Adding Printers Using the Network Printer Installation Wizard

To add printers using the Network Printer Installation Wizard, follow these steps:

1. Add at least one print server to the list of managed print servers.
2. Right-click a print server and select Add Printer to start the Network Printer Installation Wizard.
3. Do one of the following:
   • To scan the local subnet for TCP/IP or WSD network printers automatically, select Search The Network For Printers and then click Next. As the scan progresses, Windows will display a list of available network printers and will install them automatically on the selected print server. (You might be required to specify a driver for a printer manually if Windows cannot find one automatically.)
   • To add a specific TCP/IP or WSD network printer to the list of printers managed by the print server manually, select Add A TCP/IP Or Web Services Printer By IP Address Or Hostname, specify the name or IP address of the printer, and then click Next.
   • To add a new printer using an existing port, which can be either a local port (LTP or COM) or a previously added TCP/IP port, select Add A New Printer Using An Existing Port, click Next, and either install the printer driver automatically selected by the wizard, select an existing driver, or install a new driver either from the CD media included with the driver or by using Windows Update.
   • To create a new local port and install a printer on it, select Create A New Port And Add A New Printer, click Next, specify a name for the new port, and then either install the printer driver automatically selected by the wizard, select an existing driver, or install a new driver.

Note The option for automatically detecting printers on the local subnet using Search The Network For Printers cannot work across a firewall. If you want to use this feature to detect printers for another location, such as a remote subnet at a branch office location that is located behind a firewall, use Remote Desktop to connect to a Windows Server 2003 R2 or later computer at the remote location, start Print Management, and then select Search The Network For Printers as described previously.

In addition to the new Network Printer Installation Wizard, the end-user Add Printer Wizard is still present in Windows 7 and has been enhanced to allow users to add local, network, wireless, and Bluetooth printers and also to search Windows Update for printer drivers when needed. For more information on this topic, see the section titled "Client-Side Management of Printers" later in this tutorial.

WSD Printers

WSD is a new type of network connectivity supported by Windows Vista and later versions. With WSD, users can have a Plug and Play experience similar to that with universal serial bus (USB) devices over the network rather than only with locally connected devices.

In Windows Vista and later versions, WSD printer ports are serviced by the WSD Port Monitor (WSDMon) instead of the Standard Port Monitor (TCPMon) used to service TCP/IP ports. WSDMon is used by default if a printer supports it; otherwise, it defaults to TCPMon.

For more information about the various Web Services specifications and their support on Windows platforms, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms951274.aspx on MSDN. You can find additional information on WSD printer support in Windows Vista and later versions on WHDC at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/print/default.mspx.