Lesson 1:?Understanding Printer Administration
After your printing network is set up, you will be responsible for administering it. You can administer network printers at the print server or remotely over the network. This lesson introduces you to the four major tasks involved in administering network printers: managing printers, managing documents, troubleshooting printers, and performing tasks that require the Manage Printers permission. In this lesson you will also learn that before you can administer printers, you must know how to access them and control access to them.
After this lesson, you will be able to
- Identify the tasks and requirements for administering a printer
- Gain access to printers for administration
- Assign printer permissions to user accounts and groups
Estimated lesson time: 30 minutes
Managing Printers
Managing printers is one of the most important aspects of printer administration, and it includes the following tasks:
- Assigning forms to paper trays
- Setting a separator page
- Pausing, resuming, and canceling documents on a printer
- Redirecting documents
- Taking ownership of a printer
Managing Documents
A second major aspect of printer administration is managing documents, which includes the following tasks:
- Pausing and resuming a document
- Setting notification, priority, and printing time
- Deleting a document
Troubleshooting Printers
Troubleshooting printers, which means identifying and resolving all printer problems, is a third major aspect of printer administration. The types of problems you need to troubleshoot include the following:
- Printers that are off or offline
- Printers that are out of paper or out of ink
- Users who cannot print or cannot print correctly
- Users who cannot access a printer
Performing Tasks That Require the Manage Printers Permission
The following tasks involved with administering printers require the Manage Printers permission:
- Adding and removing printers
- Sharing printers
- Taking ownership of a printer
- Changing printer properties or permissions
By default, members of the Administrators and Power Users groups have the Manage Printers permission for all printers.
Accessing Printers
You can access printers for administration using the Printers And Faxes window. Windows XP Professional has an improved user interface to make it easier for you to perform daily tasks. When you select a printer icon, many of the common printer management and document management tasks are listed for you, as shown in Figure 7.1.
These tasks, as well as some additional printer management and document management tasks, are covered in later lessons in this chapter.
To access printers using the Printers And Faxes window, complete the following steps:
- Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
- In the Control Panel window, click Printers And Other Hardware, and then click Printers And Faxes.
- In the Printers And Faxes window, select the appropriate printer icon.
- After you have selected a printer icon, you can also use the File menu to manage printers and documents.
- Click Open to open the printer window to perform document management tasks.
- Click Properties to open the Properties dialog box to perform printer management tasks such as changing printer permissions or editing ActiveDirectory service information about the printer.
Setting Printer Permissions to Control Access
Windows XP Professional allows you to control printer usage and administration by assigning permissions. With printer permissions, you can control who can use a printer. You can also assign printer permissions to control who can administer a printer and the level of administration, which can include managing printers and managing documents.
For security reasons, you might need to limit user access to certain printers. You can also use printer permissions to delegate responsibilities for specific printers to users who are not administrators. Windows XP Professional provides three levels of printer permissions: Print, Manage Documents, and Manage Printers. Table 7.1 lists the capabilities of each level of permission.
Table 7.1??Printing Capabilities of Windows XP Professional Printer Permissions
You can allow or deny printer permissions. Denied permissions always override allowed permissions. For example, if you select the Deny check box next to Manage Documents for the Everyone group, no one can manage documents, even if you grant this permission to another user account or group. This is because all user accounts are members of the Everyone group.
Assigning Printer Permissions
By default, Windows XP Professional assigns the Print permission for each printer to the built-in Everyone group, allowing all users to send documents to the printer. You can also assign printer permissions to users or groups.
To assign printer permissions, complete the following steps:
- Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
- In the Control Panel window, click Printers And Other Hardware, and then click Printers And Faxes.
- In the Printers And Faxes window, right-click the appropriate printer icon, and then click Properties.
- Click the Security tab.
If your computer running Windows XP Professional is in a workgroup environment and you do not have a Security tab in your printer's Properties dialog box, close the Properties dialog box. In Explorer, on the Tool menu, click Folder Options and click the View tab. Clear the Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended) check box, and then display your Printer's Properties dialog box.
- In the Security tab, click Add.
- In the Select Users, Groups, Or Computers dialog box, select the appropriate user account or group, and then click Add. Repeat this step for all users or groups that you are adding.
- Click OK.
- In the Security tab, shown in Figure 7.2, select a user account or group, and then do one of the following:
- Click the permissions in the bottom part of the dialog box that you want to assign.
- Click Advanced and assign additional printer permissions that do not fit into the predefined permissions in the Security tab, and then click OK.
The bottom part of the dialog box shows the permissions granted to the user or group selected in the upper part.
- Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.
Modifying Printer Permissions
You can change the default printer permissions that Windows XP Professional assigned, or that you previously assigned for any user or group.
To modify printer permissions, complete the following steps:
- In the Printers And Faxes window, right-click the appropriate printer icon, and then click Properties.
- In the Security tab of the Properties dialog box for the printer, select the appropriate user account or group, and then do one of the following:
- Click the permissions that you want to change for the user or group.
- Click Advanced to modify additional printer permissions that do not fit into the predefined permissions in the Security tab.
- Click OK.
Lesson Review
The following questions will help you determine whether you have learned enough to move on to the next lesson. If you have difficulty answering these questions, review the material in this lesson before beginning the next lesson. The answers for these questions are in Appendix A, "Questions and Answers."
- What are the four major types of tasks involved with administering network printers?
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional allows you to control printer usage and administration by assigning _________________.
- Which level of printer permissions provided by Windows XP Professional grants users the ability to perform the most printing tasks?
- Manage Printers
- Manage Documents
- Print
- Full Control
- Which of the following tabs do you use to assign printer permissions to users and groups?
- Security tab of the Properties dialog box for the printer
- Security tab of the Properties dialog box for the user or group
- Permissions tab of the Properties dialog box for the printer
- Permissions tab of the Properties dialog box for the user or group
- Which Windows XP Professional printer permission allows users to pause, resume, restart, and cancel all other users' documents? (Choose all answers that are correct.)
- Print
- Manage Printers
- Full Control
- Manage Documents
Lesson Summary
- There are four major types of tasks in administering printers: managing printers, managing documents, troubleshooting printers, and performing tasks that require the Manage Printers permission.
- You can gain access to printers for administration by using the Printers And Faxes window accessed through Control Panel.
- Windows XP Professional allows you to control printer usage and administration by assigning permissions.