Windows failed to apply the Deployed Printer Connections settings.

DanHoffa 51

I am experiencing an issue with Deployment of Printers from GPO. This just started last week after I replaced existing 2012r2 DC and 2012R2 Print Server with New 2019 DC and Print Server If a user had already gotten their printers from GPO they are present and work. If a user needs printers to load from GPO they will not. When we run gpupdate /force we get this "Windows failed to apply the Deployed Printer Connections settings. Deployed Printer Connections settings might have its own log file. Please click on the "More information" link."

All other GPOs are processing and working properly.

I have 4 other DCs (3 - 2012r2 and 1 -2019) and 3 other Print Servers (2 - 2012R2 and 1 - 2019) Workstations are all Win10 assorted flavors (1908 through 21H2)

Since I list all printers in the Directory. I can still install the printers manually from the Printer Servers through "Add Printer" and they install without issue even for none admin users.

Microsoft has really made a mess with this recent security update. Did they ever test this with GPO deployment of printers before dumping it out there?

Anyone else seeing this behavior? Has anyone fixed this behavior?

DanHoffa 51 Reputation points

2021-09-29T12:41:04.447+00:00

The stranger part is that this has caused Print Servers that have not had the updates to not deploy via GPO. Most recent print server I installed was 2019 and fully updated with 9/21 rollup. This is when My problem started and it was only that server at first. With in a few hours all my print servers stopped deploying printers from GPO. My other 3 print servers have not had the 9/21 update. 2 of them (1 - 2012R2 and 1 - 2019) have had the 8/21 update and 1 of them (1- 2012R2) has only had 7/21 update.

That single server having the 9/21 update broke all the rest in a few hours.

Microsoft needs to stop passing the buck and admit the screwed everyone that uses print servers and come up with a real fix for the issue.
Mikolaj_M 61 Reputation points

2021-09-29T14:14:40.687+00:00

I have updated server 2019 on 24/09/2021 after I had the first report of missing printers , so my issue appeared before 09/21 update.

Don't you think it may be more related to updates on the Windows 10 devices?

Some of my devices works fine - for sure the computers which I updated recently got this issue.
I will need to check computers which do not have this issue and check when those been updated.
DanHoffa 51 Reputation points

2021-09-29T17:24:00.147+00:00

I don't believe it has to do with the Workstations. I have workstations that haven't been updated in a year that printer deployment via GPO now does work. It doesn't seem to matter if it is 1908 that hasn't been updated in a year or if it is 21h2 that is fully updated.
Matthew Evans 26 Reputation points

2021-12-07T16:13:49.237+00:00

I had the same issue as this but was able to resolve it by changing the way i mapped printers in GPO.
Initially i was getting this issue when tryng to map printers via the User GPO settings in; User Configuration - Policies - Windows Settings - Deployed Printers

However when i started mapping them using the User Configuration - Preferences - Control Panel Settings - Printers
They started to map every logon and i also didnt get the gp error "Windows failed to apply the Deployed Printer Connections settings. Deployed Printer Connections settings might have its own log file. Please click on the "More information" link."

Hope this helps
Jon Hall 21 Reputation points

2021-12-09T14:25:48.81+00:00

I came across this yesterday after moving printers to a new server after the original took a nose dive. Some users were able to get the new connections with just a gpupdate, some required log off/on or reboot, others refused to work at all. GPResult showed the same as others - there was an error and to click More Information, a link which doesn't seem to exist. I changed those GPOs to deploy via Control Panel instead, which I'd really rather not do. Hopefully they get it resolved soon!
Buddy Trujillo CMSA 1 Reputation point

2022-03-01T15:55:51.91+00:00

Did you ever find anything that works for you? I am still fighting this issue.
Marco Grapiglia 42 Reputation points

2022-03-02T12:10:05.973+00:00

Hi,
I had the same issue.
I temporarily set RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators to 0.

As said by you I've tried to use this GPO
User Configuration - Preferences - Control Panel Settings - Printers
but every time I access to my computer the printers start to map and lost default printer.

I can't set default printer via GPO because the same GPO is applied to all users in all offices.

There are any workarounds? I can't deploy printers to computer because there isn't GPO option to deploy shared Printers like in User Settings and my printers are installed in a print server that share them.
NorCal_IT_Guy 6 Reputation points

2022-06-28T16:16:15.213+00:00

Had a similar issue.

I switched accounts, signed in as an admin, ran cmd as admin, and ran gpupdate /force. This solved the issue.
Gianni Gennaro 15 Reputation points

2024-04-30T13:34:06.8933333+00:00

Thanks Matthew Evans, helped me even now!
G-rant 5 Reputation points

2024-07-29T22:43:02.6766667+00:00

matthew evans, that was the solution!
James Smit 0 Reputation points

2024-08-22T12:46:24.6233333+00:00

Thanks Norcal_IT_Guy , changed user to Local Admin. Run GPUPDATE/ FORCE.
When there is no Type4 drivers available. This works. Now to get this automated.

