Location Based Printing - Printer Defaults & Configuration

[six4rm]

Hi,

We have a multi-site View 4.6 environment using Windows 7 VMs. Our users occassionally move from site to site, so I've been looking at implementing Location Based Printing using the supplied GPO instead of login scripts. I've got it up and running with printers being mapped to the VMs depending on the client IP address and this side of it is working well. The issue that I've run into today is that all printers default to colour printing where ordinarily we set the properties on network printers and locally installed IP printers to default to B&W. We also have an issue with one Sharp printer that requires a manual 'auto configuration' process to be run upon initial install in order to set the correct tray/finishing settings, this can only be done by admins and therefore is greyed out, leaving users without access to certain trays.

1. - Is there a way to set B&W as default for printers mapped in this way?

2. - Is there anything I can do about the Sharp printer requiring auto configuration?

The way I've installed the drivers in the master image is to install each printer as a local direct IP printer which I then delete, otherwise all users would see the printer. On checking Print Management the drivers are still within the image which allows the printer to be mapped correctly via the GPO.

Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated as the GPO definitely seems like the best way to map printers based on location.

Thanks in advance.

[orthohin]

In order to set B&W default printer you cna try this

a) Changing settings on the print server

b) Creating a new printer on the print server and setting it to be B&W only

c) Creating a new printer on the print server and setting it to be B&W only

d) Adding the printer to my computer directly (through a TCP/IP port) and setting it to be B&W only

2. For auto configuration please visit...

http://www.cs.duke.edu/csl/faqs/windows/sharp-D332

Regards,
Milton

[six4rm]

Thanks for the reply.

Well, it would appear that the B&W issue can be resolved simply by right-clicking the printer and select 'Printing Preferences' and changing colour to B&W. This appears to then be saved within the user profile as the setting is persistent between sessions. It would be nice to be able to force this as default though, but I can't think of a way of doing it for printers mapped in this method.

With regards to points a) - d) I know how to change B&W as default for a shared network printer or a locally installed TCP/IP printer, but when using the Location Based Printing GPO you don't have anywhere to make these default settings.

If I installed the Sharp printer as a shared network printer or local TCP/IP printer you only have to do the Auto Configuration once (as an admin) for the right settings to then be passed on to users. As explained above, when mapping printers through the GPO there isn't anywhere to make these initial configuration changes. I'm looking at ways to granting VDI users printer management permissions, but I'm not getting anywhere at the moment.

If you look at the attached screenshot you'll see what I mean. I'm logged on as a test user (vmuser1), which is setup in the exact same way as our regular users. I've even made vmuser1 a member of the Power User group for the local machine, but as you can see from the printer security settings this group isn't actually granted any special permissions for printers mapped in this way. If vmuser1 was able to manage this printer than I should be able to click the currently greyed out Auto Configuration. Arrrggghhh!!

[six4rm]

OK, a little update...

Using Print Management on my own machine I was able to connect to the View machine and grant vmuser1 management permissions for the specific printer. This allowed vmuser1 to hit Auto Configuration and set the right trays and finishing options for the printer. I then logged off and back on again, unfortunately the settings don't stick and I had to hit Auto Configuration again. Quite frankly this is not going to be practical for ours users to have to do this everyday, so I think I'm going to ditch the GPO for all my Sharp printers and go back to logon scripts. Not ideal.

[orthohin]

Threads are going to complecate.

Take care!

[six4rm]

Errr...not sure what you mean!

Anyway, I got it sorted. I discovered that you can use the GPO method to map to a network printer, so all the configuration is done on the print server side and not on the VM, problem solved!

Here are my findings from playing with Location Based Printing. Hopefully someone will find them useful as there isn't a huge amount of documentation or examples out there.

Map to shared network printer: Add the UNC path to the printer share within the 'Printer Driver' field, e.g. \\printserver\Canon, leave the 'IP Port/ThinPrint Port' field empty.

Printer based on AD group: In the 'User/Group' field add the AD group name in the format \\DOMAIN\Group Name, e.g. \\DOMAIN\Sales Team. Spaces are OK.

Printer based on AD user: In the 'User/Group' field simply add the AD username, no domain required.

[iamxCPx]

Hi there,

I'm trying to follow what you were doing but I still can't get the auto-configuration to stick.

I have followed all these:

Map to shared network printer: Add the UNC path to the printer share within the 'Printer Driver' field, e.g. \\printserver\Canon, leave the 'IP Port/ThinPrint Port' field empty.

Printer based on AD group: In the 'User/Group' field add the AD group name in the format \\DOMAIN\Group Name, e.g. \\DOMAIN\Sales Team. Spaces are OK.

Printer based on AD user: In the 'User/Group' field simply add the AD username, no domain required.

And they are working.

I did the auto-configuration on the print server printer but that configuration wasn't getting translated over the View Desktops users when they log in. So I think I'm still missing giving the user "managing printer" somewhere?

Do I need to have the user to be part of the local admin?

Do you mind sharing what you did to make it work?

Thanks a lot.

[six4rm]

Hi CP7,

Our users don't have the "Manage this printer" permission on the printer server. Make sure you do the auto configuration on the server and then set the Printing Defaults within the Printer Properties on the Advanced tab. That's all I did. The printer is then mapped via the LBP GPO.

If you map the printer manually as a standard user is the configuration correct? Probably best to confirm it working OK through standard UNC mapping before LBP mapping.

[iamxCPx]

I think I got it to work. Thanks.

I'm still going to run more test just to confirm it.

It looks like if going with this approach (using a shared printer on win server), the Printer Name can also be left out blank since it won't matter just like the IP Port/Thin Print.

Now I need to find out a solution where the LBP printer will stick as a default if the user has a local printer attached to the desktop or no matter what default you set in LBP, it will not stick when using View Client to connect.

But if you use BLAST or Zero Client, it will stick just fine. What a PITA.

[iamxCPx]

six4rm,

Is your Sharp a color printer also?

I'm having trouble with the Excel 2010 to stick to the color settings that server and even the user set manually.

After googling for a while I found it's a known issue if using the shared printer. Ugh!!

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/01569f4f-c231-444f-9c5a-6e80915af42c/office-...

It's really annoying. Word, Outlook and Publishers are fine I think. It will take the default settings from the print server but not excel.

So the user has to manually pick color every time she wants to print in color. Like it won't stick even if she's re-print the same doc.

Do you have this same problems in your environment?

Another that the users are complaining since we're using a shared printer from the print server, it's performing really slow when trying to open the printer properties so I'm just keep adding it up to my pain list. Lol.

[JeremyWF13]

I just want to say thanks for this information.   I have no idea why VMWare wouldn't post this information somewhere.  I have read all documentation I could find and never ran across this.   Very helpful.