Configure a Shared Printer Item

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

The Printers preference extension allows you to create, configure and delete shared printer connections by using the Shared Printers preference item. Before you create a Shared Printer preference item, you should review the behavior of each type of action possible with the extension.

Creating a Shared Printer item

To create a new Shared Printer preference item

  1. Open the Group Policy Management Console. Right-click the Group Policy Object (GPO) that should contain the new preference item, and then click Edit.

  2. In the console tree under User Configuration, expand the Preferences folder, and then expand the Control Panel Settings folder.

  3. Right-click the Printers node, point to New, and select Shared Printer.

  4. In the New Shared Printer Properties dialog box, select an Action for Group Policy to perform. (For more information, see "Actions" in this topic.)

  5. Enter shared printer settings for Group Policy to configure or remove. (For more information, see "Shared printer settings" in this topic.)

  6. Click the Common tab and configure any options desired. (For more information, see Configure Common Options.)

  7. Click OK. The new preference item appears in the results pane.

Actions

This type of preference item provides a choice of four actions: Create, Replace, Update, and Delete. The behavior of the preference item varies with the action selected and whether the printer connection already exists.

Important

Create

Replace

Delete and recreate the shared printer connection. The net result of the Replace action overwrites all existing settings associated with the shared printer connection. If the shared printer connection does not exist, then the Replace action creates a new shared printer connection.

Update

Modify a shared printer connection. The action differs from Replace in that it updates the settings defined within the preference item. All other settings remain as they were previously configured. If the shared printer connection does not exist, then the Update action creates a new shared printer connection.

Shared Printer settings

Important

Share path