Manage Printer Permissions

Printer permissions are much the same in Windows Server as they are in Windows client systems. Print management is divided into printer queue and printer management. Print operators are allowed to manage both the physical device and the logical queue. In addition, each user that prints a job has complete control over their own job. That is, they can delete the job, but cannot change its priority.

WS08 supports the segregation of printer and document management. Printer management allows operators to stop, pause, and restart the printer, but it does not give the operator control over the documents in a queue. Document management allows the operator to start, stop, pause, and reorder documents that are in a print queue. By default, print operators in WS08 have both these rights. If you need to segregate these rights within your organization, you will need to create the appropriate administrative groups and delegate the appropriate rights to each.

Establish a Shared Printer Policy

Now that you have a basic understanding of the printing support features in Windows Server, you can begin to establish your shared printer policy. This policy should be fully documented and distributed to all technicians. It should include:

• Printer selection criteria (based on "Designed for Windows"-certified printers)
• Minimum criteria for the addition of a shared printer
• Default printer setting standards
• Version 3 digitally signed drivers for all printers
• A standard printer naming convention
• A standard printer location naming convention in Printer Location Tracking format
• Standard description formats
• Printer Location Tracking activation
• Documented printer sharing procedures and processes
• Printer server construction principles

This list is not exclusive. Include in your printer policy anything you deem necessary. Keep in mind the following elements:

• Printing has a lower priority than file sharing, especially with the use of version 3 (user-mode) drivers. So if you have a region that requires high printing throughput, do not create combined file and print servers. Instead, create dedicated print and dedicated file servers.
• When you have more than one print server, create redundancy in your shared printer setups. That is, use the same approach for the design of print servers as you use for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) servers. Create all of the printers on each server, then share only a portion (for example, half) of the printers on one server and the other portion on the other server. If one of your print servers goes down, you can quickly share and reactivate the lost printers on the other server. Each server acts as a standby server for the other.
• Most everything can be done with the Unidriver today. Acquire PostScript in your printers only if you absolutely require it (for example, if you have non-Windows clients or high-end graphical users). Instead, select additional features, such as duplex or stapling, to create multifunctional devices.
• Keep in mind that long jobs take a long time to spool when determining your default print setting standards. By default, WS08 printers begin printing as soon as the job begins spooling. But if you are spooling a 200-page document, other users would most likely have the time to print numerous 10-page documents before the job is done. If you set printing properties to spool and then print, small jobs will often clear much faster than long jobs.
• To speed up printing on a shared print and file server, move the spooling directory to a dedicated disk. This is done through Print Server Properties in the Printers Control Panel. Use the Advanced tab to redirect spooling to another disk. This should be a folder you create on disk E:.
• Finally, use automatic detection when printing directly to network-enabled printers. This will automatically identify if the printer is shared on a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) printer port or as a Web services device. Both can indicate status errors, such as paper jams, low toner, and non-responding documents, as well as automatically configure clients connecting to them.

These are not the only considerations you will need to take into account for your shared printer policy, but they are often elements that are forgotten. Remember, printers are really there for users and should be designed in a way that facilitates the printing process for them.