Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Deploying Printers

Deploying printers to clients was a messy process. Many times printers would be manually added by administrators, mapped as part of logon scripts, or installed by users from the AD. However, issues associated with permissions needed to install printer drivers often came up.

With Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista clients, printers can be deployed using group policy with no other actions. A printer can be deployed in the same way desktop settings can be configured. This is the best way to deploy printers.

Because group policy can be assigned to a domain, OU, and a site, you have the option to deploy printers to a site, which allows users to get different printers deployed to them depending on their location. This is especially useful for mobile users who might visit different offices.

The Print Management console makes it easy to deploy a printer via group policy. Right-click on the printer and select Deploy with Group Policy from its context menu, which opens the Deploy with Group Policy dialog. Click the Browse button to select or create the Group Policy Object (GPO) that deploys the printer.

After a GPO has been selected, select if the printers are deployed to users and/or computers. If the printer is deployed to the computer, any user of the Windows XP or above computer can access the printer. A printer deployed to users can only be used by the users receiving the policy.

The last and most important step is to add the printer that you selected and want to deploy by clicking the Add button. This adds the printer to the list of deployed printers in the list with the GPO. Notice that after the printer is added, you can select additional GPOs via which you want to deploy the printer. It is added to the list. After all GPOs you want to deploy the printer via have been added, click Apply. A dialog is displayed confirming that the deployment or removal operation succeeded. Click OK.

If you created a new GPO for the printer deployment via the Deploy with Group Policy dialog, you can use the Group Policy Management Console to link the GPO to other targets, such as an OU or site. (By default, the GPO is linked at the domain level, which might not be desired.) If you edit the GPO, per-computer printers are found under the Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Deployed Printers; per-user printers are found under User Configuration, Windows Settings, Deployed Printers.

You can also deploy printers from the Group Policy Management Console. Instead of the process being printer-centric, the process is GPOcentric, with the capability to add additional shared printers by entering the printer share name and clicking Add.

The next time the group policy is refreshed on the client, the printers are automatically added and made available. Computers don't need to be logged off or restarted.

To remove a printer deployed with group policy, select Deploy with Group Policy from the printer's context menu and select the GPO from the list that the printer should no longer deploy through. Click Remove or Remove All to stop the printer from being deployed via any group policies. After the client refreshes the policy, the printer is removed. Once again, no logoff or shutdown is required.

Notice your pre-Windows Vista clients ignore these printer deployments. The Deployed Printer Connections group policy client-side extension does not present pre-Windows Vista, and so the Client Side Extensions (CSEs) have no knowledge of deployed printers and cannot process them. Fortunately, the PushPrinterConnections.exe utility can be used on pre-Windows Vista operating systems to process the deployed printers via group policy. The behavior differs for printers deployed via PushPrinterConnections.exe. Per-user printers are added at logon time and per-computer printers are added at computer startup. To enable the PushPrinterConnections for computers to process group policy defined printers, perform the following:

1. Open the GPO that was used for the printer deployment in the Group Policy Object editor.
2. If the printer is deployed to users, navigate to User Configuration, Windows Settings, Scripts (Logon/Logoff). If printers were deployed to computers, navigate to Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Scripts (Startup/Shutdown).
3. Right-click Startup or Logon, and then click Properties.
4. In the Logon Properties or Startup Properties dialog, click Show Files. The location is shown in the Address field.
5. Copy the PushPrinterConnections.exe file from the c:\windows\ system32 folder to this location by copy and pasting. Close the window.
6. In the Logon Properties or Startup Properties dialog, click Add.
7. Type PushPrinterConnections.exe in the Script Name box. If you want to enable logging, type -log in the Script Parameters box. Log files are written to %windir%\Temp\PpcMachine.log for per-computer connections and to %temp%\PpcUser.log for peruser connections on the computer on which the policy is applied.
8. Click OK.