In "Per-Machine Printer Connections + Custom Plug-In" (May 2006, InstantDoc ID 49741), I presented a Windows Script Component (WSC), PMPMgr.wsc, and a command-line script, PMPMgr.js, that make it easy to manage per-machine printers on one or more computers. If you haven't used per-machine printers before, they're network printer connections that appear for all users of a computer. (In contrast, the Add Printer wizard adds a printer only to the current user's profile.)
The command-line script I presented in the previous article does its job well, particularly for managing per-machine printers on multiple computers, because it supports reading lists of computers and printers from text files. This is very useful when managing per-machine printers en masse; however, I found myself wanting an easier-to-use tool when I needed to manage per-machine printers on one computer at a time. To meet this need, I designed an HTML Application (HTA), PMPMgr.hta, that provides a GUI for the PMPMgr.wsc component.
Per-Machine Printers
Per-machine printers are very useful when you want printers to appear per-computer instead of per-user. With per-machine printers, an administrator can add printers to a computer once, and the added printers appear no matter who logs onto the computer. Because per-machine printers appear for all users that log onto a computer, they provide a number of useful benefits for system administrators:
- Per-machine printers can be managed (viewed, added, and deleted) remotely.
- Inexperienced users won't need training on how to add printers to their profile.
- It's easier to upgrade a print server because users won't need to delete the obsolete printer connections and add them from the new print server; an administrator can do it remotely.
Per-Machine Printer with GUI
As I noted in the previous article, per-machine printers are available (but nearly undocumented) in Windows 2000 and later, and leveraging them requires you to type some very cumbersome Rundll32 commands. The script component PMPMgr.wsc acts as a wrapper for the Rundll32 commands and provides an interface for scripts to easily manage per-machine printers on the local or a remote computer. The PMPMgr.hta GUI application provides an easy-to-use interface for the script component.
The PMPMgr.wsc component and its associated HTA files require Windows 2000 or later. You can download the PMPMgr plug-in by clicking the Download the Code button at the top of the Web page. Table 1 shows the files that make up the application and a brief description of each one.
To use the application, you need to perform only these three steps:
- Install and run the application.
- Choose a target computer.
- Add per-machine printers from a print server to the target computer or delete printers from the computer.
I'll also tell you how to uninstall the application.
Step 1: Install and Run the Application
To install and run the PMPMgr.hta application, first download the .zip file and extract its contents to a suitable folder on your computer. As mentioned above, Table 1 shows the files required to run the application.
If you have the older version of PMPMgr.wsc (downloaded from the article at InstantDoc ID 49741) installed on your computer, you need to unregister it before continuing to the next step. To do this, right-click the old PMPMgr.wsc file in Windows Explorer and choose Unregister. The upgraded version of PMPMgr.wsc has some improvements necessary to work with the new application. The old PMPMgr.js script will continue to work without any changes. You must be logged on as an administrator to complete this step.
Register the new PMPMgr.wsc component. To do this, right-click the new PMPMgr.wsc file in Windows Explorer and choose Register. You must be logged on as an administrator to complete this step.
Execute PMPMgr.hta by double-clicking it in Windows Explorer or typing its name at a command prompt.