Way to ungroup printers when multiple printers share the same IP/port?

Question

We have a print server that contains roughly 30-40 printers. In the past they have created a new printer name, but direct it to the same IP/port so we can have as many as 5 or 6 printer names all pointing to the same device.

On Windows Server 2003 each of these printer names would show up individually in the "Printers and Faxes" section regardless of how many share the same IP/port number. Windows Server 2008 functions differently, it 'bundles' these printer under one listing (see screenshot). This makes it very hard to find an individual printer if I need to check one and the name happens to be nested.

Is there a way to un-group or un-nest the printers in 'Windows Server 2008'?

Solution 1

For a clear view without changing config another answer is here (Alan) - http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverprint/thread/eb0ae4cd-38d0-4b9d-b9f3-838391b6a399

We use multiple queues to allow drivers suited to different purposes - PCL for docs, PS for CAD. XPS promises to supersede both. ProfAm's presets are another feature people ask for, but we don't do that here.

Ez

Solution 2

We use the same setup at many of our sites, it's also useful for limiting who can print in colour (install the printe rtwice, one as B&W and one colour and give appropriate people access to colour), and as you have stated, for assigned trays etc.

The quick fix is to add a seperate port for each printer, It doesn't group by the actual port address, just the port name.

Solution 3

a simple trick to this issue, just create a new port with a different port NAME for each printer driver. they will not group after this change

Comments

[ProfessionalAmateur]

Couple of reasons, ease of use for our users. When they print paychecks, they want to go ensure it goes to the paycheck printer. Naming convention helps them here. Additionally our enterprise system will send print steams to the printers with specific sizing information, setting up individual printer names makes this easier to maintain. It was also setup like this before I got here, changing it would be a huge PITA for our staff.