Making a shared printer the default throughout a domain

Question

I have attached a printer to a network server that is always on and have shared it. Now, everyone can connect to it and print.

The problem is, not every one knows the procedure of importing a shared printer into his computer and marking it as the default. And it would be physically impossible for me to add this printer for every domain user account on every computer. (Unfortunately, the sharing seems to be per-user instead of per machine!)

Is there a way that I can add this printer to all user accounts as the default printer, so that all the users have to do is to issue a print command?

We have Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 clients.

Answer 1

Use the print management options to set up a group policy. You will either need to set up a print server or install the necessary features on an existing server. This should give each user the correct printer when they log on.

To deploy printers to users or computers by using Group Policy

1. Open Print Management.

2. In the left pane, click Print Servers, click the applicable print server, and click Printers.

3. In the center pane, right-click the applicable printer, and then click Deploy with Group Policy.

4. In the Deploy with Group Policy dialog box, click Browse, and then choose or create a new GPO for storing the printer connections.

5. Click OK.

6. Specify whether to deploy the printer connections to users, or to computers:

   • To deploy to groups of computers so that all users of the computers can access the printers, select the "The computers that this GPO applies to (per machine)" check box.

   • To deploy to groups of users so that the users can access the printers from any computer they log onto, select the "The users that this GPO applies to (per user)" check box.

7. Click Add.

8. Click OK.

9. Repeat steps 3 through 8 to add the printer connection setting to another GPO, if necessary.

Further info https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754699(v=ws.11).aspx

Another option is to use a script. The Prndrvr.vbs command is a Visual Basic script located in the %WINDIR%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\<language> directory. To use this command, at a command prompt, type Cscript followed by the full path to the Prnmngr.vbs file, or change directories to the appropriate folder. For example:

cscript c:\windows\system32\printing_admin_scripts\en-us\prndrvr.vbs -a -m "Xerox Global Print Driver PCL6" -h "\\server\xerox\" -i "\\server\xerox\x2UNIVX.inf"

cscript c:\windows\system32\printing_admin_scripts\en-us\prnport.vbs -a -r IP_172.18.76.249 -h 172.18.76.249 -o raw -n 9100

cscript c:\windows\system32\printing_admin_scripts\en-us\prnmngr.vbs -a -p "XRX7556" -m "Xerox Global Print Driver PCL6" -r IP_172.18.76.249 

REM Removes Old Printer Name
rundll32 printui.dll PrintUIEntry /dn /n\\printserv\XRX5735