Automatically replace a printer connection

Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--January 30, 2006

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FAQs Q. What are the versions of Windows Vista? Q. What is the Windows Metafile Format (WMF) vulnerability? Q. What is Trinity Rescue Kit 3.0? Q. How can I use a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) script to list printers? Q. How can I use a script to automatically replace a printer connection with another? ==== Sponsor: Argent Software ==== NETWORK TESTING LABS COMPARES ARGENT TO MOM 2005 Network Testing Labs, one of the world's leading independent research companies, concluded that "Argent's suite had a smaller footprint, was more scalable, supported more platforms, had a more responsive and intuitive user interface and gave us more useful reports," the report says. "Argent's suite of monitoring products emerged from our testing with flying colors." Download this FREE Comparison Paper now: http://www.argent.com/w/whitepapers_mom.html?Source=WNT

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==== FAQs ==== by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected] Q. What are the versions of Windows Vista? A. Vista will ship in seven different versions that center on home or office use: - Vista Starter Edition, which maps to Windows XP Starter Edition, is for consumers in emerging markets with very low-end PCs. This version is a subset of the Vista Home Basic Edition and will ship in a 32-bit version only. Only three concurrent applications can run, and no inbound connections are supported. Fast user switching and account passwords aren't included. - Vista Home Basic Edition is designed for single-computer home environments. It includes features such as firewall, Security Center, antivirus, antispyware (Windows Defender), antispam, and phishing protection. The new Aero UI will be included as well as updated Movie Maker, Media Player, and Windows Mail (Outlook Express replacement). This version also has a photo-library manager and peer-to-peer (P2P) ad hoc meeting capabilities, and more. - Vista Home Premium Edition builds on Home Basic and adds Media Center and Media Center Extender functionality, DVD video authoring and ripping (with Digital Rights Management--DRM--protection) and High Definition (HD) support. It also features increased networking capabilities, including WiFi configuration, Internet File Sharing, and synchronization among PCs. - Vista Professional Edition includes the ability to join domains, Remote Desktop, Encrypting File System (EFS), and Microsoft IIS (similar to XP Pro). It will also include Tablet PC capabilities. - Vista Small Business Edition is designed for small companies that don't have full IT teams. This version is built on Vista Pro and includes additional client-side functions such as Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) support, PC fax and scanning, and subscriptions to the Windows and Office Live services. It also includes a network-backup solution. - Vista Enterprise Edition is available only to Software Assurance (SA) customers and not for retail purchase. It builds on Vista Pro and adds additional security features, such as full-volume encryption (BitLocker Drive Encryption), and secure startup. Microsoft Virtual PC and Multilingual User Interface are also included. It's designed for high-end business users. - Vista Ultimate Edition is a combination of Vista Pro and Vista Home Premium with additional game-optimized technologies. It will likely have additional access to online services. There will be no corporate editions of the Vista Home and Ultimate lines, which means they'll require activation. -------------------- Q. What is the Windows Metafile Format (WMF) vulnerability? A. A vulnerability was found in the WMF definition that affects the Windows rendering engine (shimgvw.dll), which, unlike previous vulnerabilities, requires no user interaction to be activated. An infected image only has to be viewed on a Web site or in an email or even accessed via a desktop search engine (such as Google Desktop Search). It then can run code on the PC that could install malware. You can find more information about the vulnerability at the following URLs: - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/912840.mspx - http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/181038 Microsoft released a fix on January 5--out of the regular fix cycle because the problem is so critical--and you should install the fix as soon as possible. -------------------- Q. What is Trinity Rescue Kit 3.0? A. I first discussed this tool in the FAQ "What's the Trinity Rescue Kit?" at http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/39671/39671.html. A new version is now available at http://trinityhome.org/trk/dl-hyguard-trk30.html , and you can find more information at http://trinityhome.org/trk . This new version is still a Linux-based recovery tool for Windows, but it has several new features including: - Read/write support on NTFS drives. The command "mountallfs" gives you read-only access to NTFS drives. Using the command with the -f option gives you safe, fast write access to NTFS drives, but