Use Client Side Preferences:
Group Policy:
User Configuration:>Preferences>Control Panel Settings>Printers> Shared Printer>
Set the printer as a default Printer> True
Only if a local printer is not present: True/False
You can also item level target this to a security group of users or a OU where your users are based./
Departmental/ Office etc.
there is another way...if you dont want to use Client Side preferences
Essentially you are going to create a script to write your currently saved default printer to a network drive upon logoff.
then upon logon you will create a scheduled task to copy that default printer info from text file back in to the registry.
this is an exact copy of the script we are using to do this today across 650 vms
Save Printer script:
Dim objFSO 'As FileSystemObject
Dim objTextFile 'As Object
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strValue = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\Device"
strPrinter = oShell.RegRead(strValue)
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objTextFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile("p:\defaultPrinter.txt", True)
objTextFile.Write (strPrinter)
objTextFile.Close
Restore Printer Script:
On Error Resume Next
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("p:\defaultprinter.txt", 1)
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
wscript.echo("Quiting")
WScript.Quit
End If
Dim arrFileLines()
strPrinter = objFile.ReadLine
objFile.Close
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strKey = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\Device"
oShell.RegWrite strKey, strPrinter, "REG_SZ"
