Populating Printers on Windows XP

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Hi, I'm running a 25 or so client (mixed XPPro Laptops and Desktops) and I want users to be able to print when on a workstation without them having to "Add Printer." Is there a way (either through Active Directory or On each machine) to add x-printer(s) automatically for All users (ones who already have a profile on a machine and new users to a machine). Am talking Network Printers not local. Thank Josh EPHS
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You can do this with a logon user script through group policies (i.e put it in as a user scripts section rather than computer)
This will then can be used to assign a printers with the ‘net use’ command. If you use the /persistent:no this can be set everytime with the batch script (recommended, you get warnings and can more easily change)
This way you can set different default printers for different groups.
The only problem I ever had with this was setting the default printer on a per machine basis, as you can only add a printer with the user logon.
With some messing around I imagine you could use a list of PCs and an intellegent script to set the appropriate default.

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  • DT2115
    Also, this is a much less integrated method but depending upon your situation it may work better for you; You can use CON2PRT.exe either on a script on the local PC's, or a shortcut on each local PC's startup menu pointing to your single script on a network drive that everyone has access to (as in the previous reply allowing you to change the script in a single place and affecting everyone without touching every PC again). It's also very easy this way to use NT group membership to map certain printers, so that no matter who logs onto the PC they will get printers that they might need. However, in most cases if someone is logging onto a certain PC it would be better to put that PC into a group and have the script print to printers that are logistically close to it. Here is a very basic script using con2prt.exe as an example; If you google it you will get lots of information. @ECHO off if exist P:con2prt.exe GOTO GOTGOODPATH net use p: /d net use p: SappserverAPPS /p:no if not exist P:con2prt.exe ECHO CON2PRT EXE missing - printer installs failed ... pause goto EOF :GOTGOODPATH ECHO Attempting to install printers now ... p:con2prt.exe /f p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001PHIARLJ01 p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001PHIARLL02 p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001PHIARLL01 p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001PHIARPO01 p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001PHIARPO02 p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001PHIARLL03 ECHO Printer script ran successfully, please test printers!!!!! pause exit :EOF
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  • ELPUEBLO
    Awesome I try those suggestions. Question "p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001PHIARLJ01" sxxxb002001phiarlj01= ? is that the AD name of the printer? is case sensitive? could I get a rewrite of the above example where printer=computerprint1 Just to see how it would look. Or is exe readily available (for windows 2000 Domain and again XP Pro Machines) Thanks J
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  • ELPUEBLO
    THIS NOT ONLY WORKED FOR TS SEssion but console session to From Microsoft: To map network printers for use in Windows 2000 Terminal Services and Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server, follow these steps: 1. In the following script, replace PrinterDriver with the name of the driver you are adding and ServerPrinter with the name of the shared printer and server: (begin Code) Set WshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network") PrinterPath = "ServerPrinter" PrinterDriver = "PrinterDriver" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection PrinterPath, PrinterDriver WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "ServerPrinter" (end code) (lines 1-4 can be repeated to add as many printers as you need) 2. Save and execute the script in a Visual Basic (VBS) file. NOTE: The parameter PrinterDriver must have the exact name of the driver as it appears in the left column of the Ntprint.inf file. For example, if you want to install a Cannon Bubble-Jet BJ-230, then the line in the script should read PrinterDriver = "Canon Bubble-Jet BJ-230". Excerpt from ntprint.inf: ++++++++++++++++++ "Canon Bubble-Jet BJ-230" = CNBJ230.GPD, CanonCanon_Bubble-JeFF70,Canon_Bubble-Jet_BJ-230
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  • DT2115
    Hey Josh, for some reason when I pasted my example script it removed my backslashes between servername/printername. here's an excerpt rewritten as you requested: (path to exe) (options) (servername)(printsharename) p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001ComputerPrint1 p:con2prt.exe /c SxxxxB002001ComputerPrint2 the exe is readily available online, search for con2prt.exe with your preferred search engine. Regards,
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