Printer Deployment

[squeeky]

I've recently started working at this school and the printers are deployed using VBS on windows 2003 (not R2). We recently got some laptops with windows vista on them (which is fine) but the problem is that

 

A: I cant control alot of the policy settings in vista because the settings are totally differnt

 

B: I cant add printers to the system because im not using R2 and there is no proper deploy in GP (vista isnt compatible with vbs printers)

 

Thanks

 

Squeeky

[sted]

you can use the gpmc on vista and make changes to gpo's that the server cant natively understand ive done it with win7 on 2003 server before quite happily just means you need to edit certain policies from a workstation. It might even be possible to publish the printers this way though i havnt tried. I believe the vbs scripts do work if they are run from the local drive rather than network drive and shoule work as admin but may get a uac prompt

[squeeky]

Id rather not do that. Is there anyway to do it via login script or automatically do the settings with regedit

[chazzy2501]

Easily the best way to deploy printers (in a mixed OS environment) is through the use of GPO or GPOP (CSE). Using scripts to deploy printers is arcaine and unnecessary. I understand that leaving your comfort zone is hard but spend half a day with the new technology and you'll have this problem licked!

[squeeky]

Easily the best way to deploy printers (in a mixed OS environment) is through the use of GPO or GPOP (CSE). Using scripts to deploy printers is arcaine and unnecessary. I understand that leaving your comfort zone is hard but spend half a day with the new technology and you'll have this problem licked!

 

If you read the thread you can see that im using windows 2003 without R2 and that doesnt have a GP section for deploying printers. Normally i would use R2 or newer and that does support this feature. I would rather not individually change each GP on the laptops.

[alexsanger]

This pretty much sums it up - never done it myself though. We've always "downgraded" to XP on clients with anything else to ensure consistency.

 

Vista Group Policy in a Server 2003 Active Directory « N3ilb’s Weblog

 

I would have thought that once you've done that you could continue using the scripts - we were in a similar situation with no R2 and vbs scripts at my last place - they work okay as login scripts, but they're not 100% reliable. Then again, the R2 deployment method proved not to be either, so maybe there was a networking issue causing us problems...

Edited January 10, 2011 by alexsanger

[squeeky]

Ive now got R2 - I found out our license was actuarly R2 but someone hadnt installed the second disk (muppets) Anyway is vista compatible with the print management console and gp ?