Default Printer not changing with network

So, I have several different printers set up for different wireless networks that I connect to; the only problem is that Windows never refreshes or updates my default printer when I connect to a different wireless network.

If I go into the "Manage default printers" and click the network and printer combination (stored in the saved list below) and then click "Update" it will successfully update my default printer to the one it should be. However, that's kind of a pain to have to go through several menus just to update my default printer--it would be faster to do it the old-fashioned way (right click the printer and click "set as default printer").

Any ideas on why this isn't updating correctly--I haven't yet seen it update since setting up my default printers. Or, should this go in a different topic than Networking & Sharing?

Thanks!

bwood720 said:

So, I have several different printers set up for different wireless networks that I connect to; the only problem is that Windows never refreshes or updates my default printer when I connect to a different wireless network.

If I go into the "Manage default printers" and click the network and printer combination (stored in the saved list below) and then click "Update" it will successfully update my default printer to the one it should be. However, that's kind of a pain to have to go through several menus just to update my default printer--it would be faster to do it the old-fashioned way (right click the printer and click "set as default printer").

Any ideas on why this isn't updating correctly--I haven't yet seen it update since setting up my default printers. Or, should this go in a different topic than Networking & Sharing?

Thanks!

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I've never known Windows to change default printers when a network changes. There are utilities you can use that will do this, but nothing is built into Windows.

Check out this thread:

Set default printer based on network location

it's a new, built-in feature of Windows 7 (check your "Devices and Printers" button on the start menu. When you click on a printer, you see a button at the top of the window that appears, saying "Manage Default Printers".

I totally forgot about this new feature. Thanks for refreshing my memory. How are you switching networks? Are you restarting the computer when going to a new network?

99% of the time I go into sleep mode. I entered hibernation today for the first time in a while (as my battery ran low and didn't want to shut down). I noticed that it did change my default printer to the proper one.

Maybe it is a defect with sleep mode?

bwood720 said:

99% of the time I go into sleep mode. I entered hibernation today for the first time in a while (as my battery ran low and didn't want to shut down). I noticed that it did change my default printer to the proper one.

Maybe it is a defect with sleep mode?

Maybe. Try this experiment:

- Keep the computer powered on. Manually switch networks and see if the default printer changes.
- Turn off the computer. Turn it on and select the new network. See if the default printer changes.
- Check your sleep power settings. See if the network is allowed to turn off. Play with the settings to see if you can identify something that might be causing the problem.

So, I had this nice long reply to post about my findings, and it was beginning to look quite conclusive. However, all of a sudden it starting working as it should. So, I'm not sure what would have changed that (since I didn't really change much). I will have to continue testing to see if I can get the problem to come back (or maybe it works or doesn't work every so often).

so, somehow either messing around with settings, or doing what kegobeer suggested solved my problem. It's just too bad that I'm not sure what ended up fixing it.