Windows 2003 R2 Printer Management

[Gatt]

Temporarily given up on PMC and gone back to my VB Script!!

[Simcfc73]

Got mine working perfectly now.

Well, its working when I log on a few machines, hopefully it will work when 30 machines switch on.

[Gatt]

^^ How did you manage it - cos i could never get the PushPrinterConnection utility to work - it either reboots the PCs at "Running Startup Scripts" or doesnt push any printers thru

[Simcfc73]

It just worked for me to be honest.

Created a OU for each room then a GP in each OU.

Pasted the exe file into the startup script for each GP. (I didn't link it to another folder, I just copied the file to each OU's Startup folder).

And then deployed the printer with Printer Management.

Thats how I got mine working.

[Gatt]

Did the exact same thing but no joy

[Norphy]

Sorry to ask the obvious here

Have you extended the AD schema? It won't work unless you do that first.

[Gatt]

This was the bit I'm unsure of here - I upgraded to R2
Checked the Schema version - its showing Version 31 - which as i understand it - is correct for PMC to work

Or is there something else I must do?

[thom]

I used to use the Windows PrintUI.dll built-in method to add network printers but it was still quite manual and caused lots of headaches.
I have been trying to get the PMC working since the the R2 beta started... and it is finally working!
Here's what I did.
1) Upgraded Windows 2003 Server SP1 to R2 (including the Schema update).
2) Upgraded the Server Roles to include the PMC.
3) Right-Clicked a printer in the console and selected "Deploy with Group Policy".
4) Used the interface to create a new GPO in the OU containing the Library PCs called "Printers-Library"
5) Selected the per machine setting
6) Clicked "Add" (this is very easy to forget!)
7) Create a new "Push Printer" GPO and assigned it to the Library OU
8) Copied the pushprinterconnections.exe file to \\Server\Shared share
9) Added a startup script to the "Push Printer" GPO. This was a batch file containing only "\\Server\Shared\pushprinterconnections.exe"
10) Using the Group Policy Management Console (downloaded from Microsoft) I moved the Push Printer GPO above the Printers-Library GPO.
11) On a library PC I ran "GPUpdate /force" and rebooted.
12) It appeared the next time I logged on although the FlashPaper printer was still the default.

I didn't understand the earlier post about how to solve this so if someone could re-explain that would be great.

To find out this info I searched "Print Management Console" on TechNet and it came up with two step by step guides which were quite useful.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window....mspx?mfr=true

[Simcfc73]

With reference to the Flashpaper problem.

You need to install Flashpaper as normal on the machine then delete the local printer.

Go on the Macromedia/Adobe website and download the Flashpaper printer driver which gets installed on the Print server.

Then you just deploy that printer as you have the other printers. It sets the first printer deployed as the default printer.

[thom]

Thanks,
I already have flashpaper printer installed on 250 PCs
Is there a way to delete them through a log on script
(In fact, I would like all local printers to be deleted so the network has complete control)

[DMcCoy]

You need to work out the exact printer name, as its not always the same as the display one, I think I poked around in the registry for the ms document one. This is run as a *startup* script (vbs) in the machine section of the policy as system is allowed to add and remove printers

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colInstalledPrinters =  objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * FROM Win32_Printer")
For Each objPrinter in colInstalledPrinters
	IF objPrinter.Name = "Microsoft Office Document Image Writer" THEN
		objPrinter.Delete_
	END IF
Next

Edit, as I don't know much about wmi scripting, I'm not sure if you can use a wild card for all local printer deletion.

[Norphy]

This was the bit I'm unsure of here - I upgraded to R2
Checked the Schema version - its showing Version 31 - which as i understand it - is correct for PMC to work

Or is there something else I must do?

Taken from this document: http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...hemaUpdate.doc

To apply Windows Server 2003 R2 schema extensions to the Active Directory schema
1. Insert the second Windows Server 2003 R2 installation disc in the CD drive of the domain controller that holds the schema master operations role (also known as flexible single master operations (FSMO)).
2. Log on to the computer as a member of the Schema Admins group.
3. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
4. At the command prompt, type the following commands, substituting the drive letter of the CD drive for drive:
drive:
cd \cmpnents\R2\adprep
adprep /forestprep

[Gatt]

@Norphy: Thanks for that - will give that a bash next week

[Bubba]

My experiences with R2 Print Management have been mixed.

Key points are

There is NO way to set the default with it, so if you have a local printer or want to deploy more than one to a room, you may want to run a small vbs script when the user logs in to set the correct default printer.

If PUSHPRINTERCONNECTIONS.EXE is causing reboots, or not working, check your Anti-Virus settings. I was getting this problem, until I unticked a box in McAfee v8 that stopped users from running .exe files in the windows system folders.

Other than that it seems to be pretty good.

Regards,

Anthony.

[Simcfc73]

Apologies first off.

It seems that the flashpaper on the server solution is a crap idea and doesn't work. It seems to be alright for a while but its started failing. I've have to reinstall the local driver on the machines and use a startup script to do the default printer using a vbs script.