How do I Rename a Printer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan F
  • Start date Start date
A

Alan F

Hi,

Have just purchased a computer with XP Home preinstalled (OEM) the computer
is connected to a network and all the computers on the network are running
Win 98SE.
I can rename the printers on the win98 machines but need to be able to do it
on the XP machine. When I right click on the printer there is no option
for renaming it. Can anybody help I have spent hours trying. Thanks in
advance for any help.

Alan
 
The model for network printers in Windows 2000 and XP is different than what
it is in Windows 9x. With Windows XP, you don't get a complete "printer
object", but rather a reference (pointer) to the shared printer on the print
server.

Think of it like connecting to a folder share by its UNC name (e.g. Start,
Run, key \\computername\sharename) as opposed to mapping a network drive.
In the former case, you don't get any local identifier, just a reference to
the share, whereas when you map a share to a drive, you get a local drive
letter for the mapped share.

A Windows 98 network printer is like a mapped share, whereas a Windows XP
network printer is more like connecting to a share by its UNC name (no local
identifier).

So, if you want an different name for the printer, you have to change the
printer's name on the print server.

If you have only a few computers, don't want to change the name of the
printer on the print server and really can't live with that printer name on
your Windows XP computer, you can use the technique shown in
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/NetPrinterNoPP.htm, but I suggest you
consider the other alternative (renaming the printer on the server) first.
Note that the Printer Name and the printer's Share Name are two different
things and changing the Printer Name does not change the printer's Share
Name (which is what is needed to actually connect to the shared printer).
 
Back
Top