Disappearing Printers

[mrbios]

Done some more testing on this today.

 

Logged in over 96 computers as 3 different test users. One as a teacher, two as students. Only had 1 PC where the printer didn't map correctly, and i think that was the one i was doing some testing on with drivers a while back, so i probably broke something on that one. Apart from that the printers mapped flawlessly every time, I also wasn't getting an odd login issue i sometimes see where it sits on "preparing desktop" for ages. I tried restarting PCs and logging them all again. Tried as a user that hadn't logged on to them before, and lastly restarted and logged in again. All worked fine.

 

So do what i said in my post above and see how you lot get on. Let me know if you get similar results. I'm going to leave my ticket open on that one for a while just in case, then hopefully by Easter if all is well i can start finally moving staff PCs on to Windows 10 (only done students so far)

[Chuckster]

Could someone else who can repeat this issue consistently test this out please:

On your domain controller(s) go to HKLM > System > CurrentControlSet > Services > LanmanServer > Parameters

 

Add the REG_DWORD of SmbServerNameHardeningLevel with a value of 0, restart your DCs after doing that then see if your printer mappings are more reliable.

 

I certainly by no means wish to keep that reg key in place, but having read about KB3172985 which isn't available in our build of windows 10, presumably built in, which then took me to this item: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askpfeplat/2016/07/05/who-broke-my-user-gpos/ which in turn took me to looking at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3161561/ms16-075-and-ms16-076-description-of-the-security-update-for-windows-n so i thought i would test it out. From my limited testing, it appears to be loads more reliable!!!!! I still had to restart the print spooler as above on one attempt for a printer to show up....however that little fix didn't work at all for me before.

 

I have 8 PCs in my staffroom, they were the most consistently reproducible with this issue, not mapping printers on about 90% of logins. However since changing that and testing every PC, a printer came up on every login!!!

 

EDIT: Ok i've tested on 10 random computers now in multiple different classrooms across two versions of windows 10. This is working perfectly.....

EDIT2: I forgot to add, i also added "Domain Computers" to the security groups with read access to my printer mapping policy (even though authenticated users is already there) not sure if that had any bearing though.

 

@mrbios, you talk about applying the reg setting on domain controllers. But which versions of Windows does it apply to?

[mrbios]

@mrbios, you talk about applying the reg setting on domain controllers. But which versions of Windows does it apply to?

 

It seems to be difficult to find concrete information on it, doesn't appear to be a very well documented key.

 

However I have found information relating to 2008R2, 2012 and 2012R2 domain controllers. I can't find anything about whether it would apply to 2016. The main information i've found those tends to relate to 2012/2012R2

[CyberDrac]

Is it only the DCs that need it, i.e. do you serve up your print shares from your DC, or do you serve them up from another member server with/without that registry fix applied?

[mrbios]

Is it only the DCs that need it, i.e. do you serve up your print shares from your DC, or do you serve them up from another member server with/without that registry fix applied?

 

It relates to the reading of the policies from sysvol, so only the DCs. Print server is separate and doesn't need it.

[grahamd22]

Afraid to say it has made no difference here. We thought a full re-image with 1607 and latest cumulative updates would help but alas no :-(

[Coleshill]

I used to have that problem on 1607 but since updating clients to 1709 it seems to have corrected.

[mrbios]

Afraid to say it has made no difference here. We thought a full re-image with 1607 and latest cumulative updates would help but alas no :-(

 

Hmmm, the only other bit i did was add in "domain computers" to the security settings on the policy that applies my printers. Albeit it shouldn't have done anything as "authenticated users" is already there, try adding that in as well maybe?

[grahamd22]

Just tried and unfortunately it didn't make much if any difference.

[forkies]

Hmmm, the only other bit i did was add in "domain computers" to the security settings on the policy that applies my printers. Albeit it shouldn't have done anything as "authenticated users" is already there, try adding that in as well maybe?

 

I popped into work the other day (I am supposed to be on holiday this week) and decided to test your changes, I found it did not work either for us. However, when I was testing I did find that if I waited about 10-15 seconds after the desktop appeared and then went to word (for example) to print, the printer was there. I am not sure if this was just coincidence or whether it is a timing issue.

 

I am going to implement the Printer Spool service restart fix at the start of the week hoping that is constantly reliable as a short term fix until we look at rolling out 1709 as others have reported a potential fix with that. Not sure if Server 2016 for DCs/print server would make a difference either?

 

Thanks.

Tom

[mrbios]

Well unfortunately no amount of testing was good enough it seems, barely in the office 5 minutes and someone says their printer isn't there. So it didn't work, I was obviously just getting abnormally lucky with my multiple test users.

 

Really had enough of this problem now, it's frustrating me, it's frustrating users, it's the one stumbling block stopping me from leaving windows 7 behind for good. I just cannot consider windows 10 fit for use until this is resolved

[RobFuller]

No joy with that reg patch im afraid. Did you try the print spooler temp fix for now? Will be testing this with 1709.

[mrbios]

No joy with that reg patch in afraid. Did you try the print spooler temp fix for now? Will be testing this with 1709.

 

Yea i've tried that, didn't seem to do anything for me

[RobFuller]

What build you currently using?

