How to View Printer Objects in Active Directory

ID: Q235925

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SUMMARY

When you create a printer share on a Windows 2000-based computer that is a member of Active Directory, the printer is set to be published in Active Directory by default. This article describes how to view and manipulate these objects after the printer is shared and added to Active Directory.

MORE INFORMATION

The Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in is the primary tool you can use to view objects and containers in the Active Directory. In normal conditions, Active Directory (in conjunction with the printer pruning service) makes sure that orphaned print queues are removed. If you want to manually remove orphaned queues or if you want to move the hierarchical location of the printer shares, you can either manage the queues location in the directory structure or remove the queue from Active Directory without unsharing it.

You can view printer objects in Active Directory by clicking Users, Groups, and Computers as containers from the View menu in the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in. By default, printer objects are created under the machine object in which they are shared. After you turn on the Users, Groups, and Computers as containers option, you can see printers by expanding the printer's host computer.

If you right-click a printer, the following menu options are available:

Move
Connect
Open
Properties

If you click Properties, you can change some of the query information for Active Directory searches (for example, color, staple, double-sided, print speed, and maximum resolution). When a printer is installed using a standard TCP/IP port, this information is obtained by Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and populated within the printer share by default.

For more information about the pruning service and other controls for printers in Active Directory and Windows 2000, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q234270 Using Group Policies to Control Printers in Active Directory

Additional query words:

Keywords :
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto