How to Install a Printer Driver (Guide) (WIP)

[rthonpm]

There's a much easier way to install printer drivers on a remote host than pnputil, especially for people more accustomed to the GUI. This assumes that you've launched printmanagement.msc with an account that has admin rights on the remote machine. On the left-hand side menu, you'll see three options, including Print Servers. This isn't exactly the same as the traditional printer server role for Windows Server, it's just any machine that has the print spooler service running.

Keep in mind that thanks to the forum software, the images are highly compressed and may not be completely clear, but they should at least give you some idea of what to look for...

print list.png

If you expand out the option, you'll see the local machine you're on, if you right click you can add other computers or servers and manage the same features on them remotely:

add_server.jpg

By adding another host, as long as it is connected to the same network or accessible on the same LAN, you can install or remove print drivers, create new TCP/IP ports, or add local printers. In the Print Nightmare world this makes deploying printers in a business environment much easier because you can pre-stage the driver for a shared printer on the computer so that when a standard user goes to install it, there's no admin prompt.

server list.jpg

two_servers.jpg

Connected to an actual print server, you can manage every facet of it without ever directly logging into the machine, which is especially handy for Server Core installs or just a supervised tweak from a client IT admin's machine.

It will make your life considerably easier, and will also work in a Workgroup environment as long as the admin credentials used on the local machine are identical to those on the remote one.

Quick and easy version of what I was going to post as a fuller guide, and really this is the true function of the msc module: remote management.

People may gripe about Windows, but of every major OS, it has the richest and most comprehensive set of tools for distributed management that are generally built into the OS.

[techsxge]

There's a much easier way to install printer drivers on a remote host than pnputil, especially for people more accustomed to the GUI. This assumes that you've launched printmanagement.msc with an account that has admin rights on the remote machine. On the left-hand side menu, you'll see three options, including Print Servers. This isn't exactly the same as the traditional printer server role for Windows Server, it's just any machine that has the print spooler service running.

Keep in mind that thanks to the forum software, the images are highly compressed and may not be completely clear, but they should at least give you some idea of what to look for...

print list.png

If you expand out the option, you'll see the local machine you're on, if you right click you can add other computers or servers and manage the same features on them remotely:

add_server.jpg

By adding another host, as long as it is connected to the same network or accessible on the same LAN, you can install or remove print drivers, create new TCP/IP ports, or add local printers. In the Print Nightmare world this makes deploying printers in a business environment much easier because you can pre-stage the driver for a shared printer on the computer so that when a standard user goes to install it, there's no admin prompt.

server list.jpg

two_servers.jpg

Connected to an actual print server, you can manage every facet of it without ever directly logging into the machine, which is especially handy for Server Core installs or just a supervised tweak from a client IT admin's machine.

It will make your life considerably easier, and will also work in a Workgroup environment as long as the admin credentials used on the local machine are identical to those on the remote one.

Quick and easy version of what I was going to post as a fuller guide, and really this is the true function of the msc module: remote management.

People may gripe about Windows, but of every major OS, it has the richest and most comprehensive set of tools for distributed management that are generally built into the OS.

I totally agree with this method.
pnputils (or ps/vbs) will still need to be used if you encounter an headless server which should serve as a print server..

I'll rework my part of the guide, add yours and then make a thread that ends in "print" which should bypass image compression.

[rthonpm]

pnputils (or ps/vbs) will still need to be used if you encounter an headless server which should serve as a print server.

Don't need it at all: you can install any driver on a remote machine through printmanagement. All you need to do is go under the Drivers tab of a remote machine and right click to get the option to add a driver.

[techsxge]

Don't need it at all: you can install any driver on a remote machine through printmanagement. All you need to do is go under the Drivers tab of a remote machine and right click to get the option to add a driver.

I'll be quite impressed if you can show me how to do this on a HEADLESS (No GUI) remote machine. ( Minus Admin Center )

[rthonpm]

I'll be quite impressed if you can show me how to do this on a HEADLESS (No GUI) remote machine. ( Minus Admin Center )

That's not quite the definition of headless (a system without a display attached), however you need to have the Print Server role installed ahead of time on a Server Core system otherwise you never get the install of the spooler service, but after that's in place you can manage it through printmanagement just like any workstation.

80% of the servers I've put in place over multiple clients are Server Core installs.

[Konicatech]

Some wild ways of doing things on here..

Here is how I do it:

1. Download print drivers and extract them somewhere

2. Click start and type in "Control Panel" and select it

3. Click "Devices & Printers"

4. Click "Add a printer"

5. Click "The printer I want isn't listed"

6. Click "Add a printer using an IP Address or hostname"

7. Change "Device Type" to "TCP/IP Device" and enter the IP Address or Hostname and click Next

8. Click have disk and browse to the driver you extracted in step 1

9. Select device from the list and follow the prompts, print test page and finish.

Done it this exact same way for years

[slimslob]

Some wild ways of doing things on here..

Here is how I do it:

1. Download print drivers and extract them somewhere

2. Click start and type in "Control Panel" and select it

3. Click "Devices & Printers"

4. Click "Add a printer"

5. Click "The printer I want isn't listed"

6. Click "Add a printer using an IP Address or hostname"

7. Change "Device Type" to "TCP/IP Device" and enter the IP Address or Hostname and click Next

8. Click have disk and browse to the driver you extracted in step 1

9. Select device from the list and follow the prompts, print test page and finish.

Done it this exact same way for years

Apparently you haven't installed one recently. You left o0ut a step for current version on Windows 11. Before you can click "Add a printer, you have to click "Printers & scanners" then add device.

[Konicatech]

Apparently you haven't installed one recently. You left o0ut a step for current version on Windows 11. Before you can click "Add a printer, you have to click "Printers & scanners" then add device.

You are wrong, you do not have to do that.

Click Start and type in Control Panel and it will come up, on ANY version of Windows including 11.

How to Find Control Panel in Windows 11 | Windows 11 Features - YouTube

[slimslob]

You are wrong, you do not have to do that.

Click Start and type in Control Panel and it will come up, on ANY version of Windows including 11.

How to Find Control Panel in Windows 11 | Windows 11 Features - YouTube

Maybe a year ago when that YouTube video was made but not any more but not with the current version of Windows 11.

[rthonpm]

Some wild ways of doing things on here..

Here is how I do it:

1. Download print drivers and extract them somewhere

2. Click start and type in "Control Panel" and select it

3. Click "Devices & Printers"

4. Click "Add a printer"

5. Click "The printer I want isn't listed"

6. Click "Add a printer using an IP Address or hostname"

7. Change "Device Type" to "TCP/IP Device" and enter the IP Address or Hostname and click Next

8. Click have disk and browse to the driver you extracted in step 1

9. Select device from the list and follow the prompts, print test page and finish.

Done it this exact same way for years

Which is all well and good on the system you're on, but what if you want to install a driver or printer on a system you don't have physical access to, or you want to clean up old drivers, or just want to pre-stage a driver without creating a printer?