Would like to install Printers asynchronously - New Print drivers take many minutes to install

I would like to be able to install all print drivers asynchronously.  Meaning for the very first time a user logs onto a system and creates a Windows profile, instead of staring at the progress bar and our splash image for 5 to 10 minutes... continue installing print drivers in the background.  We can do this for application launcher, why can't we do this for printers?

At least they could get to the desktop and start working, and eventually in 5 or more minutes the printers are installed.  The biggest delay in establishing a new windows profile is getting printers added to the system.  The sltrace file can show 5 or 6 minutes for an HP Color Laserjet m553 for example.

  • Beside the logon event, Desktop Authority runs every 60 minutes on a refresh event, this can be modified to run for the first time immediately after the logon event has occurred instead of after first 60 minutes.

    This can be configured on your workstations, (this feature only works if your Desktop Authority Console is version 10.0 or newer).

    Adding this key to every workstation:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\scriptlogic\slagent

    value=LaunchFirstRefreshAtDesktop

    type=DWORD

    default 0 (do not launch refresh event when desktop loads)

    1 (or anything else) = launch refresh event right after desktop loads.

    When this value is present and not zero the first refresh will be launched after the desktop has been loaded and the logon script has finished, thus allowing printers and other time consuming profile objects to be applied right after the desktop has been loaded and avoiding delays in the logon script. For this to work those items need to be scheduled for refresh timing, not desktop or logon.

    You may use a registry element in your Desktop Authority Console to apply this settings on your workstations.

  • Hi sauerk,

    the is also a known bug, which we were promised to be fixed in the next release. It causes that DA runs through a certain reg key for every printer it connects. So the more printers and print servers (also clients sharing printers) you have in your environment, the longer it takes.

    Quote of service desk from 18.11.2020:

    After doing some investigations, we have found that unfortunately, this issue with the delay at logon when connecting printers is a defect that has been reported on Desktop Authority, and is supposed to be corrected on the next version of the product.

    The issue is caused by several registry keys located under:

    “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider\Servers\<SERVERNAME>\Printers” which DA has to read one by one and it is what makes the logon delay for users.

    Unfortunately we are still waiting for the next release of Desktop Authority since last year. I didn't find any anouncement when it will be to come. I hope that it is still in progress and not to be sold again to another company or discontinued.

    There are other features and bug fixes we are awaiting also.

    Kind regards,

    Simon

  • Simon, thats an interesting find about a bug. Also a new Windows vulnerability came out called PrintNightmare. One of the mitgation steps is to configure the RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators registry value. How would this affect DA's ability to add or remove printers on the fly? Remember we want this to be a silent and automatic thing - no end user clicking or intervention requred.

    MS KB: support.microsoft.com/.../kb5005010-restricting-installation-of-new-printer-drivers-after-applying-the-july-6-2021-updates-31b91c02-05bc-4ada-a7ea-183b129578a7

  • We tested a lot trying to get around any user intervention when connection new printers. If I remember it right it did not work with the adminrestriction set to enabled.

    Maybe we test this another time with the next release of DA, but for now we are happy that we got all neccessary print drivers installed.

  • Hello,

    Normally when you use the Microsoft certified printer drivers you will not need a user intervention when connecting new printers. Regarding the adminrestriction, DA does not has this option to map the printers as you can see in the Printers object. Perhaps it is a Microsoft setting? You can always create a service request in our portal to review your DA issues with our support engineers at https://support.quest.com/contact-support