[mrbios]

What build you currently using?

 

Mainly a combination of 1703 and 1709. Majority are 1703.

 

I see the issue most frequently on my staffroom annex PCs, whether that's just because teachers are more likely to complain I'm not sure, but every morning we get one member of staff moan at us about it when she goes to print. Those are on 1709, previously 1607 and I upgraded them in the hope it might fix the issue.

 

SCCM tells me 49 clients on 1709, 53 on 1607, 210 on 1703.

 

EDIT: I feel like we need someone who has never had this problem, and start doing direct comparisons between their policies, print server setup etc. and comparisons between ours. There has to be a common reason this is affecting some but not all.

Edited February 20, 2018 by mrbios

[FN-GM]

In summary, are we saying the only thing that helps is restarting the print spooler on login?

[grahamd22]

We have decided to change it so that instead of daily deletion of user profiles we would extend this to 7 days. It will leave profiles of common users on the PC and so far this is one of the first days where I have recieved positive comments from teachers that on the whole printers were there first time, we'll see how this goes and hope the SSD's have space ..!

Policy Setting Comment

Delete cached copies of roaming profiles Enabled

Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart Enabled

Delete user profiles older than (days) 7

[Garacesh]

Since we only run delprof2 on our pupil machines, I think I'm going to take out the Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart setting from our GPO's and secretly reimage a few staff machines, see if the issue re-occurs.

 

The Delete cached copies of roaming profiles policy has never been enabled for our staff as they use local profiles, but is enabled for our kids. I'm going to leave that one in place for the kids at the moment since I'm only testing with staff machines.

 

I'll report back if the issue still occurs, but given how sporadically it gets reported, there's no guarantee I'll know quickly or not.

[ADMaster]

Well knock on wood, I don't think I have ever had this issue if I do its rare.

I think over the course of the last year or so I have had to manually add the printer to 3-4 staff machines.

Is that the same issue, or have other staff figured out how to add it back them selves who knows?

 

It is certainly not a daily / weekly thing like described here. I'll compare settings if you like.

Printer server 2012 r2 running papercut

Clients are a mix of 8.1 and 10 1511 - 1709

All printers are deployed via GPP

All clients have local profiles and I do not delete them.

 

Let me know if there are specific settings / GPOs you want checked.

[Garacesh]

Is that the same issue, or have other staff figured out how to add it back them selves who knows?

 

Depends. I've found that when this issue rears its head, I can add the printer manually by going to \\print-server\ in file explorer and right-click/connect to the printer. But there's a pretty easy way of distinguishing what the problem was.

 

If the machine/console user profile is experiencing the issue then the printer does not show up in Devices and Printers but does show up in list of available printers when the user tries to print from a program (IE, SIMS, Word, etc)

If the machine/console user profile isn't affected by the issue, the printer shows up in Devices and Printers as normal.

[gaz350b]

Try just running gpupate from the start menu no need to open cmd etc. You will probably find it will add the printers just fine.

 

It’s somethting to do with the login process.

Edited March 1, 2018 by gaz350b

[grahamd22]

The biggest change that seems to have fixed things is a reimage with just the latest cumulative update and that is with Windows 10 Anniversary 1607 and the gpo's inplace as we have other suites we didn't get around to do doing and they are still not picking up the printers.

[RichWildWolf]

I had a similar issue, I fixed it by not using GPP but using print management and deploying printers to the gpo I have for pupil settings.

[ICT_GUY]

I wanted to add in my experiences. And it has been making me doubt my own sanity.

 

The issue of missing printers plagues certain combinations of computers and users. Some users have lots of issues and some computers seem to be really problematic. (Profile linked).

 

I have tried pushing printers out with group policy user configuration which has worked really well with windows 7 but seems broken with windows 10. I have also used print management to deploy them. This also seems broken with windows 10 and is also not as flexible as group policy since I can target by iprange and user when using gpo. Currently I use both, because ....reasons.

 

When the printers are missing, they don't show up in devices and printers, though sometimes they don't show up there but do in office and other applications. Sometimes they show up as unidentified devices.

 

When they are not available to applications, getting users to run a fix_printers.bat fix which simply calls GPUPDATE works, and quite rapidly at that. I am still testing this. So far though 90% of the time it works 100% of the time. EDIT they sometimes then show up in devices and printers but will be available to applications regardless. /EDIT

 

On the whole windows 10 seems to be a broken operating system that barely manages to do the basics required of a business OS. I have had so many BS issues with basic tasks that it has become one of my most hated operating systems. It is clunky and bloated without improving anything from windows 7. In fact it seems to have more in common reliability wise with windows 98 than windows 7.

 

End of rant.

Edited March 14, 2018 by ICT_GUY

[Garacesh]

When the printers are missing, they don't show up in devices and printers, though sometimes they don't show up there but do in office and other applications. Sometimes they show up as unidentified devices.

This marries up with my experience too.

 

If a printer is missing and I navigate to \\print-server\ and right-click/connect, the printer shows up in software such as MS Office, but the vast majority of the time does not appear in the Devices and Printers lists. Printing to the printer works from software works as expected.

Occasionally, as with your experience, an Unidentified Device appears with a GUID for a name and no further info.