Dummy default printer to bring up Message box

[Ben_Stanton]

Hi guys,

Is there anything out there that pretends to be a printer and when printed to, brings up a message box?

Scenario:

I want to set this 'dummy' as the default printer. When any jobs are sent there, I want it to pop up a message box...?!?

Does it exist?

Ben

[contink]

Not sure about how you'd capture the printer event but here's how you can resolve the "fake" printer.

Need Fake Printer Driver To Make .txt Files.

[Ben_Stanton]

Sorry, didn't make myself clear.

I want to set this dummy printer as a default. When it is printed to, I want a message box to pop up, or preferably the printer selection box to come up.

The problem is the default printer being set is across the campus for a reason that is to long and boring to explain. But, I want this dummy printer to pop up a box and make the user select an alternative printer.

Thanks in advance

[contink]

Oh I understood what you mean't... but what I suspect you'll find is that the dummy printer will need to exist in some form or other hence the post above.

The problem is, I have no idea how you would capture the print request to then run a script. I spent 30 minutes looking with no luck.

[Ben_Stanton]

Oh ok cool, thanks for looking. I couldnt see anything either...

[Michael]

If you have Server 2003 R2 or 2008, you can distribute printers by GPO either by user or per computer, so you could specify different printers for users or rooms or a combination of both. It works by setting the default printer alphabetically, so choose your printer names wisely

The other thing to bear in mind is MS Office installs the "Microsoft Office Document Image Writer" printer, but this can be deleted using a script. Another printer I've seen pop up is with Smartboard software (if you have it installed on your machines).

[SimpleSi]

Since pdf "printers" like PDFCreator pop up a dialog box - there is obvioulsy a way to do this - I think its opensource so you may be able to hack the code to do what you want

regards

Simon

[powdarrmonkey]

You'll have to write your own printer driver (unless you can find one that already does this) if you want it this specific. I'd be much more inclined to set your default printers properly by location though. Drivers are notoriously complex, I started writing one once but it was just too in-depth.

[PiqueABoo]

if you have ... 2008

..you would be silly not to use Preferences because that can target default or non-default printer deployment based on (boolean) combinations of everything but the kitchen sink: It's Wednesday and you're on a laptop which in OU X and it has an IP from a specific range, but your logon account is not in the Idiots group and there isn't a locally attached printer...

For me, based on serious/significant production use, Preference targeting is lovely. If I had a vanilla 2003 domain then throwing a Vista RSAT management workstation on it and deploying the XP CSE would be a bit of a priority.

this can be deleted using a script.

..ditto with a very simple 2K8 Preference to delete the printer called "Microsoft Office...