Tag: Computer Configuration
Printer browsing
Announces the presence of shared printers to print browse master servers for the domain. On domains with Active Directory shared printer resources are available in Active Directory and are not announced. If you enable this setting the print spooler announces shared printers to the print browse master servers. If you disable this setting shared printers are not announced to print browse master servers even if Active Directory is not available. If you do not configure this setting shared printers are announced to browse master servers only when Active Directory is not available. Note: A client license is used each time a client computer announces a printer to a print browse master on the domain.
Point and Print Restrictions
This policy setting controls the client Point and Print behavior including the security prompts for Windows Vista computers. The policy setting applies only to non-Print Administrator clients and only to computers that are members of a domain. If you enable this policy setting: -Windows XP and later clients will only download print driver components from a list of explicitly named servers. If a compatible print driver is available on the client a printer connection will be made. If a compatible print driver is not available on the client no connection will be made. -You can configure Windows Vista clients so that security warnings and elevated command prompts do not appear when users Point and Print or when printer connection drivers need to be updated. If you do not configure this policy setting: -Windows Vista client computers can point and print to any server. -Windows Vista computers will show a warning and an elevated command prompt when users create a printer connection to any server using Point and Print. -Windows Vista computers will show a warning and an elevated command prompt when an existing printer connection driver needs to be updated. -Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP client computers can create a printer connection to any server in their forest using Point and Print. If you disable this policy setting: -Windows Vista client computers can create a printer connection to any server using Point and Print. -Windows Vista computers will not show a warning or an elevated command prompt when users create a printer connection to any server using Point and Print. -Windows Vista computers will not show a warning or an elevated command prompt when an existing printer connection driver needs to be updated. -Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP client computers can create a printer connection to any server using Point and Print. -The “Users can only point and print to computers in their forest” setting applies only to Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP SP1 (and later service packs).
Pre-populate printer search location text
Enables the physical Location Tracking setting for Windows printers. Use Location Tracking to design a location scheme for your enterprise and assign computers and printers to locations in the scheme. Location Tracking overrides the standard method used to locate and associate computers and printers. The standard method uses a printer’s IP address and subnet mask to estimate its physical location and proximity to computers. If you enable this setting users can browse for printers by location without knowing the printer’s location or location naming scheme. Enabling Location Tracking adds a Browse button in the Add Printer wizard’s Printer Name and Sharing Location screen and to the General tab in the Printer Properties dialog box. If you enable the Group Policy Computer location setting the default location you entered appears in the Location field by default. If you disable this setting or do not configure it Location Tracking is disabled. Printer proximity is estimated using the standard method (that is based on IP address and subnet mask).
Computer location
If this policy setting is enabled it specifies the default location criteria used when searching for printers. This setting is a component of the Location Tracking feature of Windows printers. To use this setting enable Location Tracking by enabling the “Pre-populate printer search location text” setting. When Location Tracking is enabled the system uses the specified location as a criterion when users search for printers. The value you type here overrides the actual location of the computer conducting the search. Type the location of the user’s computer. When users search for printers the system uses the specified location (and other search criteria) to find a printer nearby. You can also use this setting to direct users to a particular printer or group of printers that you want them to use. If you disable this setting or do not configure it and the user does not type a location as a search criterion the system searches for a nearby printer based on the IP address and subnet mask of the user’s computer.
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.
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.
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.