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Update printer drivers with Group Policy RRS feed

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    Hi all,

    I'm banging my head against a wall with this, and I've seen a few similar posts in the forums, but with no real resolution. MS' articles on deploying printers with Group Policy and/or Print Management don't seem to address the issue.

    I used Group Policy to roll out a printer, which worked fine. The Server is 2008 x64, with Vista x32 clients. However, to fix an issue, this morning I went to update the driver. I updated the driver on the server, and now the clients can't print. I updated the driver held on the server using Print Management, and although Group Policy is set to "replace" the printer (I use User Configuration -> Preferences -> Control Panel Settings -> Printers to specify the shared printer), the driver does not want to update. When I log on, I see the printer disappear, then re-appear, but the driver stays the same.

    Technet does say that removing a printer this way does not delete the driver, it just removes the connection, so I'm guessing that the client machine is just removing the conenction, then readding it, using the driver it already has. I don't think this is a permissions issue, as the printer install worked with Group Policy initially, and also, logging on as Admin does not resolve the issue, despite a restart.

    How can I "force" the client machines to pick up the new driver? I think I need to delete the driver as well as the connection to the printer, but I don't know how - if I even can.

    I can't believe there isn't a process for this, so any help appreciated!

    TIA,
    dsteel0.
    Friday, March 12, 2010 1:59 PM

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    Updating the 32bit driver on the print server will force the connections to the x64 print server to be placed into an Update driver state until the client machine prints or one opens the Printers Folder, right clicks the printer and selected Update Driver.

    You can configure the print driver on the clients to update without user intervention by modifing a policy. By default the local Point and Print restrictions policy does not update the new software automatically.  You can roll out a domain policy which would probably be your best choice.  Here is some additional data.  I do not know how the Group Policy team implemented the printer preferences options but hope this print policy is the issue you are hitting.  If you have any Windows 7 clients they only read the Point and Print restictions setting from Computer.  Vista will read from User and Computer.

    http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/print/VistaPnPSec.mspx

    http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/05/04/windows-vista-point-print.aspx
    Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1
    • Marked as answer by Mervyn Zhang Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:11 AM
    Sunday, March 14, 2010 9:15 PM
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    Hi,

    Please try to run the following tool on client to update the printer manually:

    Prndrvr.vbs
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754632%28WS.10%29.aspx

    Also, this article mentioned to push the driver to server from client, you may try it:

    How to Add 32-bit Print Drivers to SBS 2008
    http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/02/13/how-to-add-32-bit-print-drivers-to-sbs-2008.aspx

    Thanks.

    This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
    • Marked as answer by Mervyn Zhang Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:11 AM
    Monday, March 15, 2010 10:35 AM

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    Updating the 32bit driver on the print server will force the connections to the x64 print server to be placed into an Update driver state until the client machine prints or one opens the Printers Folder, right clicks the printer and selected Update Driver.

    You can configure the print driver on the clients to update without user intervention by modifing a policy. By default the local Point and Print restrictions policy does not update the new software automatically.  You can roll out a domain policy which would probably be your best choice.  Here is some additional data.  I do not know how the Group Policy team implemented the printer preferences options but hope this print policy is the issue you are hitting.  If you have any Windows 7 clients they only read the Point and Print restictions setting from Computer.  Vista will read from User and Computer.

    http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/print/VistaPnPSec.mspx

    http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/05/04/windows-vista-point-print.aspx
    Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1
    • Marked as answer by Mervyn Zhang Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:11 AM
    Sunday, March 14, 2010 9:15 PM
    Answerer
  • Question
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    Hi,

    Please try to run the following tool on client to update the printer manually:

    Prndrvr.vbs
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754632%28WS.10%29.aspx

    Also, this article mentioned to push the driver to server from client, you may try it:

    How to Add 32-bit Print Drivers to SBS 2008
    http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/02/13/how-to-add-32-bit-print-drivers-to-sbs-2008.aspx

    Thanks.

    This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
    • Marked as answer by Mervyn Zhang Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:11 AM
    Monday, March 15, 2010 10:35 AM
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    Hi Guys,

     

    With the help you both provided, I have solved this issue - with a little configuration (and patience! I wasn't giving client machines enough time tp update), the new driver has been rolled out.

     

    Many thanks for your time in answering.

     

    Regards,

    dsteel

    Monday, April 19, 2010 9:32 PM