Printers for all users on domain?

[maurice2333]

I curently have users that jump from pc to pc on a domain. The problem is that when they log into a new machine (first time logged in) they have to install a network printer. Does anyone know how i can install a printer just once so they dont have to add it manually everytime they log into the new machine the first time. Any help would be highly appreciated!!!!

[craigmodius]

Ya_Know covered this pretty well a while back...

There are several ways to do what you want.

One way is to add the network printers to the default profile. Follow the instructions in the article. You will find XP is different, but works very much the same as NT. Remember that profiles are stored in the "c:\documents and settings" folder. With this method you can do a lot to the profile to make it customized. Copy the default profile to a network share, so you can copy this profile down to all of your PC’s, once you have it created it. That saves you time from having to create it at each PC. The only bad thing about this method is that it will only effect new logins on the PC. Any profiles already created and cached will not get the changes given to the default profile.
<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q168475" target="_blank">How to Create a Base Profile for All Users (Q168475)</a>

This next one is pretty cool. Another way is to add the printer as a local printer. "Pith-Posh" you say? What you have to do is install the printer as any user, select local printer, then under create a new port, select local port, and insert the UNC path for the printer (i.e. \\server\printer). You will have to install the drivers manually, but when you are done, the printer will show up as a local printer, therefore is available for all users. This works in NT4, and 2K, so I imagine it works in XP, I have just never tried it in XP.

Still another way is login scripts.


How many computers are you talking, because different approaches work better for different network sizes?