Take the 2-minute tour ×


Struggling a bit with deploying HP printers on a windows network using windows 2003R2 servers, Active Directory, and Windows XP Pro clients. The printers are all connected to the network using internal jetdirect cards; there are no printers directly connected to a computer.

I've a couple of questions:

  1. On a winserver that is acting as a print server, does each printer need to be set up and configured for that box (either via the driver package's install routine or via Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes -> Add Printer) -before- doing the Print Management -> Deploy with Group Policy?

  2. Assuming the answer to 1. is 'yes', does the Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes -> -> Sharing need to be set to 'share this printer' for the printserver to be able to deploy the printer with group policy?

FWIW, the specific symptom I'm seeing is that administrative users are seeing all the printers that are supposed to be deployed with group policy, but normal users are only able to see printers that are deployed with group policy that are also 'shared'. Normal users are not able to see printers that are 'shared', but are not deployed with group policy.

I do a gpupdate /force on the test workstation as an administrator, then log out and log back in as the normal user after any AD or GPO work.

Thanks in advance!

share|improve this question
add comment

1 Answer

Yes, all of the printers need to be installed, configured and shared on the server before you can deploy them using group policy. Is there a reason you cannot share the printers AND specify them in group policy?

share|improve this answer
Thank you for the answer. No, there is no reason in particular. I am trying to clarify exactly what's needed; this is the first time doing this in an AD system. Reason I ask is that it seems counterintuitive to have to share out the printer, and also have to deploy out the print server. I was thinking that the printers are local to the domain server, and the print server is what is 'shared' or 'deployed' out. –  user52874 Jul 11 '11 at 3:59
In my mind it makes sense. The print server cannot be deployed if the printers are not shared. It might seem redundant, but the two do have to go together. –  charnley Jul 11 '11 at 17:16
add comment

Your Answer


