Saturday 15 November 2008

x86 PushPrinterConnections.exe a must for the Technician's Thumb Drive!

Getting a printer deployed by Group Policy on SBS 2008 has been a bit of an adventure:

We need to make sure that we have a copy of the 32bit version of the PushPrinterConnections.exe utility on our Technician's Thumb Drive, but also our Technician's site on our CompanyWeb.

Make sure that the ZIP file with the utility is appropriately labeled x86 or 32bit so there is no confusion.

Keeping the x64 or 64bit version of the utility on the Technician's Thumb Drive would also be a good idea for those just in case moments.

We managed to obtain a 32bit copy of the utility from one of our Windows Server 2008 x86 DVDs by mounting the WIM image in read-only mode and copying it off.

Having a copy of the utility is important because the only way we can deploy printers to our client workstations now is via Group Policy.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

A link to the pushprinterconnections.exe would by extremely helpful.

Thanks
C.N.B.

Anonymous said...

I wish Microsoft would just publish these... I'm having to use WAIK to pull the 32-bit off the 32-bit install disc.

Philip Elder Cluster MVP said...

You do need to extract the needed content.

Once done though, keep it on a USB flash drive to make it easier for the next time.

Philip

Anonymous said...

Can you please tell me where these files are. I have been looking for them for my 2008 R2 box all day!!!

Thanks

Philip Elder Cluster MVP said...

R2 will not work since it is an x64 (64bit) OS only.

You will need access to the Win2K8 x86 (32bit) ISO or DVD to gain access via WAIK.

Philip

Anonymous said...

When you say Win2k8 what do you mean by that?

Anonymous said...

is it on the Windows Server 2008 WAIK DVD? I can get that from my Technet subscription.

Philip Elder Cluster MVP said...

You need the Windows Server 2008 (Win2K8) Standard/Enterprise/DataCenter x86 DVD/ISO.

The WAIK has the toolset you can use to get access to the .WIM contained on the DVD/ISO to extract the needed files.

Otherwise, you need to install the Win2K8 x86 OS to get to them.

Philip

Anonymous said...

From http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverprint/thread/6eb293f4-65b7-4c3f-bd21-e5ff7451982a

- Download the adminpack for Windows Server 2003 R2 (x86), you need the tool "pmcmgmt.exe". Link to the package:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9bfb44f5-232a-4fb5-bc14-45bfd81b7ac1&displaylang=en
- Install it on a Windows XP client.
- Copy pushprinterconnections.exe to the logondirectory of the Windows Server 2008 R2.
- Deploy pushprinterconnections.exe through GPO on the startupscript.

Sean Pappalardo said...

Microsoft now has a hotfix available here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973878

(Seems really strange to me that MS didn't think of this (and the ntprint fiasco for x86 drivers) when they decided to make R2 x64 only...)