File and Print Annoyances

After you've installed the Print Management Console, you can deploy printers through Group Policy as follows:

1. Open the Print Management MMC snap-in by clicking Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Print Management.
2. Expand the Print Servers branch, click the print server that hosts the printer, and select Printers.
3. Right-click the printer that you want to use Group Policy to deploy, and select Deploy with Group Policy.
4. To find the GPO name to use, click Browse.
5. Click the New GPO icon (or select an existing GPO), use the name Deploy Printers, and click OK. You need to ensure that this Group Policy is applied to a container that holds the users and computers to which you want to install this printer.
6. Select either The users that this GPO applies to (per user) or The computers that this GPO applies to (per machine), or both, and click Add, as Figure 2, shows.
7. Click OK.

If you open the Group Policy Object (GPO), you'll notice a new Deployed Printers branch that lists deployed printers in the GPO.

You now need to assign Pushprinterconnections.exe so that the selected printers are processed when the computer starts or when users log on (depending on the target for the printer deployment—user or computer).

1. In the GPO Editor, open the GPO that you used for the printer deployment.
2. If the selected printer is deployed to users, navigate to User Configuration, Windows Settings, Scripts (Logon/Logoff). If the printer is deployed to computers, navigate to Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Scripts (Startup/Shutdown).
3. Right-click Startup or Logon, then click Properties.
4. In the Logon Properties or Startup Properties dialog box, click Show Files. In the Address field, you'll see the location of the scripts—for example, \\savilltech.com\SysVolsavilltech.com\Policies\{EAB0039E-A6774C89-9CF2-053576CDA1FC}\Machine\Scripts Startup.
5. Copy the Pushprinterconnections.exe file from the C:\windows\PMCSnap folder (or, if you're using a 64-bit server, copy the 32-bit version from the 32-bit CD) to this location, then close the window.
6. In the Logon Properties or Startup Properties dialog box, click Add.
7. Type pushprinterconnections.exe in the Script Name field. (If you want to enable logging, type -log in the Script Parameters field on the computer to which the policy is applied. For per-computer connections, log files are written to %windir%\Temp\PpcMachine.log; for per-user connections, log files are written to %temp%\PpcUser.log.)
8. Click OK.

For per-user deployed printers, you should now log off, then log back on. For per-machine deployed printers, you should restart the targeted computer.

The use of Pushprinterconnections.exe—while not ideal—isn't a major deployment consideration. Also, the generated log files give you information that you can use for debugging should the deployment not work. You can also look on the machines that are targets for deployment by checking the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft PPC or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE Microsoft\PPC registry subkey, whose default value is a multivalue string, each line of which is a printer that needs to be connected through Pushprinterconnections.exe.

Can't Control Quota Usage
Quotas can be extremely useful. However, users sometimes have a tendency to misuse the space. Quota reports can tell you how users are utilizing that space, but it can be difficult to prevent users from writing illegal file types in the first place.

One of the huge wins for Windows 2003 R2 is the File Server Resource Management (FSRM) component. In addition to its powerful reporting capabilities and a new quota system that accounts for the disk's physical size (as opposed to the logical size) with disk-level and folder-level targeted quotas, FSRM includes a real-time engine that enables file-type enforcement based on file extensions. This new screening technology checks a file's extension—for example, if it's an MP3 file, the system knows it's a music file, and therefore a policy to stop music files can act on the file. If a user renames a music file to music.not_a_mp3, the system wouldn't detect the file. The system doesn't check the file's contents. However, the purpose of the technology is to stop the "accidental" offender.