Automatic Printer Defaulting-is it possible?

[janshim]

I work at three different locations, each with its own printer and hence three different printer drivers. OS is WinXP Pro(SP1) and laptop is Dell Inspiron 8500 2.6GHz. Is it possible automatically 'default' a printer based on the IP address it detects since all three locations run static IP.

Office1 - HP LaserJet 1200 (direct connect)
Office2 - HP LaserJet 2200 (network printer)
Office3 - Canon LBP-800 (network share)


Jan Shim

 

[sturm]

You can set up all 3 printers in the os and then just right click one and set to default. Until you change that it will stay the default printer. You should still be able to select a different printer if you need to from the printer setup in the application you are using if you only need to use it once.

 

[janshim]

yes i am aware of the conventional methods. Many times a week I have had to swap between these three printers and it literally becomes a pain. I'm in IT and move around a fair bit, it's impossible to remember change printer defaults all the time--this method is now ineffective and more often than not, I send prints to the wrong printer and it's frustrating having to cancel a print that has been mistakenly sent to the PRINT MANAGER that refuses to print because the DEFAULT printer doesn not exist.

There's got to be a third-party utility that does what I need perhaps Microsoft would incorporate such a feature in a future release. Sigh!

 

[Syndil]

I've never actually played with hardware profiles in XP, but the thought occured to me while reading this thread. Have you looked into those to see if they might be of any use? You can set up Windows to ask for which profile you want to use during boot. Again I've never really used them so I don't know if the default printer would be part of the profile or not...

<font color=white><b>_________________________________________________</font color=white></b>
Armadillo<font color=orange>[</font color=orange><font color=green>TcC</font color=green><font color=orange>]</font color=orange> at Lanwar and MML

 

[jihiggs]

if they are the same printer, or at least will use the same driver (same brand printers will do this) you should be able to use printer pooling, just create tcp ports for all three printers and select them all. i dont know if it will error out the other two or just see it as a complete job.

wpdclan.com cs game server - 69.12.5.119:27015

 

[CallMeRay]

For HP Printer you may want to try HP Mobile Printing Solutions at www.hp.com/go/mp4n_software

"hp Mobile Printing for Notebooks (formally known as hp mobile printing driver) is a software solution designed to facilitate printing from mobile notebook computers to network-connected Postscript-enabled hp printers.

As the notebook user moves around within the enterprise from floor to floor or from site to site, there is a need to print to networked printers that are encountered while away from the desk. hp Mobile Printing for Notebooks allows easy printing access to these newly encountered printers. There is no need to locate the printer driver or create a new network port. The user simply selects the hp Mobile Printing application, enters the network address (IP Address, hostname, or UNC pathname) of the target printer when prompted, and the print job is sent to the printer.

Review this document for a complete list of devices supported by hp Mobile Printing for Notebooks. "


Jay

 

[janshim]

Thanks Jay,

The HP Mobile driver still prompts user to select the Profile you want to use even after it has "learnt and remembered". This defeats the purposes where I expect printing to be fully automatic. I am already doing the same thing with drop down box and selecting one of the drivers I have installed. Well, it was worth the attempt to discover the possibilities and limits.