Question about a print server

[mrbios]

Not an urgent one, but something that just popped up in my head...

 

Can i run a server 2008 R2 box as a print server? Main reason for this question is all the clients are 32bit, will i see driver issues? I know i can add multiple drivers to a printer but having not used a 64bit OS as a print server before i guess it's always safer to ask first

[rh91uk]

Yes you can - you need to set a x86 driver for the print server to serve out (Printer properties -> sharing -> additional options or something like that).

[mrbios]

Cheers, that's what i needed to know

[rh91uk]

Not a problem

[CraigM]

What I discovered when doing this in December last year with plain Server 2008, is that it is best to get the client drivers from a 32 bit XP client. Basically the steps are this:

 

• Install the printer on Server 2008 using the X64 drivers
  
• Share the printer out
  
• On a domain joined client XP, install the 32 bit printer drivers.
  
• Browse the Server 2008 box, go to the Printers share
  
• Right click the printer you want and select Properties.
  
• Click the Sharing tab, then click Additional Drivers. Click the check box for Windows 2000/XP x86
  
• Drivers will copy up to the server
  

 

I did it this way, since doing it on the server wanted to use x86 Vista drivers, which I have no idea if they would work with XP.

 

It took me a lot of misery to understand that and getting it working.

 

Hope this helps.

[sted]

What I discovered when doing this in December last year with plain Server 2008, is that it is best to get the client drivers from a 32 bit XP client. Basically the steps are this:

 

• Install the printer on Server 2008 using the X64 drivers
  
• Share the printer out
  
• On a domain joined client XP, install the 32 bit printer drivers.
  
• Browse the Server 2008 box, go to the Printers share
  
• Right click the printer you want and select Properties.
  
• Click the Sharing tab, then click Additional Drivers. Click the check box for Windows 2000/XP x86
  
• Drivers will copy up to the server
  

 

I did it this way, since doing it on the server wanted to use x86 Vista drivers, which I have no idea if they would work with XP.

 

It took me a lot of misery to understand that and getting it working.

 

Hope this helps.

 

never seems to work for me

 

i usually end up with a hyper v 2003 x86 print server

[IanT]

I run all printers from my 64-bit server, 32-bit drivers work fine