Network Printing Problems in Vista

ISSUE 1

I do not know if you have noticed, but here is another big problem with vista when humnet user tries to install network printer.

By default regular users are not permitted to install network printers.

For instance,

You have a user that wants to install a network printer from Clio on his/her profile. They click on Add Printer, Search Network Printer , They Find the printer and they click add. Vista will ask to install the printer and when you click on Install, it does not give them permission to install the driver because obviously they are not administrators. This is not an issue for windows XP user.

Here is a Solution Microsoft has to offer and I think we should add it to our image if we ever going to use vista:

In run Type : gpedit.msc

· If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.

· Under User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Control Panel, and then click Printers.

· Right-click Point and Print Restrictions in the right hand pane, and then click Properties.

· Click Enabled.

· In the Security Prompts area, select Do not show warning or elevation prompt in the When installing drivers for a new connection box and in the When updating drivers for an existing connection box. These settings enable the print drivers to be installed without credential or elevation prompts.

Now the user is not asked for permission when they try to add a network printer.

ISSUE 2

Vista doesn’t set administrator’s default printer for all users. If you are an administrator and you have created a local TCP/IP account and would like to have that printer to be a default printer for all users. You will need to do the following . This is not the case on XP

Open Notpad

· Type rundll32 printui.dll PrintUIEntry /y /n"HM349-NELC-HP2430 or rundll32 printui.dll PrintUIEntry /y /n"PDF995

o ( notice the printer HM349-NELC-HP2430 has to be installed on the machine in order to be set to default, the above command does not install network printer for you, you will need to install the printer first using TCP/IP connection… )

· Save the file as setdefaultprinter.bat

o Name the file whatever you like just leave the extension as bat short for batch file

· Now under Run type gpedit.msc

· Expand User Configuration

· Expand Windows setting

· Open Scripts(Logon/Logoff)

· Open Logon and add the path for the script.

This will ensure that every time the user logins . you will have your local printer set to default.

Alternative Solution ( installing network printer for user on logon):

Another method requires the popular con2prt.exe file which is part of NT Resource Kit. I have attached the file for you. You can copy the file to your windows\system32 directory to have access to the file from cmd line.

Con2prt.exe connects users to network printer without user interaction with simple command such as

con2print.exe /cd \\clio\HM350-COMPLIT-HP2430 will connect user to printer HM350-COMPLIT-HP2430 and sets the printer to default. to have this command run on logon. Use the gpedit.msc and follow the above instruction.

If you are using Vista, you should resolve issue one first so the user has permission to install the drivers.

This is very helpful since every user till now had to connect to the printer themselves for their profiles and I myself had to do this over and over for my users.