Print Server Name Change
We are looking to change the hostname of our print server and the only way I've found to move the clients without visiting their workstations is to script the deletion of the old printers and the addition of the new printers. However, our clients have many different mixes of office network printers as well as some desktop printers. I can't remove all printers or I will lose PDF printers and local desktops. I can't remove specific printers because everyone has their own mix and it's not as easy as scripting by location. I have this same problem when adding back the new printers.
Does anyone have any experience with scripting and client printers attached to a Windows Print Server? Or is there a package our utility out there that will do it? Microsoft has been less than helpful in providing insight here...
Thanks
Does anyone have any experience with scripting and client printers attached to a Windows Print Server? Or is there a package our utility out there that will do it? Microsoft has been less than helpful in providing insight here...
Thanks
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Posted by:
usachrisk
20 years ago
I did something kinda similar in VBS when we were moving users from older machines to newer ones - I had to get the network printers without looking at local ones (since the upgrade team would reinstall local printers) or PDF/FAX/ETC type things since those would be setup again by their respective applications.
It was a big to-do for WinNT, but for Windows 2000, it might be easy for you.
Maybe what you could do is enumerate all printers, then look at the SERVERNAME property of each printer to find if it's on your current server. If it is, then use AddWindowsPrinterConnection to add the printer using the new name, and I'm not sure what command would do it yet, but then you could delete the old printer.
Maybe for testing you could setup a test print server using what you want the new name to be.
It was a big to-do for WinNT, but for Windows 2000, it might be easy for you.
Maybe what you could do is enumerate all printers, then look at the SERVERNAME property of each printer to find if it's on your current server. If it is, then use AddWindowsPrinterConnection to add the printer using the new name, and I'm not sure what command would do it yet, but then you could delete the old printer.
Maybe for testing you could setup a test print server using what you want the new name to be.
Posted by:
bcardell
20 years ago
Glad to see I'm not the only one with difficulty here. I'll try some of these things when we get our test machine up.
I'm trying to work with the command line options for printui.dll. Any experience with this? I'm having trouble getting the commands to correctly identify the printers to work with and what to do with them...
I'm trying to work with the command line options for printui.dll. Any experience with this? I'm having trouble getting the commands to correctly identify the printers to work with and what to do with them...
Posted by:
vixhex
20 years ago
We used a program called Printer Migrator by FoxwareDesign:
www.foxwaredesign.com
It lets you specify all paramaters you may need to change when you are working with moving printers from server to server. We made massive changes to our print system and this program helped immensely.
We changed the server name, printer queue names, print drivers, port types, etc.
Just configure the printmap.ini file to tell the software which old printer = which new printer and it scans the users installed printers and migrates them silently. Just run it via a logon script.
Oh, by the way . . . I even set ours up to drop a file on the c: after each user ran it so that it would only run once per user per computer. Pretty nice features, simple program.
www.foxwaredesign.com
It lets you specify all paramaters you may need to change when you are working with moving printers from server to server. We made massive changes to our print system and this program helped immensely.
We changed the server name, printer queue names, print drivers, port types, etc.
Just configure the printmap.ini file to tell the software which old printer = which new printer and it scans the users installed printers and migrates them silently. Just run it via a logon script.
Oh, by the way . . . I even set ours up to drop a file on the c: after each user ran it so that it would only run once per user per computer. Pretty nice features, simple program.
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