you can create only 10 files per subdirectory, so it's not an ideal solution if you have to do many copies. Mountallfs -c gives you full write access, but you need to add ntfs.sys and ntoskrnl.exe from Windows XP Service Pack 1a (SP1a) manually, as the Usage Howto section of the Web site explains. - Simple password resets via winpass - Offline virus scans with two different antivirus tools (F-prot and ClamAv) - Registry editing - Partition editing with qtparted - NTFS file undelete functionality - Lots of hardware support, from most network cards and disk controllers to USB storage - Fast boot times (less than 40 seconds) - Network NTFS cloning - Remote administration possible - Network environment preconfigurable at boot - Integrated Web browser (links) All this functionality is from a bootable CD-ROM; no information is written to the physical disk. For example, you can use the Winpass shell script, which uses a GNU Windows registry editor called Chntpw, to reset Windows passwords without having to know Linux. The script searches for any available local Windows installations, asks which installation you want to reset the password for, then starts Chntpw, as the figure at http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/images/trk3passchange.jpg shows. I recommend that you download and burn the utility to a CD-ROM and practice using it. It's a valuable tool for any power user or administrator. -------------------- Q. How can I use a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) script to list printers? A. I created the following script, which you can download at http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/download/listprint.zip , that makes a WMI call and lists details about the printers known on the system: Option Explicit Dim objWMIService, objPrinter, colItems, strComputer strComputer ="." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\" & strComputer & "rootCIMV2") Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * FROM Win32_Printer") ' On Error Resume Next For Each objPrinter In colItems Wscript.Echo "DeviceID: " & objPrinter.DeviceID Wscript.Echo "Caption: " & objPrinter.Caption Wscript.Echo "ServerName: " & objPrinter.ServerName Wscript.Echo "ShareName: " & objPrinter.ShareName Wscript.Echo "DriverName: " & objPrinter.DriverName Wscript.Echo "Default: " & objPrinter.Default Next WScript.Quit Here's an example of the script's output. DeviceID: Tektronix Phaser 850DP Caption: Tektronix Phaser 850DP ServerName: ShareName: ColorPrinter DriverName: Tektronix Phaser 850DP Default: True ---- DeviceID: Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Caption: Microsoft Office Document Image Writer ServerName: ShareName: Printer2 DriverName: Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Driver Default: False ---- DeviceID: Adobe PDF Caption: Adobe PDF ServerName: ShareName: Printer3 DriverName: Adobe PDF Converter Default: False ---- DeviceID: \savdaldc01.savilltech.comCWIS Caption: \savdaldc01.savilltech.comCWIS ServerName: \savdaldc01.savilltech.com ShareName: CWIS DriverName: Xerox DocuPrint N2125 PS Default: False ---- -------------------- Q. How can I use a script to automatically replace a printer connection with another? A. The following code, which you can download at http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/download/replaceprint.zip , searches for a connected network printer and replaces it with an alternate: Option Explicit Dim objWMIService, objPrinter, colItems, strComputer, objWshShell, strDefaultState strComputer ="." Set objWshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\" & strComputer & "rootCIMV2") ' For Remote: ' Set Locator = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemLocator") ' Set objWMIService = Locator.ConnectServer(strComputer, "rootcimv2", strUserName, strPassword) Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * FROM Win32_Printer") ' On Error Resume Next For Each objPrinter In colItems If UCase(objPrinter.DeviceID) = UCase("\savdalprinterOldprinter1") Then Wscript.Echo "Found match " & objPrinter.DeviceID & ", replacing" ' Add new printer. Need the ,1,true to wait for shell to complete before continue objWshShell.Run "rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /Gw /q /n \savdaldc01printerNew",1, true ' Remove the old objWshShell.Run "rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /dn /q /n \savdalprinterOldprinter1",1, true If objPrinter.Default Then ' if it's the default set as default objWshShell.Run "rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n \savdaldc01printerNew",1, true End If End If Next WScript.Quit You can change the printer the code searches for and what it maps to when it finds a match. ==== Hot spot ==== Avoid Email Armageddon Get the right tools, tips and training that you need to avoid a messaging meltdown when an outage strikes. http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/messaging/?partnerref=T&Thot130 ==== Events and Resources ==== ( A complete Web and live events directory brought to you by Windows IT Pro: http://www.windowsitpro.com/events ) SQL Server 2005 Up & Running Roadshows Coming to Europe! 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