Useful Windows Printer command-line operations

The commands below are a subset of the complete command list found in Useful command-lines, and perform various operations against printers on a Windows 200x server.

The commands are useful for querying information from one or more printers, as well as making changes to configuration items for printers, including queues, shares, AD information and drivers. Generally Microsoft Windows printing is relatively simple - but add MSCS clustering, the plethora of PCL unidrv versions out there and badly written third-party drivers - troubleshooting can be quite difficult.

Each command-line can be copied and pasted at the command prompt, if you use a batch file you'll need to reference variables with double-percent (%%).



Use a custom WMIC alias to report printer info from a cluster node in CSV
wmic /node:"%server%" spoolerjobs list /format:table

Use a custom WMIC alias to report sorted HTML printer info from a cluster node
wmic /node:"%server%" spoolerjobs list /format:htable:"datatype=number":"sortby=TotalJobsPrinted"

Use a custom WMIC alias to report a brief summary of printer statistics
wmic /node:"%server%" spoolerjobs list brief /format:htable:"datatype=number":"sortby=TotalJobsPrinted"

Use a custom WMIC alias and xsl to sort print jobs output descending HTML table
wmic /node:"%server%" spoolerjobs list brief /format:"htabledesc-sortby.xsl":"datatype=number":"orderby=descending":"sortby=TotalJobsPrinted" > test.html

Reset inheritance starting at a folder and recursing
icacls \\UNC\Path /reset /t /c

Open a saved printer query window
rundll32 dsquery,OpenSavedDsQuery %Config%.qds

Query HP printers for the page count using SNMP
for /f %i in (Printers.txt) do @echo %i & @snmputil walk %i public printmib.prtMarker.prtMarkerTable.prtMarkerEntry.prtMarkerLifeCount | find /i "value"

Query printers for job counts >= 1
wmic /node:"%server%" path Win32_PerfFormattedData_Spooler_PrintQueue Where "Jobs>=1" Get Name,Jobs,MaxJobsSpooling,JobErrors,OutOfPaperErrors

Query printer information from AD (speed, memory etc)
dsquery * %serverDN% -limit 0 -filter "(&(objectClass=printQueue)(objectCategory=printQueue))" -attr cn printerName driverName printCollate printColor printLanguage printSpooling driverVersion printStaplingSupported printMemory printRate printRateUnit printMediaReady

Export printer information from AD (speed, memory etc)
csvde -f Printers.csv -d %serverDN% -r "(&(objectClass=printQueue)(objectCategory=printQueue))" -l cn,printerName,location,driverName,printCollate,printColor,printLanguage,printSpooling,driverVersion,printStaplingSupported,printMemory,printRate,printRateUnit,printMediaReady

Modify a printer or all printers on a print server to use the winprint processor
setprinter \\%Server%[\%Printer%] 2 pPrintProcessor="WinPrint"

Query the unidrv DLL versions from a list of pingable computers in an OU
for /f %i in ('"dsquery computer %OU_DN% -limit 0 -o rdn"') do @for /f "tokens=3 delims=: " %m in ('"ping -n 1 %i find /i "reply from""') do @for /f "tokens=1-9" %q in ('"filever \\%~i\C$\windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\uni*.dll find /i /v "\\%~i""') do @echo %i,%q,%r,%s,%t,%u,%v,%w,%x,%y

check printers are being published in the directory through setprinter
setprinter -show \\%server% 7

Run the 32-bit version of regsvr32 on an x64 platform to register the prnadmin DLL
c:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\regsvr32 c:\admin\util\prnadmin.dll

Run the 32-bit version of cscript that accesses a 32-bit DLL on x64
c:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\cscript portmgr.vbs

Use SetPrinter to capture all settings for a printer
for %i in (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) do setprinter -show \\%server%\%printer% %i

Report print queue current length and various performance statistics
wmic /node:"%server%" path Win32_PerfFormattedData_Spooler_PrintQueue Get Name,Jobs,TotalJobsPrinted,TotalPagesPrinted,MaxJobsSpooling,JobErrors,OutOfPaperErrors

List printer drivers on a physical or cluster Windows 2003 server
cscript drvmgr.vbs -l -c \\%server%

Print a test page to one or more printers
for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=," %i in (%Printer.txt%) do cscript prnctrl.vbs -t -b \\%PrintServer%\%i

Given a list of printers, create an LPR port for each
for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=," %i in (%Printer.txt%) do @cscript portmgr.vbs -a -c \\%PrintServer% -p %i -h %k -t LPR -q %i

Given a list of printers, create a printer using the specified driver/port
for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=," %i in (%Printer.txt%) do @cscript prnmgr.vbs -a -c \\%PrintServer% -b %i -m "%j" -r %i

