Printer Pruner May Not Remove Printer Queue Objects from Active Directory

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

SYMPTOMS

Print queues that have been orphaned in Active Directory may continue to appear in Active Directory, even though the print server no longer hosts the print queue and Printer Pruner is configured correctly and has had adequate time to attempt to remove the object from Active Directory.

CAUSE

Printer Pruner detects that a given PrintQueue object is orphaned by contacting the print server and comparing the printer object to the Active Directory PrintQueue object. If the printer on the print server restricts access to Printer Pruner, Printer Pruner cannot perform the comparison and cannot delete the PrintQueue object.

For proper Printer Pruner operation, a printer must grant access to the Everyone group and/or the Domain Controllers group.

By default, when a printer is created, the Everyone group is granted Print access. If this permission is removed and the printer is published, Print access must be granted for the Domain Controllers group on the printer. Otherwise, Printer Pruner cannot do its job and Active Directory will contain stale PrintQueue objects.

RESOLUTION

Make sure that the Everyone group or the Domain Controllers group has access to all printers that are published in Active Directory.

Additional query words: ds service spoolsv spool gpo

Keywords : kbprint kbtool
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb