"Microsoft Point and Print"

[synaesthesia]

Hi,

 

What is MS Point and Print?

Recently upgraded our print server to 2012R2 and it appears the drivers clients are installing are "MS Point and Print" drivers. They appear to work for the vast majority, however do not offer the options required to adjust quality, settings for the end user hence are no good. How does one get shot of them and use the good ol' happy working method of just giving the clients the driver required?

[computer_expert]

If you are using the print management console, make sure you import the x64 drivers (and x86 if you have 32bit clients) into the drivers folder. This is how I did it and the clients get the proper manufacturer drivers rather than the generic ones.

 

Also I found that when installing the printer on the server you need to uncheck the auto detect drivers box otherwise it will use WSD drivers (and lack the proper options) if the printer supports WSD. I have mostly Win7 clients if it helps

[computer_expert]

A quick google suggests that you could have installed the V4 drivers for S2012/W8 rather than the V3 drivers that have been used since Win2k.

 

There is a small article here that mentions a few changes in the printer architecture between W7/2008 & W8/2012.

[synaesthesia]

I did read up something about that, however found it odd this appeared to apply to the v3 printer drivers too. All drivers are correctly added in the drivers folder in print management. I'll have a play with it tomorrow; was just hoping to get a more humanised answer as opposed to Technet; articles and guides aimed at those who actually want to get a headache!

 

Cheers

[computer_expert]

Have a look at the following setting in GP: "Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Printers\Point and Print Restrictions"

 

I've set it to enabled, ticked 'Users can only point and print to these servers' and filled in the server FQDN and set both security prompts to 'Do no show warning/elevation prompt'. This allows the clients to download/install the driver from the print server without prompting for admin credentials.

 

As for changing the driver on clients I have a feeling that they update when the driver is updated on the server but am not 100% sure.

 

was just hoping to get a more humanised answer as opposed to Technet; articles and guides aimed at those who actually want to get a headache!

 

Glad it's not just me - Had a look at the MSDN documentation on V4 printer drivers and got very confused (as I'm not a programmer!)