Windows 2000 and Printing: What were they thinking?

[Eugenijus Janus(kevic(ius]

Patrick Goetz wrote:


>  The problem is that for W2K, network printers set up by
> administrators do not automatically appear on the desktops of ordinary
> domain users.  I thought the problem could be solved by having a default
> login script with stuff like
> 
>     start \\samba-server\printer1
>     start \\samba-server\printer2
>        etc.

hm, try `net use \\samba-server\printer` then


> However, whenever I try to do this as an ordinary domain user I get a
> message saying 
> 
>   "You do not have sufficient access to your machine to
>    connect to the selected printer".

What about access rights on win2k machine?
Maybe user can't get list of locally available printer drivers and tries 
to download them for local install?

Check permissions for %windir%\system32\spool and below (it's true for 
NT. Check the correct location for Win2k)

> I've tried changing the security options on the printer shares so that
> Everyone, Authenticated Users, Network, etc. have complete management
> access to the printers, but nothing seems to provide domain users with the
> correct permissions to mount printers.  I even tried setting up the
> printers for root and then copying the root profile to Default User, but
> this didn't work, either.
> 
> I just can't believe that it never occurred to Microsoft that someone
> would want to set up workstations used by various domain users where a
> common set of network printers should be available to every user who logs
> in on the machine.  On the other hand, I've spent several hours pouring
> over the MS knowlege-base and various mailing lists such as
> microsoft.public.win2000.printing and this question is asked over and over
> again, with either no response or responses which don't, as far as I can
> tell, solve the problem.

As it is on NT 4.0, once logged in as administrator you must set up 
printer drivers for intranet printers. At this stage drivers are 
installed locally for every printer you set up.
When a user log is, (s)he initially gets empty list of printers, but 
(s)he can add any intranet printer, which has its drivers installed 
locally without any problems. I don't' believe this functionality has 
ben changed for Win2k. I think you should check access rights to printer 
drivers first
-- 
  Augis

In a world without walls and fences, who needs windows and gates? (SUN)