Category: At least Windows 2000

Determines whether the domain controller can prune (delete from Active Directory) the printers published by this computer. By default the pruning service on the domain controller prunes printer objects from Active Directory if the computer that published them does not respond to contact requests. When the computer that published the printers restarts it republishes any deleted printer objects. If you enable this setting or do not configure it the domain controller prunes this computer’s printers when the computer does not respond. If you disable this setting the domain controller does not prune this computer’s printers. This setting is designed to prevent printers from being pruned when the computer is temporarily disconnected from the network. Note: You can use the “Directory Pruning Interval” and “Directory Pruning Retry” settings to adjust the contact interval and number of contact attempts.

Directs the system to periodically verify that the printers published by this computer still appear in Active Directory. This setting also specifies how often the system repeats the verification. By default the system only verifies published printers at startup. This setting allows for periodic verification while the computer is operating. To enable this additional verification enable this setting and then select a verification interval. To disable verification disable this setting or enable this setting and select “Never” for the verification interval.

Determines whether the computer’s shared printers can be published in Active Directory. If you enable this setting or do not configure it users can use the “List in directory” option in the Printer’s Properties’ Sharing tab to publish shared printers in Active Directory. If you disable this setting this computer’s shared printers cannot be published in Active Directory and the “List in directory” option is not available. Note: This settings takes priority over the setting “Automatically publish new printers in the Active Directory”.

Specifies how many times the pruning service on a domain controller repeats its attempt to contact a computer before pruning the computer’s printers. The pruning service periodically contacts computers that have published printers to verify that the printers are still available for use. If a computer does not respond to the contact message the message is repeated for the specified number of times. If the computer still fails to respond then the pruning service “prunes” (deletes from Active Directory) printer objects the computer has published. By default the pruning service contacts computers every eight hours and allows two retries before deleting printers from Active Directory. You can use this setting to change the number of retries. If you enable this setting you can change the interval between attempts. If you do not configure or disable this setting the default values are used. Note: This setting is used only on domain controllers.

Sets the priority of the pruning thread. The pruning thread which runs only on domain controllers deletes printer objects from Active Directory if the printer that published the object does not respond to contact attempts. This process keeps printer information in Active Directory current. The thread priority influences the order in which the thread receives processor time and determines how likely it is to be preempted by higher priority threads. By default the pruning thread runs at normal priority. However you can adjust the priority to improve the performance of this service. Note: This setting is used only on domain controllers.

Specifies how often the pruning service on a domain controller contacts computers to verify that their printers are operational. The pruning service periodically contacts computers that have published printers. If a computer does not respond to the contact message (optionally after repeated attempts) the pruning service “prunes” (deletes from Active Directory) printer objects the computer has published. By default the pruning service contacts computers every eight hours and allows two repeated contact attempts before deleting printers from Active Directory. If you enable this setting you can change the interval between contact attempts. If you do not configure or disable this setting the default values will be used. Note: This setting is used only on domain controllers.

Determines whether the pruning service on a domain controller prunes printer objects that are not automatically republished whenever the host computer does not respondjust as it does with Windows 2000 printers. This setting applies to printers running operating systems other than Windows 2000 and to Windows 2000 printers published outside their forest. The Windows pruning service prunes printer objects from Active Directory when the computer that published them does not respond to contact requests. Computers running Windows 2000 Professional detect and republish deleted printer objects when they rejoin the network. However because non-Windows 2000 computers and computers in other domains cannot republish printers in Active Directory automatically by default the system never prunes their printer objects. You can enable this setting to change the default behavior. To use this setting select one of the following options from the “Prune non-republishing printers” box: — “Never” specifies that printer objects that are not automatically republished are never pruned. “Never” is the default. — “Only if Print Server is found” prunes printer objects that are not automatically republished only when the print server responds but the printer is unavailable. — “Whenever printer is not found” prunes printer objects that are not automatically republished whenever the host computer does not respond just as it does with Windows 2000 printers. Note: This setting applies to printers published by using Active Directory Users and Computers or Pubprn. vbs. It does not apply to printers published by using Printers in Control Panel. Tip: If you disable automatic pruning remember to delete printer objects manually whenever you remove a printer or print server.

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.

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).