printers and networking

[charlener]

So...we have a computer which has a shared printer (the standard windows variety as opposed to tcp/ip port or anything) and another computer which uses that printer. Until this point, we have added the shared printer to every person's account as they login to it. Is it possible to set some computer policy or general something that will ensure the computer will always have the network printer installed and available regardless of who's logged in?

 

[mikecel79]

Are you using a domain or only local user accounts. If it's a domain you can set logon script for each user. They should be placed in the \\servername\netlogon share where server name is your domain controller. If you are using local user account you can create logon scripts on the local computer and you specify the script in their account profile. The script would be a simple batch file that looks like this:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\servername\sharename

Where servername is the server the printer is on and sharename is the share name of the printer. BTW this only works in Win2k and above.

 

[Epsil0n00]

If the printer had its own IP you could just install it as an IP printer, which applies to all accounts... but Shared printers are trickier. It is possible to change the default template that user profiles are created from, which includes information about shared/networked printers.

1. Install the printer as a shared cue for one login profile.
2. Logout and log back in as another account with admin privileges on that machine.
3. Browse to C:\Documents and Settings\<user profile from step 1>\
4. turn on "show hidden files" from the "tools\folder options\View" menu.
5. copy the file "ntuser.dat" (the actuall .dat file, not the 'ntuser.dat' text file).
6. Paste the ntuser.dat file from this profile into the "All users" and "Default User" profile folders, replacing the existing ntuser.dat files in those profiles.
- now when a new profile is created, the shared printer defined in that ntuser.dat file is setup for all new profiles based on this modified template.
***7. If there are other user's who already have profiles, you can replace their ntuser.dat files as well, but that file holds many other settings in addition to the printers... so you might want to be careful applying it to pre-existing profiles (user's who are already established on that machine).

This is a good technique for brand new computers, but login scripts may be better for existing setups... also, login scripts can be changed dynamically, but once you modify the ntuser.dat file, that printer will show up whether it really exists anymore or not. This could lead to some interesting problems later down the road if you want to change your printer setup. Anywho, it is useful sometimes...

Good luck,
Epsil0n