Add Printer to Windows
This page includes instructions for adding printers to computers running the Windows Operating system. There are two cases; Computers joined to AD should add printers via the eng-printers server. Computers not joined to AD should add printers directly. Printer information is listed by dept:
Add Printer via eng-printers
If your computer is joined to Active Directory (AD) and you login with your BU account, you can quickly connect a printer to your system. Note Laptops are seldom on AD.
Details:
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Open a Run Dialog box. A nice keyboard shortcut to do this is Win + R.
- Enter \\eng-printers into the Run dialog box and click OK.
- Right click on the printer you want to add and select Connect.
- A new window will open briefly showing the progress of installing the Printer. Once it disappears the printer will be installed.
Note: If you are prompted for a username and password it means your are not logged in with your BU account. To proceed with you will need to enter your BU credentials; “ad\yourBUusername” (the “ad\” is very important!) and your normal Kerberos password. Expect to lose the connection to the print server occasionally. When that happens you’ll need to re-add the printer.
Add Printer Directly
You may choose to print directly to a network printer if your Windows system is not joined to AD Domain or you log into a local account.
1. Download and extract print driver to a local drive. We recommend installing a Postscript driver. You can download the most recent drivers from the manufacturer’s website:
- For example, the Ricoh MP-C6501 Drivers can be found at:
2. Next add a TCP/IP port:
3. Install the driver:
- At the ‘Install Printer Software’ click the ‘Have Disk..’ button
- In the box labeled ‘Copy manufacture’s files from:’ use the directory you extracted the driver to (e.g. C:\tmp).
- click ‘OK’
- Select the appropriate Print driver
- Name the printer ‘ece-pho321-mpc6501’ or whatever you like
- Don’t print a test page (yet) and don’t share it
4. Adjust the TCP/IP port settings:
- Right click and open the Properties for the printer
- Select the ‘Ports’ tab and click the ‘Configure Port’ button
- Choose custom, select LPR as the print method, enable byte counting
- Under LPR Settings enter “print” for the queue and check LPR Byte Counting Enabled
- Close and print a test page
Additional Methods
Add Printer via Active Directory
Generally avoid this method, in favor of the previous method, as some printers are not accessible using ‘Add Printer’:
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In Windows 7 open the “Printers & Faxes” under the start menu or the control panel. In Windows 10 type “Devices and Printers” in the search box beside the Start menu.
- Choose “Add a printer”, select the network printer option, and then the “Find a printer in the directory” option.
- Search for printer names (e.g. BME- DIV- ENG- ECE- ME-, etc.)
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Right click on the printer you want to add and select Connect.
Add Printer via LPR on Windows
In some situations we may ask you to install a printer via an LPR port
- Make sure the LPR Port Monitor is present, and add it if it’s not
- Go to Control Panel/Programs and Features
- Click ‘Turn Windows features on or off’, and expand ‘Print and Document Services’
- Check the ‘LPR Port Monitor box’, and click OK
- From the Start menu, select ‘Devices and Printers’
- Click ‘Add a printer’ then ‘Add a local printer’
- Choose ‘Create a new port’, then select ‘LPR Port’, and click ‘Next’
- Enter the server name, eng-printers.bu.edu, and queue name (e.g. ECE-PHO321-MPC6501), and click ‘OK’
- Add the appropriate printer driver and name the printer.
Adding finisher options for Ricoh printers
- Right-click printer then select printer properties
- Go to ‘Device Settings’ tab
- Scroll down to ‘Installable Options’ and next to ‘Finisher’, change ‘Not Installed’ to ‘Finisher SR4030’
Here’s another post with picture:
Known Issues
A number of drivers won’t play nice when trying to do a “point and print” installation from the print server. We’ve seen this with “HP Universal Printing PS” in particular, where trying to add a printer gives 0x0000007e or another cryptic error code.