I just have to vent

BouncingSoul

Stranger Than Fiction
Political Access
Joined
30 Jan 2004
Messages
1,303
OMG WHAT IS THE F-ING DEAL WITH PRINTERS?

Seriously, they are the worst thing to support.

First off for some reason I can't delete printers that were published via GPO. Even if the GPO doesn't exist anymore. Even if the printers themselves don't exist anymore. No matter who is logged in. There is simply no permission level high enough to remove these things.

I've spent the better part of a week looking for answers. Today I find one. There is a vbs file called prnmngr.vbs in C:\windows\system32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US that can delete these printers. The site I found shows how to execute this script through cscript along with a list of possible switches and a description of what each switch does. So I find the one to delete local printers. It doesn't work. I go through the list and find the one showing how to delete network printers. That doesn't work either. After looking for a while there is a note that if the printer is a network printer you have to specify which print server the printer is on before you can remove it. So I put in the command again along with "-s servername -x" which should delete all the network printers from this machine. I execute the command AND ... The GPO printers error out, saying access is denied but the network printers .... ALL OF THEM ... Have been deleted. Not from this local machine, but FROM THE PRINT SERVER ITSELF!!!!

So I just spent two hours reinstalling all of my printers to the print server. Now I have to get several hundred users to reinstall all of them. Also, going back to the unable to remove the old printers issue, most of these people already have gobs of printers installed. So it's going to cause an absolute glut of calls from people trying to figure out which printer is which and where they can print to. And to top it all of... I can't remember it ever being so freaking cold! I just want to go drinking. I wish it wasn't Tuesday.
 
interesting post

at work whenever a printer stops working I am forced to say;

I do not know anything about printers, this is the one thing I cannot promise I can help you with

then I usually uninstall the drivers, deletet all the files, re-install said drivers but with an internet search while installing

this usually solves the printer problems but a couple times I told them to just get another printer
 
Right it appears you have just found the joyus hard lesson with GP deployed printers and removing them.
There is a reg key you have to remove from the PC's I believe Removing printers deployed by group policy
Also if your going to deploy printers I would look in to group policy preferences as thats what I use and it is far easier then gp deployed ones.
Also you can clear that reg key entry using group policy preferences too.
 
I found your site and I tried the reg key thing. It seems to be hit or miss for me. I'll try the preferences model next time. Or I'll just make them manually install anything they want.
 
This was something completely new to me. I tried it but it doesn't work. There are still printers here that shouldn't be and they cannot be removed. Also, now that I'm constantly opening up the devices and printers link I'm seeing how INCREDIBLY slow it is. It's like it scans the whole network looking for printer ports. I really hate printers!
 
I've been using computers for 20 years and I still consider printers as something that requires a certain amount of voodoo.
 
The thing that gets me steamed about printers is when the ink cost more than the printer itself!
 
with inkjets it is a case of buy new ink and get a printer free :) When the ink runs out - buy new printer.
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

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