JSI Tip 3552. Windows 2000 Print browsing registry entries.

In tip 0300, I described how the DisableServerThread value name could be used to disable the broadcast of a 'print servers' printers.

If you want to broadcast a 'print servers' printers, but reduce network traffic, you can navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrint. On the Edit menu, Add Value name ServerThreadTimeout as a REG_DWORD data type. In the DWORD Editor, select the Decimal Radix and set the data value to the number of milliseconds between broadcasts. Thedefault is 600,000 milliseconds which is 10 minutes. The range is 0 - 4,294,967,295 milliseconds or 0 - ~50 days.

The NetPrinterDecayPeriod value name, a REG_DWORD data type, determines how long a network printer remains in the browse list. The default is 3,600,000 milliseconds or 1 hour. If the data value ServerThreadTimeout exceeds the value of NetPrinterDecayPeriod, the printers will not be displayed to browsers.