Printer management Windows 7

[danilopinotti]

Hello,
I tried to configure a network printer, as shown in the video, but the INF file contains no data printer. I’m using windows 7. Has anyone had a similar experience?
Trying to force installation even with the data “correct”, the log displays the following error: “Service ERROR: Invalid parameter”.

[Sebastian Roth]

What version of FOG do you use? Which video you are refering to? Please provide screenshots or a more detailed explaination of the steps you take till you see the error.

[danilopinotti]

The video that i say was finded in FOG Wiki:
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Managing_FOG#Printers
( http://freeghost.sourceforge.net/videotutorials/printer.swf )

FOG Version: 4630

To add the printer, I set as a local printer and put all the information with correct syntax, according to the video. However, the INF file does not contain the same information. I used the same nomenclature that Windows provides when we go to install the printer and choose a driver manually. So, i linked the INF file with C:\Windows\inf\ntprint.inf even though it was different from the one in the video.

[Tom Elliott]

@danilopinotti try this to help you build the printer information you need. To work make sure the printer you want to client to work with is successfully installed on the machine you run the program on.

https://github.com/FOGProject/fog-client/releases/download/0.9.5/PrinterManagerHelper.exe

[danilopinotti]

This way worked.
All computers need to have the printer driver to work?

[Tom Elliott]

Correct, the drivers MUST exist on the system trying to receive the printer. This is because FOG is not supplying the drivers, it’s supplying the location where the Client will get its driver from.

[Wayne Workman]

@Tom-Elliott said:

it’s supplying the location where the Client will get its driver from.

I would like to put drivers in a share folder.

[Raymond Bell]

I add all my printer drivers to a hidden folder on the C drive of the host image and works great!!!

then set printer up in fog as IP Local

C:\Printers\hpuniversal\hpcu155c.inf

[Wayne Workman]

@Raymond-Bell said:

I add all my printer drivers to a hidden folder on the C drive of the host image and works great!!!

then set printer up in fog as IP Local

C:\Printers\hpuniversal\hpcu155c.inf

and then… your organization gets a new model of printer and your hidden folder does not have drivers for it.

[Raymond Bell]

@Wayne-Workman Thats why i have all bases covered and drivers hint hint

But yes a shared folder would be better

[Wayne Workman]

@Wayne-Workman said in Printer management Windows 7:

@Tom-Elliott said:

it’s supplying the location where the Client will get its driver from.

I would like to put drivers in a share folder.

Coming back to this old thread because I’m now trying to deploy a very difficult to deploy printer via FOG, and I’ve made a basic startup script to keep a local drivers folder updated.

Basically, whenever you want the folder updated on all the systems, you just put in a new text file with a current date for the name (file is empty), and then update the script to look for the new file.

IF NOT EXIST "%SystemDrive%\print_drivers\4-13-2016.txt" (
rmdir %SystemDrive%\print_drivers /s /q
xcopy "\\x.x.x.x\YourShare\print_drivers\*.*" "%SystemDrive%\print_drivers" /y /d /e /c /i /f /h /k /v /s
)

[Scott B]

@Wayne-Workman said in Printer management Windows 7:

@Wayne-Workman said in Printer management Windows 7:

@Tom-Elliott said:

it’s supplying the location where the Client will get its driver from.

I would like to put drivers in a share folder.

Coming back to this old thread because I’m now trying to deploy a very difficult to deploy printer via FOG, and I’ve made a basic startup script to keep a local drivers folder updated.

Basically, whenever you want the folder updated on all the systems, you just put in a new text file with a current date for the name (file is empty), and then update the script to look for the new file.

IF NOT EXIST "%SystemDrive%\print_drivers\4-13-2016.txt" (
rmdir %SystemDrive%\print_drivers /s /q
xcopy "\\x.x.x.x\YourShare\print_drivers\*.*" "%SystemDrive%\print_drivers" /y /d /e /c /i /f /h /k /v /s
)

How varied are your makes and models of printers? I wrote a batch file that will determine if you are Win7 or 10, x32 or x64 and copy all the drivers local. FOG then looks to that local path. It looks similar to the one you posted.

[Wayne Workman]

@Scott-B just about every printer in the building is a different model. of which we have about 100. Some are USB, some network.

I manage the network ones with Active Directory without issue - it’s just this one printer being stupid. It needs replaced. It doesn’t even have drivers for Windows 7, I finagled Windows Vista drivers onto Windows 7 as a local TCP/IP installation before. It’s just impossible to deploy with Active Directory - everything I’ve tried has failed - and I’ve tried a lot.

Fog was my last resort.

But, here in the future, if it proves to be reliable and I think it will be, I want to use FOG for printer management because it’ll lighten the load on our DCs.