■ If a compatible driver is not available and you want to install a new driver, select Install A New Driver, and then tap or click Next. Specify the print device manufacturer to enable Windows Server to assign a printer driver to the print device. After you choose a print device manufacturer, choose a printer model.
REAL WORLD If the device manufacturer and model you’re using aren’t displayed in the list, tap or click Windows Update. Windows will then connect to the Windows Update website to update the list of printers to show additional models. This feature is part of the automatic driver provisioning feature. It can take several minutes to retrieve the updated list. You should then be able to select your printer manufacturer and model. If you can’t, download the driver from the manufacturer’s website, and then extract the driver files. Tap or click Have Disk. In the Install From Disk dialog box, tap or click Browse. In the Locate File dialog box, locate the.inf driver file for the device, and then tap or click Open.
9. Assign a name to the printer. This is the name that will be listed in Print Management.
10. Specify whether the printer is available to remote users. To create a printer accessible to remote users, select the Share Name option, and then enter a name for the shared resource. In a large organization, you should use a share name that is logical and helpful in locating the printer. For example, Twelfth Floor NE would be a good name for the printer that points to the print device in the northeast corner of the twelfth floor.
11. If you like, you can enter a location description and comment. This information can help users find a printer and determine its capabilities. Tap or click Next.
12. The final page lets you review the settings. When you’re ready to complete the installation, tap or click Next.
13. After Windows installs the printer driver and configures the printer, you’ll get a status page. Ensure that the driver and printer installation succeeded before continuing. If there were errors, you need to correct any problems and repeat this process. To test the printer, select Print Test Page, and then tap or click Finish. To install another printer, select Add Another Printer, and then tap or click Finish.
14. By default, the printer share is not listed in Active Directory. Listing the printer share in Active Directory makes it possible for users to search for and find the printer more easily. If you want the printer share to be listed in Active Directory, select the Printers node in the left pane, press and hold or right-click the printer in the main window, and then select List In Directory.
15. By default, print jobs are sent to the print server where they are rendered and then sent to the printer. You can change this behavior by using Branch Office Direct Printing. With Branch Office Direct Printing, print jobs are rendered on client computers and then sent directly to the printer. If you want to enable direct printing, select the Printers node in the left pane, press and hold or right-click the printer in the main window, and then select Enable Branch Office Direct Printing.
When the Network Printer Installation Wizard finishes installing the new printer, the Printers folder will have an additional icon with the name set the way you specified. You can change the printer properties and check printer status at any time. For more information, see “Configuring printer properties” later in this chapter.
TIP If you repeat this process, you can create additional printers for the same print device. All you need to do is change the printer name and share name. having additional printers for a single print device makes it possible for you to set different properties to serve different needs. For example, you could have a high-priority printer for print jobs that need to be printed immediately and a low-priority printer for print jobs that aren’t as urgent.
Connecting to printers created on the network
After you create a network printer, remote users can connect to it and use it much as they do any other printer. You need to set up a connection on a user-by-user basis or have users do this themselves. To create a connection to the printer on a Windows 7 system, follow these steps:
1. With the user logged on, tap or click Start, and then tap or click Devices And Printers. In Devices And Printers, tap or click Add A Printer to start the Add Printer Wizard.
2. Select Add A Network, Wireless Or Bluetooth Printer. The wizard searches for available devices.
3. If the printer you want is listed in the Select A Printer list, tap or click it, and then tap or click Next.
4. If the printer you want is not listed in the Select A Printer list, tap or click The Printer That I Want Isn’t Listed. On the Find A Printer By Name Or TCP/IP Address page, do one of the following:
■ To browse the network for shared printers, choose Find A Printer In The Directory, Based On Location Or Feature, and then tap or click Next. Tap or click the printer to use, and then tap or click Select.
■ To specify the printer to use by its share path, choose Select A Shared Printer By Name. Enter the UNC path to the shared printer, such as \\PrintServer12\Twelfth Floor NE, or the Web path to an Internet Printer, such as http://PrintServer12/Printers/IPrinter52/.printer.
■ To specify a printer to use by TCP/IP address or host name, select Add A Printer Using A TCP/IP Address Or Hostname, and then tap or click Next. Choose a device type, and then enter the host name or IP address for the printer, such as 192.168.1.90 . If you select the Autodetect or TCP/IP Device options, the wizard will set the port name to the same value, but you can also choose a different value. Tap or click Next.
5. On the Type A Printer Name page, the printer name is set for you. You can accept the default name or enter a new name. Tap or click Next to install the printer, and then tap or click Finish. The user can now print to the network printer by selecting the printer in an application. The Device And Printers folder on the user’s computer shows the new network printer as well.
To create a connection to the printer on a Windows 8.1 system, follow these steps:
1. In Devices And Printers, tap or click Add A Printer. The Add Printer Wizard attempts to detect the printer automatically.
If the wizard finds the printer with which you want to work, tap or click it in the list provided, follow the prompts, and skip the rest of the steps in this procedure.
If the wizard doesn’t find the printer, tap or click The Printer That I Want Isn’t Listed, and then complete the rest of this procedure.
2. In the Add Printer Wizard, tap or click Add Bluetooth, Wireless Or Network Discoverable Printer.
3. In the list of available printers, select the printer you want to use, and then tap or click Next.
4. If prompted, install the printer driver on your computer. Complete the additional steps in the wizard, and then tap or click Finish. You can confirm the printer is working by printing a test page.
If you have trouble connecting to the printer, try the following as part of troubleshooting:
■ Be sure that a firewall isn’t blocking connectivity to the printer. You might need to open a firewall port to enable access between the computer and the printer.