Weird GPO Issue (User Conf -> Policies -> Win Sett -> Printer Connections?!)

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

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Having a bit of a problem in my group policy.

The default domain policy has a setting which maps a default printer. However the printer now no longer exists (neither does the server it is referencing either).

I've opened up the default domain policy and the location where it says this policy is defined doesn't actually exist.

2z6i3df.jpg


Does anyone know where it is? Or how I access it as I want to remove it!

Servers are 2008R2 if that makes a difference.

Thanks.
 
Firstly, never alter the default domain policy, makes things more difficult if you get issues or make an error.

You would need to add the Print Management as a Feature from the server manager in order to show the option in GPM.
 
Using the default domain policy for anything other than security policy is one of my biggest annoyance in corporate networks. *bangs head on keyboard*

You will need to load the group policy management from a windows 2008 or windows 7 machine to get the new group policy objects which includes the printer deployment section.

Install the remote administration tools on your windows 7 client and enable the group policy management. make sure you have the necessary admin groups i think it is the schema admin and enterprise admin that you need for changing group policy. Alternatively run the group policy management as another user shift+ right click and run it as your sysadmin account.
 
At this one site that i work at, they added everything in to the default domain policy and it is royally screwed up. They have the citrix TS roaming profiles enabled for all servers and user accounts due it being in the default domain policy. this means that when you rdp in to any servers it uses a roaming profile and to make it worse DUMB it people before me copied 1gb of data on the desktop. So every time i log in to a server it copies 1gb of data. If only that was the only problem that this default domain policy has caused :(
 
:confused:
groen said:
Using the default domain policy for anything other than security policy is one of my biggest annoyance in corporate networks. *bangs head on keyboard*

You will need to load the group policy management from a windows 2008 or windows 7 machine to get the new group policy objects which includes the printer deployment section.

Install the remote administration tools on your windows 7 client and enable the group policy management. make sure you have the necessary admin groups i think it is the schema admin and enterprise admin that you need for changing group policy. Alternatively run the group policy management as another user shift+ right click and run it as your sysadmin account.
Click to expand...

groen said:
At this one site that i work at, they added everything in to the default domain policy and it is royally screwed up. They have the citrix TS roaming profiles enabled for all servers and user accounts due it being in the default domain policy. this means that when you rdp in to any servers it uses a roaming profile and to make it worse DUMB it people before me copied 1gb of data on the desktop. So every time i log in to a server it copies 1gb of data. If only that was the only problem that this default domain policy has caused :(
Click to expand...

This second post is not 2 minutes after the first. There are buttons for editing, just thought I'd mention it in case you didn't know...:confused:
 
groen said:
Yea that is usually the case, I was not insinuating that you did it. I have these similar problems of inheriting sites that are in a bad condition. At least we can learn a lot while trying to fix all these odd issues. :D
Click to expand...

Aye yeh, keeps me on my toes haha!
 
groen said:
<snip> make sure you have the necessary admin groups i think it is the schema admin and enterprise admin that you need for changing group policy. </snip>
Click to expand...

You need to be either a user who has delegated permission on the GPO or a domain admin. Enterprise Admin would only be needed for forest level changes (nothing to do with policies for a domain) and a schema admin would only be for schema changes to the directory. :)
 
Baz said:
Firstly, never alter the default domain policy, makes things more difficult if you get issues or make an error.

You would need to add the Print Management as a Feature from the server manager in order to show the option in GPM.
Click to expand...

So I need to add Print Management on the DC to get it to work?

Those screenies came from me being logged in on the DC btw.
 
Add the print management feature to whatever box you want to be the print server. If you already have a print server, install the print management feature and then in the MMC connect to the print server. Make sure there are printers installed and working :)

Then, in Print Manager MMC, expand the depoyed printers tree, right click and choose deploy printer. You can also advertise it in AD from here too. Add the printers and choose which GPO they should be applied to. Make sure you always click "Add" or "Update", I can't remember which as I'm not near one, so that they appear in the lower window of the deploy wizard. Then, drop back to the GPO and refresh it
 
I am pretty sure it is the new windows 7 wdmx group policy objects that give the printer deployment policies not printer management because none of our dc have printer management installed and i can view the deployed printers option from my windows 7 machine via group policy management.
 
groen said:
I am pretty sure it is the new windows 7 wdmx group policy objects that give the printer deployment policies not printer management because none of our dc have printer management installed and i can view the deployed printers option from my windows 7 machine via group policy management.
Click to expand...


Your thinking of Print Preferences which are located under User Config/Preferences/Control Panel Settings/Printers.

Printers located under User Config/Policies/Windows Settings/Printer Connections have been added by Print Management.
 
groen said:
You will need to load the group policy management from a windows 2008 or windows 7 machine to get the new group policy objects which includes the printer deployment section.
Click to expand...

You're getting GP mixed up with Group Policy Preferences.

The screenshot above shows that the mapping was done as part of Group Policy, and not as a Preference. The two are completely different, even though they're managed from within gpmc.

For the OP, I suspect this is how it was originally deployed.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722179(v=ws.10).aspx

I'd remove all the other rubbish from that policy as well and create seperate GPO's as should have been done in the first place - some muppets really need a slap for using the default domain policy as the main policy (not you as you've already stated :P).
 
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