18 answers

Mikolaj_M 61 Reputation points

2021-09-30T15:21:33.36+00:00

I do fully agree - no solutions works.

I'm getting more reports from users about disappearing printers - yesterday they had printers, today they gone... I only assume that gp have updated automatically and couldn't redeploy printers, that's why they are gone.

I will try to switch gp per device rather than user and check if that will work as the temp solution - in that case it will be much easier than installing the printers manually.

Any chance we can give our users admin rights only for printers? Maybe that could sort out the problem.

Any help from MS?
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JJ 1 Reputation point

2021-10-04T15:26:27.853+00:00

So I ran into this issue as well recently and the only workaround I found was to set the user as a local admin on the machine they were using.

Once they were set as an administrator, ran GPUpdate /force, logged out and logged back in and all of the printers installed. Not a great solution, as it involved touching every machine but at least I can get it installed.
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Mikolaj_M 61 Reputation points

2021-10-04T16:27:17.357+00:00

It will be a problem when gp will update automatically than it will remove those printers.

I have tried that as well, it works as it should, but unfortunately I couldn't let users stay as administrators.

At this point I have redeployed printers as per machine - it does work. It's not ideal solution but does a job.

IT Guy 1 Reputation point

2021-10-04T22:46:49.3+00:00

Reading this gave me a stress ulcer. Have you tried to deploy to the machine instead of the person?

Mikolaj_M 61 Reputation points

2021-10-05T07:08:29.257+00:00

Yes, that's what I did and it works fine. It still does show the error about deployed printers after updating gp, but that's possibly because I didn't remove deployed printers per user - there is no conflict. The only problem is that if you deployed printers per user you have more flexibility but I'm sure I don't have to explain that to you.
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T-Goo-T 1 Reputation point

2021-10-12T17:36:30.573+00:00

A technician of us found the following solution to this:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint" /v RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Adding the above registry key to the client seems to have solved the issue. The queue is deployed automatically and the error message when doing a gpupdate is gone.

Solutions found on:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3630629/windows-print-nightmare-continues-enterprise.html

We are not sure about the security aspects of this solution. It may however be a better one than giving local admin rights.
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DanHoffa 51 Reputation points

2021-10-14T12:36:54.357+00:00

Thanks for the response. I have been dealing with things other than this recently and have forgotten some of the details of things that I have read and tried.

Does this allow for Printer Deployment per User via GPO to process and load printer for the individual users?

Also if I am not mistaken doing this basically negates the Print Nightmare fix and opens you right back up to the same vulnerabilities.

T-Goo-T 1 Reputation point

2021-10-14T13:44:31.71+00:00

Yes, it works per User. Don't know for sure but I think it doesn't.

As described in https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2021-34527 the vulnerability is not present if (after Updating of course):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint
NoWarningNoElevationOnInstall = 0 (DWORD) or not defined (default setting) AND
UpdatePromptSettings = 0 (DWORD) or not defined (default setting)

We did not define any of them.

In https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/517533/pint-server-and-print-nightmare-update.html there is an image posted by chmod771 which shows that the value "RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators" can be set without negating the fix if above values are not set or equal to 0.

Image: /api/attachments/133726-383432-printnightmare-flowchart-v9.png?platform=QnA

Michael West 1 Reputation point

2022-08-20T17:33:21.97+00:00

Thanks for this as it did the trick. First new PC I've rolled out in quite some time WITHOUT local admin rights. This was why the GPO wouldn't run. I added the Registry entry and printers mapped. We'll see how long I can keep this user NON-Admin. Thanks again.
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Ralf Azevedo 1 Reputation point

2021-11-12T13:24:57.293+00:00

I started having similar problems a few weeks ago. Some users started asking for elevation to install the print server driver, something that didn't happen before. Other users from different OUs did not experience the problem.

I checked the GPOs and they are identical, the difference is the OR of each user. Printers have no security restriction, everyone can print to them.

RSOP fails 0x800702e4 in GPO deployment. I don't have the updates installed on the machines, I don't know what to do anymore. All printers are installed by machine and non-user permissions.

Anyone with any solution to help me?
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IT Guy 1 Reputation point

2021-11-15T18:36:48.247+00:00

My guess is that either the Print Server or the DC that these affected users received a recent patch that the others have not yet. I'd check there

Alan Morris 1,161 Reputation points

2021-12-03T17:02:47.53+00:00

this is the precise error
C:\>winerror 0x02e4
740 ERROR_ELEVATION_REQUIRED

The user needs to install the print software using the new default of administrator credentials.
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Mikolaj_M 61 Reputation points

2021-11-15T09:58:50.04+00:00

RalfAzevedo-5486, imo this problem has nothing to do with GPO. Windows updates - you can read a lot about, there is option to turn it off, but its on your risk. I had to install the updates by myself on most devices, so far its not asking to repeat this task. If you have a chance to do it manually, get to each PC try to print test page and if it will ask for permission than accept it with admin login.
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Windows failed to apply the Deployed Printer Connections settings.

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