To deploy printer connections to users or computers by using Group Policy, you must add the printer connections to a Group Policy object (GPO) as described in the procedure.

To deploy printers to users or computers by using Group Policy
  1. Open Print Management.

  2. In the left pane, click Print Servers, click the applicable print server, and click Printers.

  3. In the center pane, right-click the applicable printer, and then click Deploy with Group Policy.

  4. In the Deploy with Group Policy dialog box, click Browse, and then choose or create a new GPO for storing the printer connections.

  5. Click OK.

  6. Specify whether to deploy the printer connections to users, or to computers:

    • To deploy to groups of computers so that all users of the computers can access the printers, select the The computers that this GPO applies to (per machine) check box.

    • To deploy to groups of users so that the users can access the printers from any computer they log onto, select the The users that this GPO applies to (per user) check box.

    Note

    Client computers running Windows 2000 do not support per-computer connections.

  7. Click Add.

  8. Repeat steps 3 through 6 to add the printer connection setting to another GPO, if necessary.

  9. Click OK.

Note

For per-computer connections, Windows adds the printer connections when the user logs on (or when the computer restarts if you are using the PushPrinterConnections.exe utility). For per-user connections, Windows adds the printer connections during background policy refresh (or when the user logs on if you are using the PushPrinterConnections.exe utility). If you remove the printer connection settings from the GPO, Windows removes the corresponding printers from the client computer during the next background policy refresh or user logon (or on the next restart or user logon if you are using the PushPrinterConnections.exe utility).

Additional considerations

  • To open Print Management, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Print Management.

Additional references