Server 2008 - Changes to Printers not deploying?

osaddictosaddict London, UK
edited October 2009 in Science & Tech
In order to save money, I've been instructed to get everyone to be printing in draft quality on both of the deployed printers we have. We never use print outs for anything except internal use so the reduction in quality is not really a concern. We are running Windows Server 2008, and have a Dell 2300dn and a HP3055.

So, I logged on to the server and did the following:

Server Manager --> Roles --> Print Services --> Print Management --> Print Servers --> ServerName --> Printers

Now, I right clicked on one of the deployed printers, the Dell 2300dn for example, I went to properties then changed the print settings to use draft.

I was under the impression that since I had made this change to a deployed printer that all clients would receive these changes and therefore be printing in draft quality, alas that's not the case.

I made the change on both printers and neither have had an impact on client settings, these changes were made on Tuesday afternoon, since then people have logged on and off, shut down etc, yet still no one is printing in draft quality.

Is there a way I can centrally manage this - I'd rather do that than go round to 60 people's machines - Any help greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • AnnesAnnes Tripped Up by Libidos and Hubris Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    I've only done this with Server 2003, but it should be the same.

    On your print server got to Control Panel -> Printers. Right-click the printer you'd like to configure then head to the Advanced tab and click on the Printing Defaults button. This should pop-up the printer settings and whatever you change here should change for everyone using the printer.
  • osaddictosaddict London, UK
    edited October 2009
    Yeah, that's basically what I've done. Which is why I expected any changes to be reflected in the clients settings - perhaps with a slight time lag, but there you go :/
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited October 2009
    When the printers were setup on the various workstations. Where they setup through the print server or just installed like a local printer but pointing to an IP instead of a port?

    Regardless of that answer. You should be able to go onto those printers through their web interfaces and lock down that they print in draft mode.
  • osaddictosaddict London, UK
    edited October 2009
    kryyst wrote:
    When the printers were setup on the various workstations. Where they setup through the print server or just installed like a local printer but pointing to an IP instead of a port?

    Regardless of that answer. You should be able to go onto those printers through their web interfaces and lock down that they print in draft mode.

    They weren't 'setup' through the work stations, they were deployed via group policy - so take the brand new PC I unpacked and got up and running today - as soon as I logged on to it (as a new user) the printers were there and ready to go.

    I've gone into the web interface of the printers too - that was the first thing did actually - I changed both of them to draft/economode/600dpi etc.

    So yeah, a combination of changing the web interface settings from the browser, and changing the settings in the deployed printers has left me a bit confused!
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited October 2009
    Hmmm not sure. If you've changed it in all those places, it should be stuck. The econo mode and 600dpi settings won't show up on the PC's they just take precedent over the driver settings.
  • osaddictosaddict London, UK
    edited October 2009
    I think that's hit the nail on the head Kryyst - the Dell one says 'normal' and the settings are 'use printer default' so whilst you can choose draft, normal will in fact be draft anyway!

    I printed the same document using 'normal' (printer defaults), draft and best, the only difference could be seen with best, indicating that normal and draft equate to the same thing. The HP is slightly different but essentially looks to be the same.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited October 2009
    Yeah with modern b/w laser printers the difference between normal and draft are negligible in most cases. Where you'll notice it most are on documents with lots of graphics. It won't be as sharp and the lines generally not quite as solid. However on regular general office documents you shouldn't notice a difference. One caveat spreadsheets can sometimes be noticeably effected with lines looking a little wavy and small print as well.
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