Windows 7 clients + Printers + Group Policy + Roaming Users

[drinkingbird]

Hi All,

 

We have many student labs and students can use any of them. To support them being able to hit print and have the job go to the nearest lab printer, we use roaming profiles (mainly for folders etc) and a Group Policy for the printers. The GPO for the printers in each lab first does a "Delete all printers" then it installs the relevant printers for that lab.

 

What is happening is that the 'Delete All' printers step doesn't work and students are effectively collecting printer objects as they move around.

 

If I get the user to type GPUPDATE then the Delete Printers part succeeds and the correct printers apply as expected.

 

How do I fix this?

 

Errors include:

The user 'Delete All' preference item in the 'LAB-XYZ-GPO {DBFE18B8-7B62-4783-929C-9629F4FCA27E}' Group Policy object did not apply because it failed with error code '0x8000ffff Catastrophic failure' This error was suppressed.

 

The user 'LAB-XYZ-PRINTER1' preference item in the 'LAB-XYZ-GPO {DBFE18B8-7B62-4783-929C-9629F4FCA27E}' Group Policy object did not apply because it failed with error code '0x80070709 The printer name is invalid.' This error was suppressed.

I've checked the GPOs and they are using the FQDN to refer to the printer servers. They are definitely running in the user's context (both for the delete and the update).

 

thanks for any pointers

[SYNACK]

There is a policy buried somewhere that prevents users from deleting printers, I'd first check that that has not been enabled, then, if not I'd use a script. GPO and GPP are very hit and miss with printers despite the MS advice.

 

This http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/22950-solution-map-printers-logon-scripts-windows-7-vista-without-uac-prompt.html plus Printer Addition Based on Location - Wiki will probably be able to sort the issues. Here we use a big fat VBS script that checks user groups and station names then does what is required for that session. GPP is great but for some stuff it is just flakey.

[drinkingbird]

GPP is great but for some stuff it is just flakey.

 

It was fine before we went to Windows 7. I'm thinking of just adding gpupdate to the login as per other advice but I think the issue is caused by a bug in Win7.

[SYNACK]

Have you tried this: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/110305-microsoft-releases-massive-slow-boot-slow-login-hotfix-rollup-kb2775511.html

[staningrimsby]

Just out of curiosity what OS have you got on the server, you do have the relevant adm's on there for Windows 7 don't you...