How to stop WindowsXP from Auto-installing Printers

[FastM]

Title says it, their are like 8 or 9 printers on my dad's company (workgroup) network, how do i stop all the machines from auto-installing all the printers that a shared?

[rewt]

Good question. I usually have to connect/install each shared printer manually.

I think what you need to do is prevent the machines from automatically connecting to the shared printers.

[supra]

You can try turning off the printer service. But that also means you wont be able to print on that computer.

[rewt]

Well, this is how it works.

When a system connects to a shared printer, Windows will automatically install the printer driver on the local machine.

You can prevent this behavior by modifying this registry key (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/77263.asp). However this only prevents driver installation from normal user accounts. Administrators can still install the drivers.

Therefore the best solution may be to prevent the machines from automatically connecting to all of the printers in the first place.

See How To Disable Automatic Search for Network Printers and Folders in Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320138)

[FastM]

Well, this is how it works.

When a system connects to a shared printer, Windows will automatically install the printer driver on the local machine.

You can prevent this behavior by modifying this registry key (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/77263.asp). However this only prevents driver installation from normal user accounts. Administrators can still install the drivers.

Therefore the best solution may be to prevent the machines from automatically connecting to all of the printers in the first place.

See How To Disable Automatic Search for Network Printers and Folders in Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320138)

This little option has killed 2 birds with one stone for me, thanx for the help...