Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Automatic Network Print Addition

Earlier, you added a printer by adding the printer's IP address to the print server. The driver for the printer is discovered automatically by the server, but you still had to enter the IP address of the print server. In a corporate location, that is fine. When a new network printer is added to the network, the administrator configures the printer with a static IP address and network information. In a branch office, however, a printer might be placed on the network with a DHCP address and the administrator has no clue how to get to the printer. In addition, talking a local user through the process is complex.

The Print Management console has the option to scan the network of the print server for any printers and automatically configure them on the print server. The scan is performed from the computer that the Print Management console is executing on, so only the local subnet of the computer running the Print Management console is scanned. If the scan is for a remote location, you need to remotely connect to the print server at the remote location and run the scan from the Print Management console on that remote computer.

Select Add Printer from the context menu of the print server. The Add Printer Wizard launches. Select the Search the Network for Printers option and click Next. A summary of all the printers found on the network.

Select the printer that you want to install and click Next. At this point, the printer installation is the same as for a normal printer installation with driver prompt, sharing options, and so on.