capture port

Go into Printers and then right click on the printer that you want left click on Proprieties, then select Ports and if the printer is working all you need do is click on the box that reads words to the effect of "Capture Port" if the printer isn't working you can chose the port that it is on and capture that port which can be local or a network port. If you leave that box ticked you will be the only one able to use the printer if it is a network printer as you have the port that it is connected to as that workstation has constantly captured that port so no one else has access to that port.

As I've never actually used this option I'm not quite sure what would happen on a network if you captured a Local Port.

Col

If you would like to capture from a command line, or add the capture in a batch file or script, you can use the NET USE command. To make it simple, the command NET USE LPT2 \\pc5\laser would capture the printer shared as "laser" on the computer named "pc2". You can also release the capture by using NET USE LPT2 /D to delete the capture.