Windows 7 / Getting Started

Searching for Printers

After a printer is published in AD DS, users can use the Add Printer Wizard to search for network printers in AD DS and manually install a printer connection on their computers so that they can print to the printer. To search for a published printer to install, the user can follow these steps using Printers in Control Panel:

  1. Click Add A Printer on the toolbar of the Devices And Printers Control Panel item.
  2. In the Add Printer Wizard on the Choose A Local Or Network Printer page, click Add A Network, Wireless Or Bluetooth Printer to display a list of printers published in AD DS.
  3. Select the published printer for which you want to install a connection and click Next to continue stepping through the wizard and install the printer connection on the local computer.
  4. If the printer you want to install is not listed in the directory or if the number of published printers displayed is very large and the user wants to search for a specific type of printer in AD DS, click The Printer That I Want Isn't Listed to open the Find A Printer By Name Or TCP/IP Address page of the Add Printer Wizard.
  5. Select one of the following options:
    • To browse for a shared printer using Network Explorer, select the Select A Shared Printer By Name check box and then click Browse. You can also type the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to the shared printer if you know the path.
    • To install a printer connection to a stand-alone TCP/IP or WSD network printer, select the Add A Printer Using A TCP/IP Address Or Hostname check box and then click Next. Type the IP address or host name of the printer, select Autodetect to automatically detect whether the printer is TCP/IP or WSD type, select Query The Printer And Automatically Select The Driver To Use, and then click Next to install a printer connection to the network printer.
    • To search AD DS for a printer that meets specified criteria, select the Find A Printer In The Directory Based On Location Or Feature check box and click Next to open the Find Printers dialog box. Specify the criteria for the type of printer you want to search for and then click Find Now to query AD DS. Double-click the desired printer to install a printer connection for it.

You can control the maximum number of printers of each type that the Add Printer Wizard will display on a computer on a managed network by using the following Group Policy setting:

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Printers\Add Printer wizard - Network Scan Page (Managed Network)

For more information on this policy setting, see the section titled "Managing Client-Side Printer Experience Using Group Policy" later in this tutorial.

Note A dvanced users can also search for printers to install by opening a command prompt, typing rundll32 dsquery.dll,OpenQueryWindow, selecting Printers from the Find list box, and continuing as described in the preceding steps.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Managing Printing
  2. Enhancements to Printing in Windows 7
  3. Printing Enhancements Previously Introduced in Windows Vista
  4. Additional Printing Enhancements in Windows 7
  5. How Printing Works in Windows 7
  6. Understanding XPS
  7. Understanding the Windows Printing Subsystem
  8. Understanding Printer Driver Isolation
  9. Understanding the Print Management Console
  10. Enhancements to the Print Management Console in Windows 7
  11. The Print Management Console
  12. Adding and Removing Print Servers
  13. Configuring Default Security for Print Servers
  14. Adding Printers Using the Network Printer Installation Wizard
  15. Creating and Using Printer Filters
  16. Creating and Using Driver Filters
  17. Managing Printers Using Print Management
  18. Configuring Properties of Printers
  19. Publishing Printers in AD DS
  20. Managing Printer Drivers
  21. Configuring Printer Driver Isolation Mode
  22. Configuring Printer Driver Isolation Mode Using the Print Management Console
  23. Configuring Printer Driver Isolation Mode Using Group Policy
  24. Troubleshooting Driver Isolation
  25. Exporting and Importing Print Server Configurations
  26. Printer Export Files
  27. Performing Bulk Actions Using Print Management
  28. Client-Side Management of Printers
  29. Installing Printers Using the Add Printers Wizard
  30. Searching for Printers
  31. Installing Printers Using Point and Print
  32. Using Devices And Printers
  33. Using the Color Management CPL
  34. Managing Client-Side Printer Experience Using Group Policy
  35. Configuring the Add Printer Wizard
  36. Disable Client-Side Printer Rendering
  37. Configuring Package Point and Print Restrictions
  38. Extending Point and Print Using Windows Update
  39. Deploying Printers Using Group Policy
  40. Preparing to Deploy Printers
  41. Deploying a Printer Connection
  42. Limitations of Deploying Printers Using Group Policy
  43. Migrating Print Servers
  44. Migrate Print Servers Using Print Management
  45. Migrating Print Servers Using PrintBRM
  46. Monitoring and Troubleshooting Printers
  47. Configuring E-Mail Notifications
  48. Configuring Print Server Notifications
  49. Configuring Script Actions
  50. Configuring Detailed Event Logging