changing the location of the spool folder

the spool folder is used by the windows 2003 print spooler service as a temporary storage are for print jobs waiting to be sent to a print device. the default location for the spool folder is
systemroot\system32\spool\printers.

configuring printer permissions

printer permissions are specially allowed or denied to individual users and groups. by default, the print permissions is allowed to the everyone group. user and group printer permission are additive, and typically the least restrictive combination of printer permissions applies.

an exception oto this rule occurs when a user or group is specifically denied a printer permission. if a user is denied a printer permission, or any group the user is a member of is denied printer permission, then the suer is denied that printer permission. a denied permission always overrides a corresponding allowed permission.

printer permissions are set on a printer-by-printer basis. these permissions apply both when the printer is accessed over the network and when the printer is accessed from the local computer.

printer permissions, descriptions and functionality

print - a user with this permission can connect to the printer and send print jobs to the printer. by default the print permissions is assigned to the everyone group.

manage document - a user with this permission can pause, resume, restart and delete print jobs sent to the printer, by default members of the creator owner group are assigned the management documents printer permissions. this enables users who create print jobs to manage their own print jobs.

manage printers - a user with this permission can perform all tasks included in the print permissions. in addition, the user can pause, restart, and share the printer, can change spooler settings, can assign printer permissions (including the manage documents permission) and can change the printer's properties.

setting printer priorities

another technique you can use to help manage the flow of print jobs on your windows 2003 network is setting printer priorities. when more than one printer sends print jobs to the same print device , setting printer priorities may be useful.

if two printers are configured to use the same print device, and you configure one of these printers to have a higher priority than the other printer.then all print jobs from the higher priority printer will be sent to the print device before any print jobs from the lower priority printer are sent.

the highest printer priority is 99, and the lowest printer priority is 1. all printers have a priority of 1 by default.

scheduling printers

scheduling printers is a technique you can use to help manage the flow of print jobs on your windows 2003 network. scheduling a printer means assigning the hours a specific print device available for use by a specific printer.

when scheduling a printer the hours of availability apply only to the print device, not to the printer. this means that users can print to the printer at any time during the day. and the printer then spools the jobs to the hard disk. however the print jobs are sent to the print device only during the print device's hours of availability.

so why should you want to schedule a printer? well, suppose that you are the administrator for a small network that has 20 windows computers. the owner of the company recently brought a laser print device for network printing, and doesn't want to spend any more money on print devices. one of the employees occasionally generates a print jobs that is 500 to 600 pages long. this report ties up the one available print device for a long time, frustrating other employees. the large reports are for archival and reference purposes, and are not needed immediately.

you solve the problem by scheduling printers. first you create second printer that prints to the laser print device.the you schedule the new printer so that it only sends print jobs to the print devices during non business hours. you instruct the employee who creates the large print jobs to use the new printer for large print jobs. the result is that the employee can generates large print jobs at any time without inconveniencing other employees. the large print jobs are spooled to the hard disk, and then sent to the print device during non business hours.

configuring printer pools

when a printer has a multiple ports (and multiple print devices) assigned to it, this is called a printer pool. users print to a single printer, and the printer load balances its print jobs between the print devices assigned to it.

a printer pool is a useful tool when both of the following criteria met

• all print devices assigned to the printer use the same print device driver. (usually this means that identical print devices are used)
• all print devices assigned to the printer pool are located physically close to each other.