Before you start
Objectives: learn how to replace printing device without removing the printer object from your system, and in that way preserving all the configured printer settings.
Prerequisites: no prerequisites.
Key terms: printer, device, object, replace, driver, model, port, settings, configure, redirect, malfunctioned
Print Device Model
If our printer has malfunctioned, the easiest way to fix our problem is to replace the print device with the new printer device which is the same model as our old one. Of course, we are not always able to buy the same make and model, but it is good to know that we can just plug the same printer to our computer and it will work with the drivers which are already installed. This is good because we preserve any configured settings on our printer object. If we have to replace our old print device with the new model, but we want to keep the same settings for our printer objects, we need to change the drivers that our printer object will use to communicate with the print device. Of course, first we have to install the drivers for our new printer. When we have done that, we can go to the properties of the printer object, and in the Advanced tab select the new driver from the drop-down list.
Image 259.1 – Advanced Tab
After that, printing should work with our new print device, but with the same security and other settings that were configured on our printer object.
Redirect Printing
We can also redirect printing to, let’s say, another shared printer on the network. We can easily do that by creating a new virtual port that will point to other printer. To create a new port, go to the properties of the printer, open the Ports tab and click on the Add Port button.
Image 259.2 – Port Tab
Image 259.3 – Port Type
From the list we will select Standard TCP/IP Port, and click the New Port button. In the wizard we will have to enter an IP address of the shared printer.
Image 259.4 – IP Address
Of course, if our print server does not have the appropriate drivers for new print device, we have to install them. Keeping the used printer object will eliminate the need of checking or changing settings on every particular computer that is accessing our shared printer object. Our users will simply continue to print trough the same printer object after we have selected to resume printing (or restart printing if required).
Remember
If our printer device has malfunctioned, we can simply replace it with the same model and it will work immediately. If we have to replace our printer device with different model, we can install new drivers and set our printer object to use that new drivers. We can also redirect printing to another print device on the network by creating a port which will point to that other printer.