Change default printer for ALL profiles?

[Guest]

Hello.

I have looked everywhere on the internet for the answer, and can't find the
answer.

The closest item I found is to use sdp.exe, but I don't know that it is what
I'm looking for.

I have a customer who is a high school that has 2 computer labs, each with
the same computers. Each lab has it's own printer. I have a single ghost
image for both labs.

the problem is that the ghost image uses lab A's printer for the default.
This works well for Lab A, but not lab B. How can I change the SYSTEM
default so that every users profile who logs onto a computer in LAB B uses
their own printer?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Eric Wood

 

[Guest]

Hello. How can I change the SYSTEM
default so that every users profile who logs onto a computer in LAB B uses
their own printer?

I don't think that would work anyway, becuase Machine or Default User
settings are over-ridden by HKEY_Current_User settings. What you need is a
means to change the deafult printer setting in the user's profile when they
log-on to a specific computer.

It may be possible with policies, though that of course depends on your
network/server setup.

You can also set the default printer with VBScript, see the examples on this
page for howto:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/jan05/hey0113.mspx

You would have to do this by putting a shortcut such as "wscript setprn.vbs"
into the All Users startup-folder on each computer.


The other option might be to track the required changes (made manually) with
InstallRite and use a setup-file to implement the changes at each logon.
This method is one I use quite frequently for tasks like this, and it works
well so long as you're careful to scrutinise the logs and remove any
extraneous items from the installkit. A slight limitation is that Installrite
has no Windows-version checking, and can cause damage if it's (say)
accidentally run on Win98 when the script was made on XP. If your machines
are all uniform this shouldn't be an issue.

http://www.epsilonsquared.com

 

[Malke]

I don't think that would work anyway, becuase Machine or Default User
settings are over-ridden by HKEY_Current_User settings. What you need
is a means to change the deafult printer setting in the user's profile
when they log-on to a specific computer.

It may be possible with policies, though that of course depends on
your network/server setup.

You can also set the default printer with VBScript, see the examples
on this page for howto:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/jan05/hey0113.mspx

You would have to do this by putting a shortcut such as "wscript
setprn.vbs" into the All Users startup-folder on each computer.


The other option might be to track the required changes (made
manually) with InstallRite and use a setup-file to implement the
changes at each logon. This method is one I use quite frequently for
tasks like this, and it works well so long as you're careful to
scrutinise the logs and remove any extraneous items from the
installkit. A slight limitation is that Installrite has no
Windows-version checking, and can cause damage if it's (say)
accidentally run on Win98 when the script was made on XP. If your
machines are all uniform this shouldn't be an issue.

http://www.epsilonsquared.com

And a really simple solution that we use for our school laptop programs
puts the burden of choosing the right printer onto the students:

If you have MS Office installed, make the Office Document Printer (or
whatever its official name is) the default printer. This forces the
students to choose which printer they are using based on location. It
works for us and we have 5 printers in different locations for the
kids.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Eric,

What type of Server OS are they running? If you have Server 2003 R2
available to you, then this can be done via Group Policy. Short of that, you
could certainly follow these instructions:

-Create a .cmd file (e.g. xpprint.cmd) in notepad.
-Paste the following into this file:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga /c\\%1 /n\\%2 (case sensative)

Then at the command prompt type:
xpprint [targetcomputername] [printerservername]\[printersharename]

For example to install the printer to \\pserver\laser1 on the workstation
123:

xpprint 123 pserver\laser1

This needs to be done for every workstation and will create laser1 as a
global printer for all users on that workstation. This can also be done
remotely.

Hope this helps!

-Ben

 

[Eric]

Not sure if you grabbed your info from here:

http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/FAQPrinting.htm

but you forgot to tell him to stop and restart the spooler service.

Eric,

What type of Server OS are they running? If you have Server 2003 R2
available to you, then this can be done via Group Policy. Short of that, you
could certainly follow these instructions:

-Create a .cmd file (e.g. xpprint.cmd) in notepad.
-Paste the following into this file:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga /c\\%1 /n\\%2 (case sensative)

Then at the command prompt type:
xpprint [targetcomputername] [printerservername]\[printersharename]

For example to install the printer to \\pserver\laser1 on the workstation
123:

xpprint 123 pserver\laser1

This needs to be done for every workstation and will create laser1 as a
global printer for all users on that workstation. This can also be done
remotely.

Hope this helps!

-Ben

Hello.

I have looked everywhere on the internet for the answer, and can't find the
answer.

The closest item I found is to use sdp.exe, but I don't know that it is what
I'm looking for.

I have a customer who is a high school that has 2 computer labs, each with
the same computers. Each lab has it's own printer. I have a single ghost
image for both labs.

the problem is that the ghost image uses lab A's printer for the default.
This works well for Lab A, but not lab B. How can I change the SYSTEM
default so that every users profile who logs onto a computer in LAB B uses
their own printer?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Eric Wood