional drivers on the machine sharing the printer (its in the sharing options)
add the printer by a path \\computername\sharedprintername in the .bat login script using the net command.


Otherwise, yes you could do it in group policy with a script or a registry edit.

 

[rcolbert]

That's true. We're just accounting for the possibility that there might be some additional locking down in place that prevents the natural course of things. Terminal Server is a good example of a case when someone can connect to any network printer, but due to the shared environment they typically can't use any drivers other than what are already installed. There are a myriad of other "best practices" out there (anyone remember "ZAK"?) that really cut Windows off at the knees...