Moving tons of printer queues made easy

This little jewel was sent to me by Dan Christian 73330.3431@compuserve.com

This is a procedure I use to clone printer
queues on NT servers by moving the hive. It works great.
And since I have hundreds it saves time and keeps them in sync.

The final step not listed, is that I have all drivers expanded in a share and
we point to it during the install of a new printer type rather that the CD
since I have a service pack in and do not want to keep redoing it as SP 5 had
postscript general driver fixed.

You also need to copy the drivers.  I use a batch file like the following:
echo off
echo.
echo this updates the drivers on all NT printer servers C$
echo.
echo.
c:\winnt35\system32\xcopy.exe \\pw11sv\software\printers\i386\*.*
\\pw01ps\c$\winnt35\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\*.*  /C /f
c:\winnt35\system32\xcopy.exe \\pw11sv\software\printers\i386\*.*
\\pw01ps\c$\winnt35\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\1\*.*  /C /f
c:\winnt35\system32\xcopy.exe \\pw11sv\software\printers\ALPHA\*.*
\\pw01ps\c$\winnt35\system32\spool\drivers\w32ALPHA\*.*  /C /f
c:\winnt35\system32\xcopy.exe \\pw11sv\software\printers\alpha\*.*
\\pw01ps\c$\winnt35\system32\spool\drivers\w32ALPHA\1\*.*  /C /f


It is could be modified to be more general if you think others would benefit

Dan

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    To move a NT Printer Key Hive to another server:
    (Do them in this orders and avoid delays in each step as it can
    cause network problems)

    1) Using File manager on the master server and the backup server,
       rename C:\xx01PTR.KEY to *.Vxx (the next version available).
       example C:\PE01PTR.KEY or PN01PTR.KEY

    2) Minimize File manager.

    3) Close the Printer manager's window on the Master and backup
       servers. (Because we are going to work with the key that
       Print manager uses)

    4) On the master server (PE01PS or PN01PS),
       use Regedit32 to SaveKey
        \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on local machine
         \SYSTEM
          \CurrentControlSet
           \Control
            \Print
       as C:\xx01PTR.KEY where XX = PW or PN

    5) Using File Manager, copy this file (C:\xx01PTR.KEY) to the
       backup servers C:\ drive (either PW or KD) DO NOT change the
       file name on the copy. You have now made a copy of the Print
       Hive key you will transfer to the backup server.

    6) In Regedit Registry menu, select "SELECT COMPUTER" and enter
       the name of the backup server.
       (Hint: PW01PS backs up PE01PS and KD01PS backs up PN01PS)

    7) Get that path down to
        \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on xx01PS  (where xx=PW or KD)
         \SYSTEM
          \CurrentControlSet
           \Control
            \Print (be sure this is highlighted!!!)

    8) Minimize Regedit

    9) Run Server Manager and stop the Spooler service on the backup
       server.  This is the server we will move the hive to.  If not
       stopped, we cannot move the hive to it.

    10) Minimize Server Manager.

    11) In Regedit, Registry menu, select "RESTORE".  It will prompt
        for the file name to restore over the highlighted key in
        step 7 above.  It will warn you that it will replace the
        highlighted key.

    12) Switch to Server Manager and start the Spooler service on the
        backup server.

    13) Close Regedit and Server manager.

    14) Look at the backup Server manager to see that the new queues
        are there using Print manager SERVER VIEW.

Backup one step