Adding Network Printers

[Ant]

Hey, just a quick, probably easy question for you lot....

I need to add a few networked printers onto a few machines running NT 4, 2000, and XP. How can one add all the printers so that all the users can see them, without having to log on using each user and adding them manually?

I know there must be a way... I assume you need to add them to the "All Users" profile or something, but how?

Cheers

ant

[blockers]

Well just plug them into the interface (on a PC i assume e.g. USB, Parrellel) Then install the drivers, go into printer properties and make it shareable, like you would a hard drive.

You now should be able to see it from the other computers.

Hope that helps, or google.com it.

Will

[wasabi]

Right click on the printer icon , select sharing and security

On the machine to connect to it, select network printer in the Add printer dialogue, then go \\computername\printersharename

Driovers hsould pull over automatically in most cases.

[Ant]

yeah, no. Its kinda not like that... Got about 10 laser printers each plugging straight into the network, each with their own IP.

Unfortunately when adding a printer on nt 4, 2000, and xp, it just adds it to the profile logged in, not the rest... The drivers are copying accross no problem, I'm just trying to find an easier way to add the printers to all user profiles.

What I want to do is add all the printers using one profile, then somehow copy printer stuff from that profile and paste it to the "All user" profile. So even if a new user logs in, he/she will still have the full list of printers available.

I could log onto each machine using each profile adding all the printers, but that would take absolutely ages, and doesn't help if a new user logs on....

cheers

[Enverex]

Tried it on my machines and the Printer seems to appear for every account on the machine, seems to at work as well. Are you sure you are not using some type of hightened security on the machines which is stopping them from installing it on all the accounts at once?

NS

[Butuz]

The printers are set up per PC. if you log in to the NT/2k/xp machine as a domain adminitrator, you can then set up the printer, and when you log off the machine should keep the printer for all users.

Are you running Active Directory on Server 2000/2003? If so, the above doesnt apply.

Butuz

[Ant]

Oh, okay. I'll have a look at what rights I am using... Don't think it had domain admin rights, not to sure off the top of my head...

Sounds promising, cheers dudes

ant

[wasabi]

Ah - I see the prob.

At work here I use the following bat file which is saved locally on C drive of each machine, and called from logon script

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n "\\server1\Epson Lower School"
exit

This will give an error message first time user logs on, but after logoff and relogon the user will have access to that printer. Obviously change domain from server1 and epson Lower school to printer share name.

[wasabi]

PS
You can get a similar effect using Windows 2000 group policy editor in the systems policy bit - requires published printers and other fiddly bits you won't be able to get in NT though. IMO my crude way is easier.

[Ant]

Originally posted by robertirwin
Ah - I see the prob.

At work here I use the following bat file which is saved locally on C drive of each machine, and called from logon script

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n "\\server1\Epson Lower School"
exit

This will give an error message first time user logs on, but after logoff and relogon the user will have access to that printer. Obviously change domain from server1 and epson Lower school to printer share name.

Cool, I will give that a try too... I'm off till monday, so will try the suggestions then! Thanks all!

Ant

PS

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n "\\server1\Epson Lower School"

RM connect by any chance?

[wasabi]

It was RM about 3 years ago - just never changed the machine name after we kicked them out. Domain is still called RMNETNT too come to think about it...

[Ant]

Lol, Actually, we're kind of phasing out of using RM stuff at the mo too... I haven't been working with RM for long, but its connect 2.4 which imo is pants... But hey! it makes my life more interesting when I have a small problem, but end up taking all day to fix it!

[wasabi]

I just got fed up with the mess of ini files, mandatory profiles and general obnoxiousness about installing other vendors' software.

Basically everything they did can be done better through Group policy editor and a bit of bodging. The bodging can't be any worse than RM's.

To be fair though,. for schools without a dedicated 'puter bod I suppose it could be worse.

[Ant]

Yeah, I know what you mean, we havn't installed anything new on the RM network in quite a while because of that, then you get some staff moaning because its not like their computer at home etc etc But ye, in fairness, it does offer some protection against people who think they know more than they do! Luckily the majority of our network isn't rm anymore, and it does make my life a lot easier!

oh ye, haven't tried sorting the printers out yet, will try hopefully tomorrow when i get a chance, cheers again.

ant