Controlling printers installed on another computer

[pricetech]

First, let me clarify what I'm asking with a scenario;
We have a branch where we have a server (Server 2003) and four workstations (Windows XP Professional) all part of an internal domain we'll just call "ours.internal" so that it has a name. All 5 computers print to two network printers, one monochrome, one color.

All of this works just fine. There are no connectivity or authentication issues whatsoever.

The four workstations are public access computers. To control print costs we have paused the printers on each workstation and Group Policy prevents the public users from accessing the "Printers and Faxes" folder to resume them.

In order for the public's print jobs to actually be printed, the public user pays the staff on site and the staff person connects to the "Printers and Faxes" folder on the particular workstation, from the server, and resumes printing to print out the job, then pauses the printer again when the job is done.

This method works for a lot of folks who's budget simply doesn't include funding for a better solution and it has worked flawlessly for us since implemented.

Here's the issue;

Introduced a Windows 7 Professional workstation into mix. It too is a member of the domain. It too has policies applied and paused printers, so public can't just dump unwanted print jobs to the printers. I even have roaming profiles working so I can standardize the desktop and change it on a whim if I like.

However:

I can't see the folder that contains the printers over the network.

Please understand I'm not having trouble printing to the printers, connecting to the workstations or the server, authenticating if I want to browse the administrative shares, etc. I just can't see the printers on the Windows 7 workstation and I need to be able to see them in order for us to control the printers on that workstation.

Anybody else using this method, and hopefully found a way to make it work under 7 ???

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read the post.

 

[pricetech]

Not just a bump, but a solution;
I discovered that if one shares a printer, ANY printer, even with a hidden share name, the printers folder suddenly becomes visible. Server 2003 even sees it as "Printers and Faxes" just as if it was looking at an XP box. And... The printers folder continues to be visible even if you stop sharing the printer. Now, I have not tested that last part long term, so I don't know that it would stay that way "always and forever".

Here's my full solution;
Each of the public computers has, in addition to one color and one monochrome printer, a PDF converter called "CutePDF". This virtual printer I share as "pdf$" so that SOMETHING is shared.

So far so good. Hope maybe this helps someone else.

I also want to take the time to thank my fellow "forumites" for not posting "cookie cutter" responses that have nothing to do with the problem, just to score points. Zero responses is way better than umpteen irrelevant responses.
Makes this a quality forum.

Joe

 

[seavixen32]

Just to show that all threads get read at some time or other I would like to apologise for the fact you didn't get a reply, although if I'm honest I wouldn't have had an answer for you.

However, I would like to say thanks for posting your solution.

You have kindly stated this is a quality forum - we like to think it is too. It is widely accessed by people all over the world and the fact you've kept us up-to-date may help someone with a similar problem in the future.