Windows Server 2012 : Managing print servers using Windows PowerShell (part 1) - Viewing information about printers, printer drivers, and print jobs

You can use the Get-Printer cmdlet to display a list of the installed printers on a print server. For example, the following command shows that there are four printers installed on a remote print server named HOST7:

PS C:\> Get-Printer -ComputerName HOST7 | Format-List Name,DriverName

Name       : Samsung CLP-410 Series PCL6
DriverName : Samsung CLP-410 Series PCL6


Name       : HP LaserJet 4200L PCL6
DriverName : HP LaserJet 4200L PCL6 Class Driver


Name       : Microsoft XPS Document Writer
DriverName : Microsoft XPS Document Writer v4


Name       : HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6
DriverName : HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6 Class Driver

You can pipe the output from the preceding command into the Where-Object cmdlet to determine which of these printers are shared:

PS C:\> Get-Printer -ComputerName HOST7 | where Shared -eq $true | fl Name

Name : Samsung CLP-410 Series PCL6
Name : HP LaserJet 4200L PCL6
Name : HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6

Using the Get-Printer cmdlet as follows indicates that one of the printers on HOST7 has Error for its status:

PS C:\> Get-Printer -ComputerName HOST7 | where PrinterStatus -eq Error | `
fl Name,JobCount

Name     : HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6
JobCount : 3

To view more information about the cause of this error, you can use the Get-PrintJob cmdlet like this:

PS C:\> Get-PrintJob -ComputerName HOST7 -PrinterName "HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6"

Id   ComputerName   PrinterName     DocumentName   SubmittedTime        JobStatus
--   ------------   -----------     ------------   -------------        ---------
3    HOST7          HP LaserJet ... Document 3     8/26/2012 2:08:06 PM Error, Print...
4    HOST7          HP LaserJet ... Document 2     8/26/2012 2:08:06 PM Normal
5    HOST7          HP LaserJet ... Document 1     8/26/2012 2:08:06 PM Normal

The first print job in the queue (job #3) is generating the error condition. You can find out more information about this job as follows:

PS C:\> Get-PrintJob -ComputerName HOST7 -PrinterName "HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6" | `
where Id -eq 3 | fl JobStatus,UserName

JobStatus : Error, Printing, Retained
UserName  : kberg

The fact that the job status includes Retained suggests that either the print job is corrupted or the print device is offline or out of paper. Either way, user Karen Berg should probably be informed because the print job belongs to her.

You can also use the Windows PowerShell pipeline with certain combinations of cmdlets in the PrintManagement module. For example, you can pipe the output from the Get-Printer cmdlet into the Get-PrintJob cmdlet to view all pending print jobs on all printers installed on a print server:

PS C:\> Get-Printer -ComputerName HOST7 | Get-PrintJob

Id   ComputerName   PrinterName     DocumentName   SubmittedTime        JobStatus
--   ------------   -----------     ------------   -------------        ---------
2    HOST7          Samsung CLP-... Document 4     8/27/2012 3:54:33 PM Normal
3    HOST7          HP LaserJet ... Document 3     8/26/2012 2:08:06 PM Error, Print...
4    HOST7          HP LaserJet ... Document 2     8/26/2012 2:08:06 PM Normal
5    HOST7          HP LaserJet ... Document 1     8/26/2012 2:08:06 PM Normal

You can use the Get-PrinterConfiguration cmdlet to display the configuration settings for a particular printer:

PS C:\> Get-PrintConfiguration -ComputerName HOST7 -PrinterName "HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6"

PrinterName     ComputerName    Collate    Color      DuplexingMode
-----------     ------------    -------    -----      -------------
HP LaserJet ... HOST7           True       False      OneSided

Using the pipeline also allows you to display configuration settings for all printers installed on a remote printer server:

PS C:\> Get-Printer -ComputerName HOST7 | Get-PrintConfiguration

PrinterName     ComputerName    Collate    Color      DuplexingMode
-----------     ------------    -------    -----      -------------
Samsung CLP-... HOST7           False      True       OneSided
Microsoft XP... HOST7           False      True       OneSided
HP LaserJet ... HOST7           True       False      OneSided
HP LaserJet ... HOST7           True       False      OneSided

If you want to list all color printers installed on HOST7, you can do it like this:

PS C:\> Get-Printer -ComputerName HOST7 | Get-PrintConfiguration | `
where Color -eq $true | fl PrinterName

PrinterName : Microsoft XPS Document Writer
PrinterName : Samsung CLP-410 Series PCL6

Another cmdlet Get-PrinterProperty allows you to display additional properties for an installed printer like this:

PS C:\> Get-PrinterProperty -ComputerName HOST7 `
-PrinterName "Samsung CLP-410 Series PCL6"

ComputerName         PrinterName          PropertyName         Type       Value
------------         -----------          ------------         ----       -----
HOST7                Samsung CLP-410 S... FormTrayTable        String
HOST7                Samsung CLP-410 S... Config:DuplexUnit    String     FALSE
HOST7                Samsung CLP-410 S... Config:OptTray2      String     FALSE
HOST7                Samsung CLP-410 S... Config:OptTray3      String     FALSE
HOST7                Samsung CLP-410 S... Config:OptTray4      String     FALSE
HOST7                Samsung CLP-410 S... Config:OptTray5      String     FALSE

Earlier in this lesson, you used the Get-Printer cmdlet earlier to list the printers installed on print server HOST7:

PS C:\> Get-Printer -ComputerName HOST7 | Format-List Name,DriverName

Name       : Samsung CLP-410 Series PCL6
DriverName : Samsung CLP-410 Series PCL6

Name       : HP LaserJet 4200L PCL6
DriverName : HP LaserJet 4200L PCL6 Class Driver

Name       : Microsoft XPS Document Writer
DriverName : Microsoft XPS Document Writer v4

Name       : HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6
DriverName : HP LaserJet 5200 PCL6 Class Driver

The drivers for the two HP printers have “Class Driver” in their names, which indicates they are v4 drivers, and the driver for the Microsoft XPS Document Writer printer is clearly a v4 driver as well. But what about the Samsung driver? The driver for this printer has neither “v4” nor “Class Driver” in its driver name, so could it be a v3 driver instead of a v4 type?

An easy way to determine this is to use the Get-PrinterDriver cmdlet like this:

PS C:\> Get-PrinterDriver -ComputerName HOST7 -Name "Samsung*"

Name                          PrinterEnvironment MajorVersion    Manufacturer
----                          ------------------ ------------    ------------
Samsung CLP-410 Series PCL6   Windows x64        4               Samsung

Clearly, the Samsung driver is of the v4 type.

Another useful cmdlet is Get-PrinterPort, which allows you to retrieve a list of printer ports installed on a print server. For example, the following command displays information about all ports on HOST7 of the Standard TCP/IP Port type:

PS C:\> Get-PrinterPort -ComputerName HOST7 | where Description -like "*TCP*"

Name                 ComputerName         Description          PortMonitor
----                 ------------         -----------          -----------
172.16.11.55         HOST7                Standard TCP/IP Port TCPMON.DLL