Terminology:
Printer refers to the name of the printer in Windows (more specifically, the software interface for the printer).
Print device means the physical printer itself.
Print server is the computer that receives print jobs from computers on the network and passes them on to print devices.
Plug and Play (PnP) support means Windows will automatically find and install the right drivers when you connect the device.
Types of printing/print sharing:
Direct printing/locally attached printing: the printer is plugged in to the PC that’s doing the printing.
Network-attached printing is when the printer is connected to the network and each PC connects directly to the printer to send print jobs to it.
Locally attached printer sharing: The printer is plugged into a print server that PCs then connect to and send print jobs to.
Network attached printer sharing: The printer is connected to the network, a print server connects to it over the network, and PCs send their print jobs to the print server.
Downsides of network-attached printing:
A network-attached printing setup has very similar downsides to a peer-to-peer network or workgroup without a domain controller. It’s easy to set up but hard to control as an administrator.
Every PC will have its own print queue, and you’ll have multiple PCs trying to print at once, which means the printer will be the one trying to figure out priorities. If you need to troubleshoot a printing error you’ll have to go to that user’s workstation to see their print queue and any errors that show up. (Not necessarily physically, you can do this remotely, but it’s still inconvenient.)
The printer almost certainly doesn’t have management features as good as Windows Server’s print management tools. That means you have almost no way of setting up permissions, users have no way to see how many print jobs are ahead of theirs, and you can’t do things like printer pools for load balancing.
Upsides of network-attached printer sharing:
All print jobs go to a domain-joined server that puts them in a queue before passing them off to a print device. As an admin, you can easily see any errors and restart print jobs that failed.
You’re also able to set much more detailed permissions.
Network printing protocols:
Server Message Block (SMB): Windows’ favorite protocol, used for file shares and now for printer sharing as well.
Internet Printing Protocol (IPP): Uses HTTP or HTTPS, the web page protocol. Serves up a web page.
Line Printer Daemon (LPD): The Linux printer protocol.
Permissions:
| Permission | Description | Default Assignments |
| Print (Assigned to printers) | Connect to a printer, print documents, manage only your own print jobs in the queue (pause, restart, resume, and cancel). | Granted to Everyone |
| Manage Printers (Assigned to printers) | Change printer settings, change sharing permissions, change printer properties, pause/restart/remove the printer. | Granted to Administrators, Server Operators, and Print Operators |
| Manage Documents (Assigned to printers) | Manage print jobs from other users (pause, restart, resume, and cancel). Change job settings for all documents. | Granted to Administrators and CREATOR OWNER (the user that added the printer to the server) |
| View Server (Assigned to print servers) | Allows users to view the shared printers available on the print server. By default, the Everyone group is granted this permission. | Granted to Everyone |
| Manage Server (Assigned to print servers) | Allows users to configure print server settings within the Print Management tool. | Granted to Administrators, Server Operators, and Print Operators |
Management tools:
You can add printers from the Devices and Printers section of Control Panel.
Once they’re added, you can manage them in the Print Management console that’s added when you install the Print Server feature.
From Print Management you can deploy printer access to workstations automatically by using Group Policy.