Deploy printer via GP

[Gaz]

I'm trying partially successfully to deploy 2 printers via Group Policy.

 

I've got two OU's one called Classroom and the other called Library

In each OU I've got a policy called "*room* printer" and in each policy is the deployed printer.

Also in each OU I've got pushprinterconnections.exe set as a startup script as they are per machine mappings.

 

Everything should be hunky dory and it kind of is but they are both being mapped to the same room and I've no idea why. Both printers are shared, do they need to be? If it helps they are HP 2055dn's and I'm using the universal print driver.

 

Desktops are XP Pro SP3 and Win7 Pro 64bit (only in Classroom)

Server is 2003 R2 EE SP2

[Gaz]

Can anyone offer any assistance? I've only got 2 days before our students start back and I need to get these printers sorted.

 

Its probably something obvious but I'm just not seeing it.

[sted]

how in group policy are you doing it i can think of at least 3 ways (push printer connections (now refered to as ppc) tends to imply that its 2003 r2 way where you add them under windows settings printer connections and that you have xp workstations)

 

assuming its xp there is a minimum sp level required iirc for ppc and i think a windows update.

can you manually add the printer

is the server x86 or x64 and if the clients are not the same have you installed the other drivers on the printer?

any printer you want workstations to access (unless its direct to its name/ip which opens up another can of worms) needs to be shared

[ricki]

Hi

 

Have a look at this Deploy printers by using Group Policy

 

Check that the PushPrinterConnections.exe is in the startup script for the windows xp machine

 

Follow the instructions to create a gpo in the print management colsole of the print server.

 

Then set the default printer in the policies that you created for each room see how here. http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/292

 

Test the policy by doing a gpupdate /force /boot and log on. Dont forget you might have to update the drivers on the print server depending on the version of windows on the client eg x64 will need a different driver then x86.

 

Richard

Edited September 19, 2012 by ricki

[Gaz]

I really dislike computers sometimes!

 

For whatever reason I've logged onto the workstations today with my various test accounts and its all working so I've no idea what on earth was going on yesterday.

 

I've done pretty much as you guys have said. Using the HP driver config it allows you to set the default printer but it appears to be working randomly on different computers so I may try the GP method.

 

Thank you to you both for your input.

[penfold]

Did you use a clean logon account? Possibly the reason you were getting both printers could have been cached profile holding old printer settings. Also check what other policies are running incase there are anything else applying printers (old printer script perhaps).

 

You can set the default printer under the user section of GPP(UserConfig>Preferences>Control Panel>Printers). I''ve set ours to set the default when a user logs on but for some reason it wasn't applying properly when a user first logs on (creates profile). I've ended up running a gpupdate script which then runs the user GPO which in turn sets the correct default printer every time a user logs on without a noticable delay in logon.

Edited September 19, 2012 by penfold

[Gaz]

Well I forced a gpupdate which I assumed would clear anything out and then rebooted as PPC is a startup script but it was still applying both printers from different OU's

Doing a gpresult gave the correct OU's (default and printer) but it was still applying the printer from another OU.

 

Its working and I hope I don't have to touch it again for another year.

 

For clarification the server was 2003 R2 EE SP2 32bit (i'd really like to upgrade to 2008 R2 but costs don't allow at the moment)

Classroom, mix of XP 32bit sp3 and win7 64bit sp1

Library, XP 32bit sp3

 

Its certainly a lot easier to do all this via a script but I also dislike writing scripts to do everything.

[penfold]

If a printer has been added to the user and then the user/computer has moved OU, it will still hold all printers installed for that user unless you delete the printer. You can put a setting in to delete all printers but it needs to be done before new ones are added otherwise you'll end up with none

 

It's something to remember that if you deploy printers per user that if the user moves OU they may end up with more and more printers as the old ones are kept unless specified to be deleted (or the user deletes them).

[ricki]

Have you checked that your domain controllers have replicated.

 

Richard

[Gaz]

Yeah and thats the reason I don't reploy per user and deploy per machine just in case a user moves OU, its less likely that a computer will move but if It does I'll delete it first and add it back in, it seems to work best.

 

There is only 1 DC ricki I do have another server 2008 R2 but its in a different building and network.