Printer Installer: Provisioning Windows Shared Printers

• Deploy printers by Active Directory user, computer or group membership
  Associate Active Directory user, computer or group objects to deploy printers to all users that are members of the object.

• Multiple print server and domain support
  Whether you have one printer server in one domain or hundreds of print servers with many domains, Printer Installer will allow you to provision all of the shared printers from one easy to use web based Administrator.

• Set default printer
  Set the end users default printer by IP address range, user, group, or computer membership.

• Printer pruning
  Remove printers from end user computers that have been removed from the print server or remove printers that are no longer being deployed to the user.

• Print Job Auditing
  Use the print job auditing feature to see the following print job information: printer name, computer name, user name, # pages printed.

• Install Windows shared printers automatically on end user computers – Specify a subnet, Active Directory group, user, computer to automatically have a printer installed.

• Install Windows shared printers from a web portal - Users can use the printer installation portal to quickly find and install printers. By simply clicking on the system tray icon or another desired method, a browser will open and display nearby printers, allowing users to quickly find and install the printer they need.

• One self-service printer installation portal for all printer types – Printer Install will automatically list in the Printer Installer Portal: Windows shared printers from one or many print servers, from one or many domains, with or without domain trusts, as well as direct IP printers and LPR printers.

• Add ability for users to install printers from a floor plan map - Use the map feature to enable users to quickly find and install Windows shared printers by seeing the physical location of printers on a floor plan map. End users can install the printer by clicking on the printer icon. 

• Install per-workstation printers - Printer Installer enables end users to install and remove per-workstation printers so that the printer is added or removed for all users using the workstation. Without Printer Installer end users only install per-user printers that are installed only for the current user. Subsequent users that login will not see printers that were previously installed by other users. This can be a painful problem if users do not always use the same computer because each time the user logs into a new computer they have to install all the printers. By enabling this option the printer is installed as a per-workstation printer and will be available to all users that subsequently login. If a user deletes the printer it will be removed from the computer so that users logging in later will not see the printer as an installed printer.

• Remove printers from users roaming profiles - When roaming profiles are enabled, Windows shared printer connections are included in the end user’s profile. If the end user installs printer A, while on computer A, printer A will remain in the user’s profile even when the end user logs onto computer B in a different location. This can get pretty messy as the user goes from place to place installing printers, and all of the installed printers remain in the end user’s profile and can even cause spooler crashing problems. Use the above Create/Delete Per-Workstation Printers feature in combination with this feature to enable end users to install per-workstation printers, that do not roam with the user, and are installed to the local computer. That way when the next user logs in the printers are already installed and ready to use.

• Reduce help desk calls - Providing a simple and intuitive way to install printers empowers your users to install printers, reducing the need to call the help desk.

Detailed Description

There are three parts to Printer Installer; Printer Installer Administrator, Printer Installer Portal and Printer Installer Client. Read below for more information on the functionality of each part.

Printer Installer Administrator - Use the web based Administrator to organize and manage printers.

Printer Installer Portal - Use the Printer Installer Portal to quickly find and install printers.

• Self-service one-click printer installation
• Install TCP/IP, Windows shared, and LPR printers.
• Single portal for entire enterprise
• Automatically selects users current location when opening
• View optional floor plan maps with printers placed at physical location
• Quickly search for printers by name, location, and folder
• Non-administrator users can add or delete TCP/IP printers
• Non-administrator users can add or delete shared printer per-workstation or per-user printer connections
• Restrict printer installation by group membership or IP address range

Printer Installer Client - The client runs as a service on the end user machines. The client checks in with the PI web server to see if any printers have been deployed to the user or workstation.

Highlights

• Web based administration
• No GPO’s required
• No scripting required
• One portal for the entire enterprise