Setting default printer

[rexxxy]

Hi guys,

I believe in Citrix FR2 we are able to set someones default printer. Does anyone know how this is done? I would be very keen to implement this to our site.

 

[rexxxy]

Surely someone knows this one? Im pulling my hair out! Im sure its simple!

 

[JCDugas]

You can set a default "client" printer using the ICA connection properties but not a network printer added at the server level. For that you'll need to use con2prt.exe from the resource kit.

JD

 

[rexxxy]

Yeah its a printer at the server level. So I will check out the resource kit. Thanks for your input.

 

[rexxxy]

Hi,
I looked into your suggestion but I am not sure its exactly what I need. Here is the deal, I have a user who is a member of marketing, within marketing are 10 other users and 3 printers at their disposal. I want to be able to set the default printer for each user to their preferred printer. So it will stop them from having to click on the drop down box in printing properties to select their closest printer. con2prt.exe seem to be a utility to use command line to configure / setup a printer.
So any more suggestions? But thanks anyway, any help is appreciated!

 

[Tubes]

One option available to you is to give the everyone group manage documents rights to all printers and then give your specific users print rights to the prefered printers. This will remove all printers except the default from the view list on the dropdown. There's no need to worry about the manage documents option since they can't see the printers, they can't manage them.

Hope this helps.

 

[DarrenH]

Sorry just come back to tek-tips after an absence. When I had NT4/Citrix 1.0, I got fed up of users profiles getting trashed. When I moved to w2k/citrix XPS, I decided to sort it once and for all and reduce the number of support calls from people who don't know how to change their default printer

This is what I do, sorry if it seems heavy handed, but it works.

Create a registry entry file for each user in the user's home directory and put the information specific to each user in it. For example, h:\w2k_user.reg

Load the reg file silently during login using regedit by putting a shortcut in the startup folder.

The shortcut is c:\winnt\regedit.exe /s h:\w2k_user.reg

The contents of the reg file are

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
"Device"="Printer_Name,winspool,Printer_Port_Name"

Where Printer_Name is the name of the printer and Printer_Port_Name is the name of the network print server port. Substitute your values and you should be ok. You can look these up easily enough under the Printers folder in the Control Panel. You can test the reg file by double-clicking on it and then checking to see if your default printer has changed to the one specified in the reg file

I've added other stuff in it like the regional settings. Again, I kept having problems under NT4 with profiles being reset back to US rather than UK.

One word of caution: this doesn't work too well with locally attached printers for various reasons that I won't go in to here.

HTH

Darren

 

[rexxxy]

Your right thats a heavy handed approach. But I will have to give it a shot. I am very surprised that within Citrix there is not an option to select a default printer. Honestly I would have thought this to be a very sensible optionto have.

Anyone else have any more ideas? Im not overly enthusiastic about making a registry edit upon login, but if its the only way, I have no other option.

 

[Solstorm]

What do the printers default to now? I've been having problems defaulting printers when the application server has acrobat. In this case I let the users printers auto create, then take auto create off on the one they want as their default. Then the next time they login it defaults to the correct printer. Would this work in your environment? Right click printer/properties and take out "Auto created" on the comment line. I think it is under the advanced tab on most printers. I've seen an option in CMC to only default to client printer but sounds like you want them to have more than one printer available.

 

[Solstorm]

Sorry rexxxy sounds like you are talking about server printers not client auto created printers. Missed that the first time I read your event.

 

[DarrenH]

I suppose the ideal solution would be something in the w2k policy that sets a default printer, so you could set up group or user policies under the mmc snap-in in the same way you set Control Panel restrictions.

I assume such a thing doesn't already exist or someone would have jumped in and said something. I've not come across it.

 

[daka]

Have you gone into Citrix Connection Configuration? In the ica-tcp properties, you can select the option to 'Default To Main Client Printer.' This sets a user's default printer to the default printer configured on their local system.