Managing printers

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Managing printers

When you manage printers, your actions affect the entire printer, not individual documents. Typical tasks include pausing, resuming, and purging the queue for a printer.

Redirecting documents

If a printer becomes faulty, you might need to send documents in its queue to another printer. This prevents users from having to resubmit print jobs that are already in the queue. You can redirect documents to a printer on the same print server or on a different print server. However, both printers must use the same printer driver.

To send documents to a different printer, see Transfer documents to another printer.

Administering printers on the network

Any network user can check the status of a printer from any computer across the network. However, only users who have Manage Printers or Manage Documents permission for the printer can manage documents other than their own. If you do not have the correct permission, certain options are unavailable. Also, when you attempt to view certain properties on computers running Windows NT 4.0 or earlier, an error message appears.

You can also manage printers from a Web browser, if Internet printing is enabled.

For more information about accessing a printer on the network, see Remotely manage printers. For more information about managing a printer from a Web browser, see Manage printers from a browser.

Printers and Active Directory

The easiest way to manage, locate, and connect to printers is through Active Directory. Users can also search for specific printers--for example, all color printers in building 10--and even save search results for future use. Administrators can create custom searches for different groups of users, and then save the result files on users' desktops, or at any other location. For more information on how to do custom searches for printers, see Create a custom printer search.

By default, all printers that are added to a computer running a Windows Server 2003 family operating system and shared are also published in Active Directory. Administrators can also manually publish printers, as described in Manually publish a printer in Active Directory.

Auditing a printer

To increase the level of security of some specific printers, or as a tool for troubleshooting, you can audit a printer's activity. For more information about auditing a printer, see Track printer usage.

Taking ownership of a printer

To change print administrators (for example, if the current print administrator left your organization) you would need to take ownership of the printer in order to manage it. For more information about taking ownership of a printer, see Take ownership of a printer.

Setting Group Policy for printers

If you want to define a standard printing environment for your organization, you can use a Group Policy setting for groups of users. Each new user that joins the organization has the same credentials as other users in that group without any intervention from the administrator. For more information on Group Policy settings, see Set Group Policy for printers.