Windows XP Default Printer

[Dale Goodell]

In our Library, we have several printers installed
for use with public workstations spread out around
the building.  Within this scheme, each area has its
own printer, which is the default for those
workstations.  For instance, the east side of our
reference area defaults to the Gold Printer; the
west side defaults to the Tan Printer.  I have
things configured so that every public computer can
print to any public printer in the building, not
just to the default.  Most of the time, this scheme
works very well for us.

The down side to all of this, however, is when a
printer goes down and needs to be taken out of
service for an extended period.  For example, what
we’ve done in the past when the Tan Printer has been
down is to change the default printer in that area
to another printer, say, the Gold Printer.  This
involves a fair amount of work, as we have about
20-25 machines in each area, with Deep Freeze
installed on each.

Has anyone successfully implemented a solution where
each workstation defaults to “NO” printer, thereby
forcing the user to select a printer to send their
job to?  If a particular printer were down, we would
simply remove the printer and put up appropriate
signage.

If I went with such a solution, the “default”
printer for each workstation would simply be a
printer choice that reads something like “Please
Select a Printer”.  If a user did, in fact, send
their job to the default, it would be nice for it to
be saved as a file somewhere for later redirection
to a “real” printer and to have the job removed from
the Windows spooler

I am running Windows XP Pro with IE6 and many other
programs.  

I’d like to have one of my students look into this,
but I wanted to find out if and how others may have
implemented a similar system.

Thank you for your help.

----Dale

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Dale E. Goodell
Information Technology Consultant
Hamersly Library -- Western Oregon University
345 N. Monmouth Avenue
Monmouth, OR 97361

Voice:   503-838-8891
Fax:     503-838-8399
E-mail:  goodeld at wou.edu
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