Posted by Devin Anderson
Are you using Windows Server 2012 as your print management solution? Are you seeing things like the additional drivers greyed out? Maybe it’s not showing printers or the printers appear to be missing altogether?
You can run into lots of problems when using Windows Server 2012 as your print server, particularly when pushing out printers to your end users with group policy objects (GPOs). GPO scripts might be relatively easy to create, but GPO settings certainly aren’t forgiving, and something as basic as an unchecked box can cause a deployment to fail. That’s usually followed by hours and hours of troubleshooting.
With PrinterLogic, however, you can overcome all the limitations of utilizing Windows Server 2012 as a print server. PrinterLogic allows you to deploy printers to the Active Directory (AD) user, computer, group, container or organizational unit (OU) with a lot less fuss than Window Server 2012 normally requires. Better still? Not only can you fine-tune further options within container and OU deployments, you can also deploy your printer according to hostname, IP address (or range thereof), or even the MAC address of the workstation.
Furthermore, deployments that you schedule in PrinterLogic are installed after the user has logged in to his or her workstation—unlike GPOs or scripts, which take place while a user is logging into his or her workstation. That simultaneous process makes troubleshooting and error logging a lot more difficult with Windows Server 2012 than with PrinterLogic.
That’s why more and more companies of all sizes have used their Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2012 print server migration as a chance to put true best practices into action and make a wholesale switch to PrinterLogic, eliminating the slowness, hassle and frustration of print servers for good.
If you’re running Windows Server 2012 right now and experiencing any of these issues, there’s good news. PrinterLogic features a simple import utility that is designed to make the print management migration effortless. It does so by copying the following information from your Windows Server 2012 print server into the PrinterLogic database:
- Printer name
- Location information
- Comments
- Port name (IP or hostname)
- Protocol (RAW or LPR)
- Both 32- and 64-bit drivers for that printer
Once the import has completed successfully, you can use PrinterLogic alongside Windows Server 2012 or you can permanently abandon your print servers along with all their problems. With or without Windows Server 2012 as your print server, PrinterLogic will allow you to centrally manage all the printers in your organization from its single web-based administrative console and deploy them as direct IP printers to your end users. You’ll wind up with greater at-a-glance control over your print environment, yet day-to-day management will be simplified—as will the printing experience for your end users.
Who would have thought that Windows Server 2012 issues could have such a great outcome?