Package Point and print – Approved servers
Restricts package point and print to approved servers. This policy setting restricts package point and print connections to approved servers. This setting only applies to Package Point and Print connections and is completely independent from the “Point and Print Restrictions” policy that governs the behavior of non-package point and print connections. Windows Vista and later clients will attempt to make a non-package point and print connection anytime a package point and print connection fails including attempts that are blocked by this policy. Administrators may need to set both policies to block all print connections to a specific print server. If this setting is enabled users will only be able to package point and print to print servers approved by the network administrator. When using package point and print client computers will check the driver signature of all drivers that are downloaded from print servers. If this setting is disabled or not configured package point and print will not be restricted to specific print servers.
Only use Package Point and print
This policy restricts clients computers to use package point and print only. If this setting is enabled users will only be able to point and print to printers that use package-aware drivers. When using package point and print client computers will check the driver signature of all drivers that are downloaded from print servers. If this setting is disabled or not configured users will not be restricted to package-aware point and print only.
Add Printer wizard – Network scan page (Unmanaged network)
This policy sets the maximum number of printers (of each type) that the Add Printer wizard will display on a computer on an unmanaged network (when the computer is not able to reach a domain controller e. g. a domain-joined laptop on a home network. )If this setting is disabled the network scan page will not be displayed. If this setting is not configured the Add Printer wizard will display the default number of printers of each type:TCP/IP printers: 50Web Services printers: 50Bluetooth printers: 10Shared printers: 50If you would like to not display printers of a certain type enable this policy and set the number of printers to display to 0.
Prevent deletion of printers
If this policy setting is enabled it prevents users from deleting local and network printers. If a user tries to delete a printer such as by using the Delete option in Printers in Control Panel a message appears explaining that a setting prevents the action. This setting does not prevent users from running other programs to delete a printer. If this policy is disabled or not configured users can delete printers using the methods described above.
Prevent addition of printers
Prevents users from using familiar methods to add local and network printers. If this policy setting is enabled it removes the Add Printer option from the Start menu. (To find the Add Printer option click Start click Printers and then click Add Printer. ) This setting also removes Add Printer from the Printers folder in Control Panel. Also users cannot add printers by dragging a printer icon into the Printers folder. If they try a message appears explaining that the setting prevents the action. However this setting does not prevent users from using the Add Hardware Wizard to add a printer. Nor does it prevent users from running other programs to add printers. This setting does not delete printers that users have already added. However if users have not added a printer when this setting is applied they cannot print. Note: You can use printer permissions to restrict the use of printers without specifying a setting. In the Printers folder right-click a printer click Properties and then click the Security tab. If this policy is disabled or not configured users can add printers using the methods described above.
Disallow installation of printers using kernel-mode drivers
Determines whether printers using kernel-mode drivers may be installed on the local computer. Kernel-mode drivers have access to system-wide memory and therefore poorly-written kernel-mode drivers can cause stop errors. If you disable this setting or do not configure it then printers using a kernel-mode drivers may be installed on the local computer running Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional. If you do not configure this setting on Windows Server 2003 family products the installation of kernel-mode printer drivers will be blocked. If you enable this setting installation of a printer using a kernel-mode driver will not be allowed. Note: By applying this policy existing kernel-mode drivers will be disabled upon installation of service packs or reinstallation of the Windows XP operating system. This policy does not apply to 64-bit kernel-mode printer drivers as they cannot be installed and associated with a print queue.
Browse a common web site to find printers
Adds a link to an Internet or intranet Web page to the Add Printer Wizard. You can use this setting to direct users to a Web page from which they can install printers. If you enable this setting and type an Internet or intranet address in the text box the system adds a Browse button to the “Specify a Printer” page in the Add Printer Wizard. The Browse button appears beside the “Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network” option. When users click Browse the system opens an Internet browser and navigates to the specified URL address to display the available printers. This setting makes it easy for users to find the printers you want them to add. Also see the “Custom support URL in the Printers folder’s left pane” and “Activate Internet printing” settings in “Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Printers. “
Always rasterize content to be printed using a software rasterizer
Determines whether the XPS Rasterization Service or the XPS-to-GDI conversion (XGC) is forced to use a software rasterizer instead of a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to rasterize pages. This setting may improve the performance of the XPS Rasterization Service or the XPS-to-GDI conversion (XGC) on machines that have a relatively powerful CPU as compared to the machine’s GPU.
Always render print jobs on the server
When printing through a print server determines whether the print spooler on the client will process print jobs itself or pass them on to the server to do the work. This policy setting only effects printing to a Windows print server. If you enable this policy setting on a client machine the client spooler will not process print jobs before sending them to the print server. This decreases the workload on the client at the expense of increasing the load on the server. If you disable this policy setting on a client machine the client itself will process print jobs into printer device commands. These commands will then be sent to the print server and the server will simply pass the commands to the printer. This increases the workload of the client while decreasing the load on the server. If you do not enable this policy setting the behavior is the same as disabling it. Note: This policy does not determine whether offline printing will be available to the client. The client print spooler can always queue print jobs when not connected to the print server. Upon reconnecting to the server the client will submit any pending print jobs. Note: Some printer drivers require a custom print processor. In some cases the custom print processor may not be installed on the client machine such as when the print server does not support transferring print processors during point-and-print. In the case of a print processor mismatch the client spooler will always send jobs to the print server for rendering. Disabling the above policy setting does not override this behavior. Note: In cases where the client print driver does not match the server print driver (mismatched connection) the client will always process the print job regardless of the setting of this policy.
Browse the network to find printers
Allows users to use the Add Printer Wizard to search the network for shared printers. If you enable this setting or do not configure it when users choose to add a network printer by selecting the “A network printer or a printer attached to another computer” radio button on Add Printer Wizard’s page 2 and also check the “Connect to this printer (or to browse for a printer select this option and click Next)” radio button on Add Printer Wizard’s page 3 and do not specify a printer name in the adjacent “Name” edit box then Add Printer Wizard displays the list of shared printers on the network and invites to choose a printer from the shown list. If you disable this setting the network printer browse page is removed from within the Add Printer Wizard and users cannot search the network but must type a printer name. Note: This setting affects the Add Printer Wizard only. It does not prevent users from using other programs to search for shared printers or to connect to network printers.