XP Local Printer Installation Under Limited User Rights

[[email protected]]

Hi,

We are running XP Pro SP2 in a Novell environment. We are able to
push out local group policies to the workstations using the Novell
Zenworks tools if needed. We have a mandate to lock down the
workstations by putting the users in the "Users" group as they are all
currently administrators of their systems. One of the biggest issues
we have with this is our mobile users not being able to install local
printers while at home or on the road. We have many users that work
from home or on travel that would have a need to install a local
printer.

According to this link http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=297780 Power
User (or Administrator) equalivent rights would be required in order
to allow this access. Is there any workaround for this issue short of
putting a user in the Administrators or Power Users group, both of
which are not viable in terms of securing the desktop? We would even
entertain commercial plugins or add-ons that would give standard users
the ability to add printers.

Also, I thought I read somewhere that printers could be installed
under limited user rights "IF the printer is a plug and play device
and IF the driver for the device is built in to XP." My concern is
that most consumer grade printers probably won't work with XP's built
in drivers anyway. I understand that Vista and future versions of
Windows do and will handle this scenario better, but for right now, we
have no intention to migrate operating systems just yet. I would
assume that there are other organizations that have already faced
these same challenges with XP and was wondering how these scenarios
were handled.

Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

Power Users is the minimum group for XP. On Vista a standard user can add
local printers and drivers as long as the drivers are contained within the
driverstore of the machine.

Admin access is required on Vista to add the driver to the driverstore.

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

> wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> We are running XP Pro SP2 in a Novell environment. We are able to
> push out local group policies to the workstations using the Novell
> Zenworks tools if needed. We have a mandate to lock down the
> workstations by putting the users in the "Users" group as they are all
> currently administrators of their systems. One of the biggest issues
> we have with this is our mobile users not being able to install local
> printers while at home or on the road. We have many users that work
> from home or on travel that would have a need to install a local
> printer.
>
> According to this link http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=297780 Power
> User (or Administrator) equalivent rights would be required in order
> to allow this access. Is there any workaround for this issue short of
> putting a user in the Administrators or Power Users group, both of
> which are not viable in terms of securing the desktop? We would even
> entertain commercial plugins or add-ons that would give standard users
> the ability to add printers.
>
> Also, I thought I read somewhere that printers could be installed
> under limited user rights "IF the printer is a plug and play device
> and IF the driver for the device is built in to XP." My concern is
> that most consumer grade printers probably won't work with XP's built
> in drivers anyway. I understand that Vista and future versions of
> Windows do and will handle this scenario better, but for right now, we
> have no intention to migrate operating systems just yet. I would
> assume that there are other organizations that have already faced
> these same challenges with XP and was wondering how these scenarios
> were handled.
>
> Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks

[Rex - Citrix admin]

is there anyway to do this on server 2003?

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:

> Power Users is the minimum group for XP. On Vista a standard user can add
> local printers and drivers as long as the drivers are contained within the
> driverstore of the machine.
>
> Admin access is required on Vista to add the driver to the driverstore.
>
> --
> Alan Morris
> Windows Printing Team
> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
> > wrote in message
> ...
> > Hi,
> >
> > We are running XP Pro SP2 in a Novell environment. We are able to
> > push out local group policies to the workstations using the Novell
> > Zenworks tools if needed. We have a mandate to lock down the
> > workstations by putting the users in the "Users" group as they are all
> > currently administrators of their systems. One of the biggest issues
> > we have with this is our mobile users not being able to install local
> > printers while at home or on the road. We have many users that work
> > from home or on travel that would have a need to install a local
> > printer.
> >
> > According to this link http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=297780 Power
> > User (or Administrator) equalivent rights would be required in order
> > to allow this access. Is there any workaround for this issue short of
> > putting a user in the Administrators or Power Users group, both of
> > which are not viable in terms of securing the desktop? We would even
> > entertain commercial plugins or add-ons that would give standard users
> > the ability to add printers.
> >
> > Also, I thought I read somewhere that printers could be installed
> > under limited user rights "IF the printer is a plug and play device
> > and IF the driver for the device is built in to XP." My concern is
> > that most consumer grade printers probably won't work with XP's built
> > in drivers anyway. I understand that Vista and future versions of
> > Windows do and will handle this scenario better, but for right now, we
> > have no intention to migrate operating systems just yet. I would
> > assume that there are other organizations that have already faced
> > these same challenges with XP and was wondering how these scenarios
> > were handled.
> >
> > Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks
>
>
>

[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

No

Vista +

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Rex - Citrix admin" <Rex - Citrix > wrote in
message ...
> is there anyway to do this on server 2003?
>
> "Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>> Power Users is the minimum group for XP. On Vista a standard user can
>> add
>> local printers and drivers as long as the drivers are contained within
>> the
>> driverstore of the machine.
>>
>> Admin access is required on Vista to add the driver to the driverstore.
>>
>> --
>> Alan Morris
>> Windows Printing Team
>> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
>> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
>>
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>>
>> > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > We are running XP Pro SP2 in a Novell environment. We are able to
>> > push out local group policies to the workstations using the Novell
>> > Zenworks tools if needed. We have a mandate to lock down the
>> > workstations by putting the users in the "Users" group as they are all
>> > currently administrators of their systems. One of the biggest issues
>> > we have with this is our mobile users not being able to install local
>> > printers while at home or on the road. We have many users that work
>> > from home or on travel that would have a need to install a local
>> > printer.
>> >
>> > According to this link http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=297780 Power
>> > User (or Administrator) equalivent rights would be required in order
>> > to allow this access. Is there any workaround for this issue short of
>> > putting a user in the Administrators or Power Users group, both of
>> > which are not viable in terms of securing the desktop? We would even
>> > entertain commercial plugins or add-ons that would give standard users
>> > the ability to add printers.
>> >
>> > Also, I thought I read somewhere that printers could be installed
>> > under limited user rights "IF the printer is a plug and play device
>> > and IF the driver for the device is built in to XP." My concern is
>> > that most consumer grade printers probably won't work with XP's built
>> > in drivers anyway. I understand that Vista and future versions of
>> > Windows do and will handle this scenario better, but for right now, we
>> > have no intention to migrate operating systems just yet. I would
>> > assume that there are other organizations that have already faced
>> > these same challenges with XP and was wondering how these scenarios
>> > were handled.
>> >
>> > Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated.
>> >
>> > Thanks
>>
>>
>>