IT Question. Adding Printers/logon script

[scooby_doo_do]

At the moment we have our printers on a print gateway and we add then to the user's machines manually. I was just wondering if there is a way somehow to automatically have them so that they are added when the user log's on, to the correct printer? I thought about writing a net use script and adding it to the logon.bat, but i'm sure there must be an easier way within active directory - so i can just add a printer to a user?

 

Any advice greatly appreiciated..

 

Thanks

 

Craig.

[edd_t]

hmmm so far ive only worked it out using a login script to run a simple vbs script. i can send you a couple of examples if ya like.

 

the only thing you need to change in the vbs script is the UNC to the printer.

[scooby_doo_do]

Thanks Edd, :-) send them over if you don't mind and i can take a look.

 

Just trying to think of away to automate it a little :-)

[edd_t]

right obviously the .bat and .vbs both have to be in the scripts folder.

 

My login.bat looks like this:

 

@ECHO OFF

cls

printer.VBS

NET TIME \\BEDC02 /SET /YES

 

BEDC02 is my server name. You can add more into it like mapped drives and stuff. and that bit of script assumes you name the .vbs "printer.vbs"

 

Then the vbs file that just adds a printer to the pc looks like this:

 

' VBScript - to map a network printer

' Version 1.2 - 10th May 2005

' -----------------------------------------------------------------'

Option Explicit

Dim objNetwork, strUNCPrinter

strUNCPrinter = "\\BEDC02\Pi520(153)"

Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")

objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection strUNCPrinter

 

 

 

WScript.Quit

 

' End of script.

 

and if you want that printer to be default I use this:

 

' VBScript - to map a network printer and set as default

' Version 1.3 - 30th Sept 2005

' -----------------------------------------------------------------'

Option Explicit

Dim objNetwork, strUNCPrinter

strUNCPrinter = "\\BEDC02\PI520(153)"

Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")

objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection strUNCPrinter

 

' Here is where we set the default printer to strUNCPrinter

objNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter strUNCPrinter

WScript.Echo "Your Default Printer is now: " & strUNCPrinter

 

WScript.Quit

 

' End of script.

 

You would just need to change the "\\BEDC02\PI520(153)" part to point at the server share name of your printer.

[Schtuv]

KiXtart's good for this, adding printers (UNC paths) based on group membership.

 

I quite like the idea of publishing all the printers via IIS, and letting users pick which they prefer (assuming you complete all the 'location' boxes correctly) - KB323428 covers this quite nicely.

[GeordieSteve]

Hows about assigning them via group policy?

[Schtuv]

Hows about assigning them via group policy?

Isn't that based on client subnets, hence a bit of a PITA to sort?

[robin]

as long as your domain is 2003 operational level you can do it all with policies. even if you are only on 2000 level you can publish them to active directory and users can just search for them and add them. As long as they have a roaming profile or stay on the same machine they will only need to do it once.

[Markie]

If your AD forest is all Windows Server 2003 R2 then there is an MMC snapin that will let you manage printers and assign them to OU's/users/groups whichever way you see fit.

[scooby_doo_do]

cool - yeah they are all 2003 r2's. But they don't have roaming profiles

 

i'll take a look at the mmc snapin's.

[edd_t]

haha users looking for and adding printers!!! that would be a blessing for me. my users are as thick as pig s**t!