disable printer for magic school bus only 2

[emmons]

howdy,

how can I disable printing just for magic school bus only? I still want the kids to be able to print from encyclopedias and other programs. they are accidentally printing lots of stuff from magic school bus and using up lots of paper and toner.

what do you suggest?

thanks a lot!

emmons

 

[emmons]

OK, I'm back!

I gave permission for child to run cmd.exe and the batch file now runs.

I also gave permission for child to run C:\WINNT\system32\spoolsv.exe

I also tried making child a member of the Power User's group and still

I am getting a system 5 error. child is not allowed to start and stop a service. How do I get around that?

Thanks again!

 

[bcastner]

First:
. Download the Microsoft SDK tool Devcon.exe from Microsoft at this site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;311272

Devcon.exe is a sort of command line Device Manager on steroids. Place this in an accessible directory to the user, e.g. one where they have rights..

. Copy and paste the below into notepad, and give it a .CMD extension:


REM remove local lpt1 assignments on client
REM *PNP0401 is the local lpt1 assignment

devcon disable *PNP0401

REM now start magic schoolbus
c:\foldername\magic.exe

REM now enable the printer again

devcon enable *PNP0401

REM +++++++++++ end of batch file

 

[emmons]

Hi,

At our library we have one networked printer for all public computers.

So this is not connected directly to our computer.

Will this still work?

Of course I just want to disable printing from Magic School Bus, not anything else.

Thanks for your help,
emmons

 

[bcastner]

Then just stop the share, this requires no special user permissions:

rem Stop using the network printer

net use lpt1: /d

rem Now run magic schoolbus

... run commands here

rem Now re-establish the printer

net use lpt1: \\printer_server\Printer_name /persistant:yes

rem done

You need to know the current printer sharename to substitute in the last net use command.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Wow, this is quite interesting!

Just something that I noted from the Gates Consultant you mentioned. The users at my place cannot access CMD. From start, browse to it or anything - but they still have batch scripts. Unless someone can prove me wrong! (Here we go!...;-))

From memory, I think you can make the batch file run on another users permissions. (right click, properties, some tick box I think!) This maybe of some help. Do you have Group Policies running? Create a copy of a childs account, log in and create your own batch file on the desktop using notepad. See if you can get it to run.

Steve Hewitt

 

[bcastner]

Steve Hewitt,

The problem with RUNAS is that you reveal in plaintext an Admin username and password, unless you take extra steps to encrypt the batch file. There are ways to do this, although personally rather than using batch files at that point I would script the thing as it is a cleaner thing to handle and encrypt.

Batch programs (not scripts) would suffer if access to CMD is denied, no question. The only wrinkle is that the logon batch scripts operate with pre-Domain permissions, so they are unaffected.

The biggest problem is that this thread starter really wants all programs but Magic Schoolbus to be able to print as normal. I am pretty sure there is no easy way to do this.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Fair points, and I didn't know about the pre-Domain permissions. Thanks - handy tip. (have a star!).

Yeah, its an interesting point - as much as using a Batch would work, its messy and as we have seen - it aint working! ;-)

Another way round, is if you are using Win2k Group Policies, you can stop CMD from being loaded, but allow scripts to be run. I have a custom Access Application that has some scripts that run to reload network drives and printers (amongst others) which work fine, yet users cannot get to CMD. Also, as this is a school (probably primary) I can't see RUNAS being a huge issue with 6 year olds!

To be quite honest, I don't know how to get around this, the info I posted earlier may be of some help, but I'm not sure.

Thanks, & good luck,

Steve Hewitt

 

[emmons]

Hi, it's me, threadstarter. Say, bcastner, can I substitute ip address in the last net use statement? as in:

net use lpt1: \\ipadress /persistant:yes

would this work?

-Emmons
`````````````````````


Then just stop the share, this requires no special user permissions:

rem Stop using the network printer

net use lpt1: /d

rem Now run magic schoolbus

... run commands here

rem Now re-establish the printer

net use lpt1: \\printer_server\Printer_name /persistant:yes

rem done

You need to know the current printer sharename to substitute in the last net use command.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Hey,

Long time...!

Yep, that should work fine. WSH is a better option for a cleaner look but it should do the job.

Have you tried it out? It looks fine. Yes you can change the IP address to any IP you want as the print server.

Steve.
MCP Win2k