Windows Server Hack [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 52 Set the Default Printer Based on Location

Using a combination of Group Policy and logon
scripts, you can easily assign different default printers to
different users.

At the college, where I work, we use
mandatory
profiles for students, who log into Windows XP machines in three
different computer labs in a Windows 2000 Active Directory
environment. Each lab has its own networked printer, which should be
used by students working in that lab. But the profile can have only
one default printer set, which obviously wouldn't
work, since students in two labs would default to a printer that
wasn't in their room.

The Code

Here is the quick and dirty VBScript that solves the problem:

set net = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
workstation=net.computername
location=left(workstation,2)
printername="
select case location
case "L1"  printername="L1 LaserJet"
case "L2"  printername="L2 LaserJet"
case "L3"  printername="L3 LaserJet"
End Select
if printername<>" then net.SetDefaultPrinter(printername)
set net = Nothing

Running the Hack

The script looks at the first two characters of the computer name
(this specifies which lab the computer is located in) and then sets
the default printer accordingly. If the student is logging on to a
computer that's not in one of the labs, the default
printer isn't changed. If you name printers
differently in your own environment, you might have to customize the
script further as needed.

We run this script in our own environment by specifying it as a logon
script using Group Policy (so legacy Windows 98 machines ignore it),
because all our labs have Windows XP anyway. All our machines also
have the necessary drivers installed and configured, and the printers
have the same names, so we just have to change the default printer.

Peter Rysavy