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Question
Thursday, September 15, 2011 6:05 PM
Hello,
i have a workgroup 2008R2 RDS server, under the administrator i added a network printer(shared from a windows 7 pc), it adds ok, prints, etc etc.
After that i logged in (via RDS) using the other users(not admins) and the printer is not there!
i open a new session with the administrator and it's there, what is going on?, i don't want to go adding the printer for EVERY user, it's time-consuming and a lousy solution. Why isn't the printer appearing under the other users?
i also tested with a user added to administrators group and the problem persists. How can i make this printer global?
All replies (10)
Thursday, September 15, 2011 8:25 PM ✅Answered | 1 vote
Networked printers are user-specific. To add the printer once and have it show up for all users, you will need to add it as a local printer.If you found this post helpful, please "Vote as Helpful". If it answered your question, remember to "Mark as Answer".
Rich Prescott | MCITP, MCTS, MCP
[Blog] Engineering Efficiency | [Twitter] @Rich_Prescott | [Powershell GUI] Client System Administration tool
Monday, September 19, 2011 11:26 PM ✅Answered | 1 vote
Sorry, I misunderstood the original post. Printer connections are removed and readded during logon, disconnect events.
You can make a connection to the Windows 7 machine for each logged on user in the local group policy , Add a Deployed Printer using GPEDIT.msc, User, Windows Settings, Deployed Printers, Browse to the share and add this to the local policy. Any user that logs onto the machine will get the connection but the Win7 machine is limited to 5 (or 10 on Ultimate) connections.
If you have more than 5 clients, I'd bail on the connections and just create a local printer to the Windows 7 machine.
1) Windows 7 Add Programs / Turn On Windows feature / Print and Document Services / LPD Print Service. Verify the sharename of the printer is one word.
2) 2008 R2, add RSAT feature Role tools, Print and Document Services
3) 2008 R2 launch printmanagement.msc, Expand Local server / Add Printer / TCP/IP / enter windows7 machine name, Next, wait for the 90 second SNMP timeout, Custom setting, LPR, queuename is the sharename (one word or you need to "" everything, keep it simple one word), Enable Byte Counting, disable SNMP. Continue through the wizard , print a test page to verify the port setting worked.
Adding the printer using printmanagement should set security on the printer so anyone on the machine can print to this printer. Adding through Devices and printers is not the way to add a local printer on server.
Alan Morris Windows Printing Team
Thursday, September 15, 2011 8:41 PM
but how can(or if) i add a networked printer as a local one, if it comes from \station\printer ?
Thursday, September 15, 2011 8:49 PM | 1 vote
You can use a login script and add it to the default users profile (this will only add it to new users) or the Public profile (will add to all users, new or old).
\\station\printer
Save it as AddPrinter.bat and place it in the Startup folder in one of the profiles above.
If you found this post helpful, please "Vote as Helpful". If it answered your question, remember to "Mark as Answer".
Rich Prescott | MCITP, MCTS, MCP
[Blog] Engineering Efficiency | [Twitter] @Rich_Prescott | [Powershell GUI] Client System Administration tool
Thursday, September 15, 2011 9:05 PM
i'm going to see how to add it to the public profile, never tried it before.
Monday, September 19, 2011 12:54 PM
i can't find much documents on how to add a printer to the public profile, i checked the printer shortcut folder for the administrator user thinking to copy the shortcut but it's empty :s
There's also no start menu folder/appdata/etc in the public profile, so how do i add a logon script to it?
Edit: found the location of the all users startup in * *C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup added the bat to it, started session as one of the users... nothing happened...
edit2: there's something weird, if i use run -> \192.168.0.113\Samsung ML-1640 Series the printer gets added(i copypasted that from the bat), but if i run it as the bat, it fails as nbetwork path not found, same as if i execute it between "", so i'm back to square one....
why doesn't the cmd recognizes the valid network path?
edit3: Added a manual host entry to use a hostname instead of IP, now net view works, but the result is the same
Also created a .vbs script:
On Error Resume Next
Set WshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\Printserver\Printername"
Fails silently as well
Monday, September 19, 2011 9:33 PM
The script will only work if you sharing a printer that uses a package aware print driver or if you have configured the Point and Print Restrictions policy such that no UI will be disaplayed when adding the connection.
Are you running Win7 Pro on the machines or are they Home versions?
Alan Morris Windows Printing Team
Monday, September 19, 2011 10:43 PM
there are no machines Alan, it's a single Win2008R2 RDS server, i need the mentioned printer in each of the RDS sessions, there's no AD either, it's a standalone RDS server.
What worked for some 5 minutes was that i made a shortcut of the printer, and put that shortcut in the all users start menu, it worked for one session opening, then when you close the session, the printer gets deleted as soon as the user logs out.
When the user relogs in it gives an error(right now i don't have the error at hand) and no printer gets added, it's very iffy in how it works.
The only thing more or less failproof is making the user open the link by hand and that adds the printer
Monday, September 19, 2011 11:42 PM
i like the LPD option, didn't knew windows 7 could act as a LPD server(was about to add a USB print server to solve this problem), i like that option much more than mapping as there are more than 5 connections.
Interesting how the printing management changed, i was focused on D&P as on win2003 server.
i'll test this tomorrow and report back
Monday, September 26, 2011 11:43 AM
sorry for the delay, i've added it as Alan step-by-step guide pointed and it's working flawlessly and autoadded for every user!