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Win2000 Pro - Add printers for users

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by fatuncleal 1 view

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This is in a school envoironment. I have two win2000 Pro computers in the same room. A HP deskjet 600 ( no NIC ) is hooked up to computer #1 on LPT1 thru printer cable and it is shared. Users logon to computer #1 have no problem to print. Now I'm trying to add printer on computer #2, want to use the same HP printer that's on computer #1 . I can logon as admin and add the printer by choosing it as network printer and I can use it and print with no problem. I also shared the printer I've just added. But other users logon and they cannot print. I checked their Add Printer window, the HP printer is not there. However I can add the same printer again and i can print as that user. That means every user logon to computer #2 has to add that printer once to be able to use it. How do I logon as Admin and add that printer just once, so everyone logon to computer #2 can use the same printer without have to do the same thing ? Do I have to tweak it in the registry ? If yes, please show it step by step. Thanks.

10 replies

by r. a. caluste

Two things I can suggest:

1) Every user has a user profile either stored locally or roaming. One component of the user profile is the Printers which contain all all printer shortcuts. If you are using roaming profiles, you have to add the printershortcut to each user in such way that whenever the roaming user logs anywhere in the network, he maintains the printer shortcut. For local users, I don't seem to have a problem.

2) Try to check the security of the printer. Make sure you have allowed everyone access to the printer.

by gigelul

You say that you add network printer on computer#2 and also you share it here. You can't do that, you can share a printer only on computer which have psihical attached a printer.
About adding a share printer to a user profile. Yes all new users on computer#2 must add network printer (It is not so hard for users to do that).

by beermonster

Hi,
There's a few ways to approach this. Firstly, the old trick.. - create a new user that is an admin on box2 (pref a local not domain account). Log in as that user, and add the printer. log out and back in as the normal admin. Copy the ntuser.dat file from the new users profile into the default users profile, overwriting the one in there (take a copy of it first to be on the safe side). Delete all of the profiles on box2 by using my computer \ properties \ user profiles OR running delprofout of the reskit - DO NOT SIMPLY DELETE THE PROFILE DIRECTORIES AS THIS WILL NOT REMOVE THE ASSOCIATED REGISTRY KEYS. Now everyone who logs in will have a new profile created for them, based on the default profile which now contains the printer settings. Don't forget to delete the new user account when you've finished. This will only work if you are NOT using roaming profiles. If you are then you can either create a script using prnadmin from the reskit and have it run for each user at login via the registry run key OR use winstall LE from the win2k server disk to trap the registry settings created by the add printer process and apply them via a reg file, again via the run key. There's a little too much involved in these last options to go into here, but if you have to go that route then you can mail me if you like at darthurs@hotmail.com and I'll help as much as I can. Hope it goes ok....

by ahmerz

Absolutely! What you want is a per machine printer connection. This is accomplished by invoking the rundll32 command to directly enter the printui.dll. It's actually very simple. The following is the syntax to create a "per machine" printer connection(yes that means all users logging onto that machine get the connection)

syntax:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga /c\\workstation /n\\printserver\printername /j"LanMan Print Services"

Okay the first switch "/ga" specifies that it'll be a per machine connection. The next switch "/c" specifies the computer you want to make the connection on, and yes that means that you can do this remotely.=) The third switch "/n" specifies the print server and printer share ***Make sure you use the acutally UNC for the share***. The final switch "/j" simply tells the computer what print service to use and since we want a network printer you have to use "LanMan Print Services". To get the complete syntax for printui.dll just go to a command prompt and type:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /?

One thing to remember is that it is the computer/workstation that is making the connection not the user, so the first time you make the "per machine" connection it will usually not be available to users until the computer reboots and establishes the printer connection.

I use per machine connections on about 300 of the computers that I administrate and they work like a charm. I absolutely gaurentee this works, so lemme know if you have any trouble. The syntax might be a little tricky at first but I'm sure you'll figure it out. Good Luck

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