Shared Printers for All Users

windows10 Jun 30, 2017

You've probably stumbled across this page if like me you were trying to find a way to install a shared printer to all users on a Windows machine.

By default a shared printer only gets installed to a users profile, when the next user comes along the printer needs to be reinstalled.

Normally you can install the printer using a local port or TCP-IP port which would then work for all users. However if you use a printer server or just shared it from another machine then you need to know the hack below which will install it for all users.

Step 1 - Printer Server/Shared Machine

  • Install the printer as you normally would on your print server. Either using a local port (USB) or TCP/IP (Network) and drivers.
  • Make any changes to the printer, trays, adding x86 and x64 drivers, set security permissions.
  • Share the printer

Step 2 - On the remote machine

Open up CMD and run as administrator

Copy the below into the CMD window, changing \\servername\printer to your details.

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga /n\\servername\printer

The tags mean

  • /ga - global (add to all users)
  • /n - network path
  • for more options use /?

You can also copy it into a .bat file to make it easier to install on multiple machines.

Give it a few minutes to install, once completed it will have installed the printer and kept all the Custom preferences set on the Server.

Tags

Peter Evans

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