Groupl Policy printers

[Sheridan]

I'm using group policy Deployed Printers at the moment but its causing problems with the default printer not being the one people require. I.e in a room we might have a mono and colour Printer, so every machine in that room has both printers deployed but we'd want to make the mono one the default. I thought preferences might be the way to do this, but you can only set the default in preferences if its a User preferences.

 

So there is no way to deploy printers to a machine and set the default - apart from resorting to scripting etc, or am I wrong? Deploying the printer as a user preference is no use as the user's want the printer that is in the same room as them.

[Michael]

You can do it via GPP regedit - to point you in the right direction.

[sted]

you can also use group policy loopback to apply user settings (so default printer) to a pc

[Norphy]

Microsoft - Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory since 1985.

 

This is pretty much the reason we abandoned GPP printer policies, you can't get it working the way we want without scripting or some major bodging.

[Sheridan]

I never thought of a loopback, it seems a bit daft you can't just set the default though for a machine!

[sted]

I never thought of a loopback, it seems a bit daft you can't just set the default though for a machine!

 

it is but you can only use the tools they give you. I assume its due to sloppy thinking whereby they expect everyone has their own normal pc and as a user they will print to a set printer rather than pcs are a free for all and i just want to print to whatever cloer by default not the department printer

Edited November 25, 2013 by sted

[Sheridan]

I'll try adding the printers as a users preferences (with default) as a loopback merge policy! Over-complicated but in theory should do the job!

[fiza]

Have you looked at this thread from last year?

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/88001-setting-printer-default-using-gp-2.html

[dmanning]

Here's a screenshot of our GP setup. We break down all of our Workstations --> Building --> Room

Then we have a workstation policy for that building with the following settings and utilize the printers there. This way it always maps the printers (even USB printers) for any user that logs in to that room without the need for a VBS script. It's been working flawlessly for us for almost 3 years now. Takes a little work to get it all in the GPO's but once it's there it's not so bad. Just make sure you have a good policy in place if your technicians replace/add a printer so it gets updates.

 

 

Edit: I should also note that we set it up so that each of our school buildings only show their buildings printers if they manually add a printer, which makes it a lot easier if they can't find theirs or want to print to an alternate location. We just trained them to add them manually as they need them, and auto-map the most logical/closest printer. This also works for us because we set our computer names to BUILDING-ROOM-SERIAL.

Edited November 25, 2013 by dmanning

[Sheridan]

I've set up a loopback policy that adds the printer to the user and set the default - which doesn't seem to be working now. I removed the printer deployed to the machines and now nothing appears!

[dmanning]

Sorry, you'll need these settings as well:

[Sheridan]

I'm finding the preferences as much use as Windows 8 :-)

 

Deployed to machines - works fine

Deployed as user preferences (loopback) - no printers appear at all

 

I've had to put the machine policy back on - especially as we've just had 'the call'

[dmanning]

Yes with the steps I provided it works with a Computer in the OU ... if you want to use users instead you need to switch it to where your Users are and select Users in OU option. We found it was easier to map printers based on the computer location rather than the user since users move around a lot. Make sure you only set one of the two printers to be the default. I can't remember but I want to say having it second in the list and making it the default worked better, you'd have to tweak it until you get the results you desire, but it sounds like you're almost there.

[ass17]

We map printers by vbscript. So much easier as we map based on location, room and also by what subject group they belong to (departmental office printer). We script most things.

[Sheridan]

Yes - I want to add the printers by location, so created a loopback policy with the User preferences set to the two printers with only one set as default

 

The result of that was no printers showing for any users on those computers. Add the printers back to the Deployed printers policy and they re-appear. I must be missing something here although I do find the GPP settings a little unreliable.

[sted]

point and print settings?

[dmanning]

point and print settings?

 

^This as he said...

 

And if you want you can also change it from "CREATE" to "UPDATE" and then in the Common tab uncheck the box for Apply once and do not reapply. This will make sure it processes every login. Just note that it will be a tad slower logging on to process the group policy each login.