Need some Windows 7 Help Here

[Neutron]

So one of my mini projects is to get the 5 printers we have in our building on the network and set up on the server using print queues. That part was easy and I was able to install all 5 printers on my Windows 7 laptop just fine using the print queues and installing of drivers too straight from the server.

The fun part is trying to get other machines to do the same. I have local admin rights on my laptop since I'm the IT guy here.

The other users in the building are not local admins. The network we have is a Server 2003 domain and Windows 7 machines for all of our desktops and laptops. When I go to a user's PC and try to install the printers via the server (whether it be through using the UNC in a run box or adding it as a network printer) it goes to install the drivers for the printer and errors out saying cannot connect to printer with either an error code of 0x0000002 or 0x0000007e (If I remember correctly).

I have given the driver location on the server the proper security permissions. I've tried setting permissions via a GPO to allow non-administrators to install drivers for printers. Am I missing something here??

 

[diogen]

Is the server an AD controller? Do the clients perform a domain login?

IIRC, the printer sharing on the server side (for the AD login scenario) was introduced in WS 2003 R2.
By printer sharing I mean every printer installed on the server automatically shows up on clients.
Workstation OS flavour is irrelevant. Don't know whether it can be worked around.

Diogen.

 

[Neutron]

Server is WS 2003 R2. The server is not the AD controller as that server is 450 miles away in our headquarters.

 

[diogen]

I don't understand the setup.

You say "The network we have is a Server 2003 domain...".
So you have a domain controller clients login to. Is that a different (local) server?

You say "... adding it as a network printer".
That means direct connection to the printer bypassing the server.
Does this attempt return the same error code?

Are you sure you don't mix x86 and x64 printer drivers?

Maybe this discussion can help.

Diogen.

 

[Neutron]

The DC is a Server 2003 R2 box that is different from our server here. The DC is located 450 miles away. The server we have here is just a file and print server here locally. That's the server I set up the print queues on. For every print queue it has the x86 drivers by default and I added the x64 drivers under "additional drivers". it works fine on my Windows 7 x64 machine but then again I am a local admin to my laptop.

We are using Windows 7 Professional x64 for all of our client machines. The printers we have are: 3 Canon multifunction (imageRunner series, 2 B/W and 1 Color), an OKI color printer, and an HP officejet.

 

[diogen]

Must be something with the drivers/registry (what the discussion in the linked page is about).

Have you tried to just give one of the users local admin rights (temporarily) and see whether anything changes?

When you talked about GPO changes, did you mean on the AD?
If you have admin rights, install those printers on that server instead.

Diogen.

 

[Neutron]

Service pack 1 resolved it. Thank you!!

Now my only issue is deleting network printers on a w7 box with no local admin rights.

 

[Neutron]

Found a workaround about deleting a network printer on a machine with a non-admin logged into it. I did a run as different user to run cmd and opened up the mmc then printer management and deleted it that way.

Thanks for your help!! Your link pointed me in the right direction!