Have a bit of a strange issue with printers on Windows 8. our environment has domain joined clients (Windows 7, and I am testing Windows 8 before rolling out), printers are shared on a server and deployed to clients using group policy preferences. all our
users are standard users, they do not have admin rights.
if a user wants to remove a printer under windows 7 they simply right click on it and select remove device, this can be useful when we had dead printer connections, the connection wont come back if its removed from the GPP, however if they do accidentally
remove a printer they shouldn't, this printer just gets added back when GP refreshes or they next log in - this is the behaviour we want and I believe this is how it's supposed to work.
however, with windows 8 when a user wishes to remove the printer the remove device option has an administrative symbol next to it, but it does allow the printer to be removed.... sort of... when you right click on a printer normally it gives you a list of
options such as "printing properties", "printing preferences", "see whats printing"... however when the device is removed its almost as if a "shadow" of the former printer still exists, but does not contain such an extensive
list of options, it does however still have the remove device option with the admin symbol, but this time if the user clicks on it then it asks for administrative credentials. its almost as if windows 8 is putting the removed device in a holding state waiting
for admin approval to remove it completely. even though the printer is in this state and appears in the device list, it can not be printed to, its not a proper printer as it does not have any of the printing options.
why is windows 8 doing this but windows 7 doesn't, I want the behaviour windows 7 had and remove the device completely from view. even after a system restart the devices are still there, but just can't be used. over time this will equate to a very large
list of stale printer icons which aren't ....actually printers....
Steve
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users are standard users, they do not have admin rights.
if a user wants to remove a printer under windows 7 they simply right click on it and select remove device, this can be useful when we had dead printer connections, the connection wont come back if its removed from the GPP, however if they do accidentally
remove a printer they shouldn't, this printer just gets added back when GP refreshes or they next log in - this is the behaviour we want and I believe this is how it's supposed to work.
however, with windows 8 when a user wishes to remove the printer the remove device option has an administrative symbol next to it, but it does allow the printer to be removed.... sort of... when you right click on a printer normally it gives you a list of
options such as "printing properties", "printing preferences", "see whats printing"... however when the device is removed its almost as if a "shadow" of the former printer still exists, but does not contain such an extensive
list of options, it does however still have the remove device option with the admin symbol, but this time if the user clicks on it then it asks for administrative credentials. its almost as if windows 8 is putting the removed device in a holding state waiting
for admin approval to remove it completely. even though the printer is in this state and appears in the device list, it can not be printed to, its not a proper printer as it does not have any of the printing options.
why is windows 8 doing this but windows 7 doesn't, I want the behaviour windows 7 had and remove the device completely from view. even after a system restart the devices are still there, but just can't be used. over time this will equate to a very large
list of stale printer icons which aren't ....actually printers....
Steve
View the full article