Group Policy Preferences - Printers - I finally give up.. back to a script....

[burgemaster]

I have really tried with GPP printer deployment, but windows 7 machines just seem to randomly hang at login at "Processing Group Policy Printer Policy" today for a record 45 minutes!

 

Has anyone please got a decent old fashioned login script to map printers. Working with windows 7 and If possible also with event logging?

In our group policy to deploy the printers we have all our printers deployed in one large policy at the domain root with our domain default policy, then the printers are assigned due to the OU or security group etc. (See screenshot). Do you guys have separate GPs for each printer? Is this the way that other have successfully used GPP to printers?

 

Have you turned off UAC?

 

 

 

Thanks in advance

Edited March 9, 2012 by burgemaster

[Birchy]

We tried Group Policy Preferences and didn't get your problem, it worked ok but our Papercut print management software could no longer track the print jobs so we went back to using Group Policy deploy printers. Have you tried this? Again this sems to work reliabley. We have several printer policies and these are linked to the Computer / workstation OU that needs the printers.

[plexer]

We tried Group Policy Preferences and didn't get your problem, it worked ok but our Papercut print management software could no longer track the print jobs so we went back to using Group Policy deploy printers. Have you tried this? Again this sems to work reliabley. We have several printer policies and these are linked to the Computer / workstation OU that needs the printers.

 

I imagine that would only hapen i you were pushing out connections for the pc's so that they connected directly to the printers themselves? in that scenario papercut or any software wouldn't be able to track the usage as the connections have to be via the print server?

 

Ben

[6Foot2]

We used scripts to deploy our printers what we had XP clients but we found that to be patchy when we went to Windows 7.

 

We now create a GPO for printer allocation to an OU/Room [but we do not use the Control Panel/Printers option]

 

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1031/deployroom31printer.jpg

 

It works for us and PaperCut can monitor/control printing.

[burgemaster]

I am now splitting our one "Map Printers" with 48 printers in, down to 48 individual GP objects that will apply to OU`s....

 

This really is GPP`s last chance!

[Michael]

Have you looked at deploying printers via GPO instead of GPP? This is how I've always done things ever since 2003 R2, up to the current day running 7 and 2008 R2.

[3s-gtech]

Using GPP here without issue. The only quirk is with drivers - I have to install them as an admin onto each PC just once, then they'll work (I just do this to the image). This is a UAC/GP quirk that I haven't figured out, but no real biggie - and it talks to Papercut fine. Our printers used to be mapped by .kix script, so that went when 7 came along.

[sted]

might be worth mentioning point and print restrictions can screw this up ive got them set to "just get on with it mode"tm. Ive found gpop printers seem ok on users and lousy on pcs.

[januttall]

use printer management to deploy printers its easy and fast just add the printer to windows printer management and right click then deply easy as

[burgemaster]

Have you looked at deploying printers via GPO instead of GPP?

We tried using GPO to deploy the printers but this was limited and the removal seemed impossible, it seems to store settings in the profile. When a printer was replaced there were always problems. Also you could not set a default printer. It worked great for XP, but not so good for Vista/Windows 7.

 

Ive now split our one large GP down to individual GPs, and changed the server address from "PRINT" to "PRINT.domain.local".

I now seem to be getting 2 sets of the same printer... will keep at it.

[Davit2005]

Allways done our printers by individual policies and by a Machine policy rather than a user policy, User prefences used to designate default printer. Printers are only deployed to the relevant Area/Building/Room etc and then filter down through the individual Room OU's.

 

Had 2003 R2 with XP running at last place like this (abielt without user preferences) and now have set up 2008 R2 domain to do this with Windows 7 clients.

 

Always done printers with MS Print Management like this and not had any problems yet. Have you tried with just one printer in a policy and see what happens?

[jjd81]

Using GPO's in a 2008r2 environment is working perfectly on the W7 machines. Set it up and deploy the printers directly from the Print Management console on the server. Ensure you have BOTH the x86 and x64 drives for the printers so that you don't run into driver issues when/if an x86 system is accessing the printer.

 

As for XP,I have not be successful in getting the printer to add via GPO. So, for that I have a script in the start folder which reads the computername and parses the name and then goes into an IF to determine which printer to map and set as default. This runs for each user that logs in and it has been perfect so far.

[netadmin]

We tried GPP when we first migrated to Windows 7. It worked but it added about 30-45 seconds to each fresh login (and since we use Deep Freeze, nearly every student login is fresh), so we ended up going back to a script. Here is a link to the script from the Edugeek wiki that we use (it works great for us and only adds about 1 second to logon): Printer Addition Based on Location - Wiki

[Rozzer]

We tried to use printing with GPO preferences but found the default printer option was hit or miss and slowed logins by 10 - 15 seconds. I am using quite an old script and looking to investigate the preference option again. Interested in what others have to say

 

Ross

[3s-gtech]

I'd honestly say it adds nothing noticeable to our logins, which are 20 seconds maximum, and down to 10 or so on second login (super mandatory profiles). Not sure what is different with our system - 2008 R1 VM print server.

[glennda]

We use GPP's I apply a User Policy to the computers OU as like Davep's screenshot above. I then Apply User Group Policy Loopback processing set to Merge to apply the policys to users while they are on that PC so that it changes per room.

[Wiebbe]

I use it as well here with over 35 printers in 1 policy. The way i have it i setup is at the User level. I then do a "Itemlevel as Target" (not sure what the english translation is, got a Dutch server setup here).

 

I check to see if the computer the user is logging on too is part of a certain security group. That way i can give a computer multiple printers. An example below:

 

Edited March 12, 2012 by Wiebbe

[Rozzer]

I'd honestly say it adds nothing noticeable to our logins, which are 20 seconds maximum, and down to 10 or so on second login (super mandatory profiles). Not sure what is different with our system - 2008 R1 VM print server.

 

I suspect that is why mine is running slow as I have not quite mastered mandatory profiles.

 

Ross

[the_quick]

I think all printers set-ups using gpp or gpo works much better with mandatory profiles - don't have them here YET! Work in progress.

[gshaw]

GPP seems to be working OK on my test machines this far, adds about 10-20 seconds to login times with mandatory profiles (MS sysprep methods) as far as I can tell (using HP UPD driver). Printers on a 2008 R2 VM with x86 drivers added on. We apply it as a User Policy but looking at the Computer's OU to find which printer to set as default. Edited June 8, 2012 by gshaw