Printers reappearing from Group Policy Refresh

[KnightTimeBoogie]

Hello,

I am having a problem where printers reappear when the domain's group policy is refreshed. This is after manually deleting the printers and removing the drivers.

I checked to see if the printers were installed globally (so that it is automatically available to any user that logs on at that computer) using the PrintUIEntry function of printui.dll; but they were not.

I also searched the local and domain Group Policies and could not find anything related to this.

This is a Small Business Server 2003 domain with an additional Windows Server 2003 R2 Domain Controller.

Lastly, I ran gpresult on the affected pc and determined the Group Policy was being pushed from the R2 server across the VPN rather than from the SBS Server on the local network (which I should probably fix as well).

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[pasupport]

It is possible that your GP is not updating on R2 server.
Any chance that you are running Exchange on the SMB?

 

[KnightTimeBoogie]

It appears the Group Policy is updating on the R2 server. I have checked domain level and local group policies on both servers and client workstations. I have also determined this is not a user specific issue or a workstation specific issue. I created a test OU, made sure it wouldn't inherit other policies and moved an affected computer in it. I then logged into the pc with a different account and the printers still reappeard. I also updated the DNS settings on the workstation which solved the problem with the workstaiton pulling the GP from the remote sever.

Yes, Exchange is running on the SBS server.

 

[pasupport]

I've seen problems with Exchange Server being a DC as the same time. You can test to see if you have a replication problem by manually copying the coping the Policy Folders to the other server. If possible I would demote the SMB server if it ends up it is a replication problem. Just make sure you have the 2003 Server as the PDC first.

 

[58sniper]

Replication problems would be visible in various built in tools. No need to try copying a folder from one DC to another. That doesn't accomplish anything.

You can't demote an SBS server. It is the holder (and must remain so) of the FSMO roles. It's also the DC that Exchange points to.

Where were the printers removed from? Remember, R2 supports deploying them from a policy. If you've removed them from a policy and you're still getting them, then you're getting them from another policy (from the same DC, or from another).

I'd disable the GPOs until you determine the offending policy.

BTW - There is an SBS forum here.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[KnightTimeBoogie]

The printers were manually deleted (removed) from the affected workstations. The printers were not orignially deployed from a policy, they were installed manually with the add printer wizard on the workstation.

The printers are shared from the 2003 R2 server, and were added to the Active Directory database (by checking the "List in directory" box).

I can try disabling the GPO's, but some are built in for SBS and others (like folder redirection) are required in this environment. I have looked at every GPO to find the culprit but could not.

I have unpublished the printers from the Active Directory (unchecked the "List in Directory" check box) and they do NOT reappear now! But when I re-list them in AD, and reboot the workstation (or force a GP update) there they are again.

The reason I posted in this forum is because the printers are shared from the 2003 R2 server; so I thought this was more appropriate.