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How to connect Windows 10 desktops to a print server
There are many ways to manage Windows 10 and 11 printers, but a print server can be the best approach -- especially for enterprise organizations -- due to its centralization.
Print servers can facilitate centralized and efficient print management, offering advantages including lower cost, ease of configuration and access to many print devices with various capabilities.
There are many ways to approach printer management in the enterprise, but the Windows 10 Print Management tool offers a single interface for centralized print management -- a cost-effective and wide-ranging approach to managing printers -- in business environments.
The centralized printing management approach provides access to a few powerful network print devices managed by simple print servers and local printers for individual users.
Local printers. These attach directly to the users' system and may require specific toner, drivers and maintenance.
Network printers. These attach to the network and are shared by many users, so fewer management tasks are required. These devices are usually more feature rich.
Network print servers and devices offer many advantages over local printer configurations:
- It's easier to manage toner for a few standard print devices than for hundreds of locally deployed printers.
- Enterprise-class print devices reduce the cost per page of printing.
- Enterprise print devices typically need less maintenance and service.
- Centralized print permissions make maintaining security and availability easier.
As an IT administrator, your server admin team will typically construct the print server infrastructure. That team will also make connection specifications available, including hostname or IP address information, and expected access control details -- which users get access to which print devices.
Your job is to connect client systems to this print infrastructure to provide reliable, consistent and secure access to print services. This client computer component is an interface for configuring connectivity to one or more printers, enabling comprehensive administration and print job oversight. The Windows Print Management utility smoothly integrates Windows clients into this managed environment.
However, you should be aware that Microsoft differentiates between printer and print device in much of its documentation. Typically, a printer is considered configurable software, and a print device is the hardware component.
Windows 10 Print Management prerequisites and setup
Most editions of Windows 10 include the Print Management tool to provide a complete view of the printing environment and options in network environments. It enables access to local and network print services to manage schedules, access, queues, etc.
Windows 10 Home Edition does not include Print Management since Microsoft assumes most home users will not be managing a large printing infrastructure.
How to access Print Management
Accessing Print Management is straightforward. As with most things in Windows, there are multiple ways to find it. Here are a few options:
- Open the Run prompt by pressing Windows Key+R, then type "printmanagement.msc."
- Open the Windows PowerShell interface, then type "printmanagement.msc."
- Open the Search prompt by pressing Windows Key+S, then type "print manager."
You can always make a Desktop shortcut for quicker access.
Configure Print Management settings
Print Management almost has too many features to highlight in a tutorial such as this, but here are some of the major administrative areas that make it a strong option:
- View an entire print infrastructure from one interface.
- Manage multiple local and network printers from one tool.
- Manage print queues, including pausing, resuming and deleting jobs.
- Install, update or remove printer drivers.
- Administer printer features, including color settings, duplexing and other device capabilities.
- Configure per-user preferences.
How to manage print options
Use the steps in the previous section to open Print Management. You'll see the familiar tree or hierarchical structure Windows uses. Major nodes include Custom Filters, Print Servers and Deployed Printers. Expanding each node shows more granular detail.
The local system appears as a Print Server in the tree, enabling access to configuration options for Drivers, Forms, Ports and Printers. Use the Drivers node to update or roll back drivers, which is a common administrative action (Figure 1).
How to add a print server
Add a print server to a specific print device by right-clicking the Print Servers node and selecting Add/Remove Servers. Browse the network for available print servers deployed by your enterprise server team (Figure 2).
The new printer becomes a configuration node in the Print Servers section of the tree. Be aware that specific printer features will vary by print device. Options such as color, duplexing and collating are only available if the device supports them.
How to connect to a print server
Create an additional printer by right-clicking the new print server and selecting Add Printer. A setup wizard will appear, and you can search the network for advertised print devices -- specify a particular hostname or IP address -- or indicate a printer port.
Next, you can indicate the device's hostname or IP address, but IP addresses are usually more reliable (Figure 3). Using the latter method eliminates name resolution as an extra step in the configuration, reducing the number of things that can go wrong.
The Print Management utility will attempt to establish contact with the specified printer. Once it successfully connects, it will add a node to the Print Server. That node lets you manage printer-specific settings. The installation wizard should also detect and use the appropriate device driver, but you can manually browse to find the correct driver as well.
Next, specify a printer name. Users rely on this name, location and comment to verify which print device they're working with. A name such as "Color_Sales_Printer" could provide the relevant details (Figure 4).
Last, complete the wizard. You can send a test print page if you'd like. That's usually a good idea to ensure everything is correct. The printer will appear in the list.
How to manage Windows printer features and options
Now that you've added a printer to the interface, you can begin configuring its properties. These settings will vary by device. Select the Printers node under your Print Server. Your printer will appear in the list. Right-click the chosen printer and select Properties. This will bring you to the General Properties menu (Figure 5).
You can schedule printer availability from the Advanced tab. You can also manage network access to it from the Sharing and Security tabs and print test pages.
You may see a long list of additional options when you right-click the printer. These include managing the print queue, pausing printing, deploying the printer via Group Policy, or even managing network sharing (Figure 6).
The Custom Filters node in the main Printer Management tree contains two helpful child nodes that display printer status. The first is Printers Not Ready, showing offline or otherwise unavailable printers. The second node is Printers With Jobs, providing you with a view of print queues to see how busy specific printers are.
Damon Garn owns Cogspinner Coaction and provides freelance IT writing and editing services. He has written multiple CompTIA study guides, including the Linux+, Cloud Essentials+ and Server+ guides, and contributes extensively to TechTarget Editorial, The New Stack and CompTIA Blogs.