Given a list of printers, set the location, share name and publish in AD
for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=," %i in (%Printer.txt%) do @cscript prncfg.vbs -s -b \\%PrintServer%\%i -h %i -l "%l" +published

Given a list of printers, set glocal default printer properties to duplex
for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=," %i in (%Printer.txt%) do @setprinter \\%PrintServer%\%i 8 "pDevMode=dmDuplex=2,dmCollate=1,dmFields=duplex collate"

Given a list of printers, set printer permissions to allow for queue management
for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=," %i in (%Printer.txt%) do @c:\util\subinacl /printer \\%PrintServer%\%i /grant=%Domain%\%Group%=M

Find printer event log entries for the last 15 minutes
for /f %i in ('cscript //nologo c:\data\scripts\updated\time\finddatetime.vbs') do wmic /node:"%server%" path Win32_NTLogEvent WHERE "SourceName='Print' AND LogFile='System' AND EventCode=10 AND TimeGenerated > '%i'"

Find printer event log entries for the specified user
wmic /node:"%server" path Win32_NTLogEvent WHERE "SourceName='Print' AND LogFile='System' AND EventCode=10 AND User='%Domain%\\%Username%'" Get User,TimeGenerated,InsertionStrings

Automated Printer configuration
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /?

Create a port using prnadmin.dll on a cluster node
cscript portmgr.vbs -a -c \\%PrintServer% -p %Printer% -h %PrinterIP% -t raw -n 9100

Create a printer using prnadmin.dll on a cluster node
cscript prnmgr.vbs -a -c \\%PrintServer% -b %Printer% -m "HP Universal Printing PCL 6" -r %Printer%

Set printer configuration using prnadmin.dll on a cluster node
cscript prncfg.vbs -s -b \\%PrintServer%\%Printer% -h %Printer% -l "Building/Level 1" +published

Dump printer log entries
dumpel -s \\%PrintServer% -l System -e 10 -m Print -d 1

Add an x64 print driver to a cluster node
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ia /c \\%PrintServer% /m "HP Color LaserJet 8550 PCL 5c" /h "x64" /v "Windows XP and Windows Server 2003" /f hpc8550t.inf

Add an x86 print driver to a cluster node
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ia /c \\%PrintServer% /m "HP Color LaserJet 8550 PCL 5c" /h "x86" /v "Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003" /f hpc8550b.inf

Add to the permissions on a printer
subinacl /printer \\%PrintServer%\%Printer% /grant=%Domain%\%Group%=M

List the printers on a server
cscript "c:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\prnmgr.vbs" -l -c \\%PrintServer% find /i "printername"

Set the glocal default printer properties to allow duplexing
setprinter \\%PrintServer%\%i 8 "pDevMode=dmDuplex=2,dmCollate=1,dmFields=duplex collate"

Query the printers published against a specific computer account
dsquery * %ComputerDN%" -attr printShareName

Query all printers published in the Active Directory
dsquery * domainroot -filter "(objectCategory=printQueue)" -limit 0

Show the current default settings send down to clients from a printer
setprinter -show \\%printServer%\%Printer% 8

Find the print processor used by all printers on a print server
setprinter -show \\%server% 2 findstr /c:"pPrinterName" /c:"pPrintProcessor"

Check through SNMP whether a printer supports a duplexing media path
snmputil walk %printer% public printmib.prtMediaPath.prtMediaPathTable.prtMediaPathEntry.prtMediaPathDescription

Check through SNMP the printer device model
snmputil getnext %printer% public host.hrDevice.hrDeviceTable.hrDeviceEntry.hrDeviceDescr

View/Modify the ACL security on spooler pipe
pipesec \\%computer%\pipe\spoolss

Query printer tray configuration of printers on a cluster (HP UPD)
for /f %i in (Printers.txt) do @for /f "tokens=1,2,*" %m in ('"reg query \\%PrintServer%\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Cluster\Resources\%ClusterResourceGUID%\Parameters\Printers\%i\PrinterDriverData /v InputSlot 2>nul find /i "InputSlot" & if errorlevel 1 echo 1 2 NotFound"') do @echo %i,%o>>PrinterTrays.txt

Use SNMP to get the printer media path, indicating simplex/duplex capabilities
for /f %i in (Printers.txt) do @for /f "tokens=3,*" %m in ('"snmputil walk %i public printmib.prtMediaPath.prtMediaPathTable.prtMediaPathEntry.prtMediaPathDescription 2>nul find /i "value" & if errorlevel 1 echo 1 2 3 NotFound"') do @echo %i,%n



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