How to print one print job to two network printers at same time?

[ssnider]

I have a need to have a Windows XP print job print to two printers at the same time. One in the Guard house and one in a remote location on the campus. The desire is not to have the person intiating the print job to have to do anything different then he is now. i.e. hit the print button.

BTW Both printers can use the same print driver. Unfornately the Print pool only prints to the first available printer. I need to print to both printers.

Thanks in Advance
Snider

 

[LloydSev]

If the intent is to have the person not doing anything different, then there is absolutely no way to do what you want.

The simplest workaround would be to click on File -> Print

Which of course would give him the box to select which printer to print to.

Just clicking the print icon on the top bar will always send to the default printer.

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[koresnordic]

You could create an icon that runs a macro. That macro would be set to perform the two prints you require.



Graham

 

[mobajwa]

Whats the pogram/App you are trying to print from ?


mobajwa

 

[ssnider]

It is a custom program that came in with our truck scale. It is a windows program and when you click on the printer icon you get the standard print dialog box. We are trying to eliminate the need to rely on the person to print it twice to two different printers. Unfortunately this program does not have any kind of macro interface.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[mobajwa]

I think you will have to use a batch file.I will look around and see if i can find anything for you. Basically you can have a batch file print to both printers.Im thinking a basic batch file could first open up the print dialog with printer A, and you could hit enter. and then it could simple open the diialog box again with printer B and you could hit enter/OK !
Or maybe there is even a better method that this .. keep posting with any updates

-
mobajwa

After the game ,the king and the pawn , both go in the same box.

 

[bcastner]

Investigate printer spooler utilities. Essentially you would direct print output to a file, and the utility would handle its redirection. To get you started:

http://www.dse.nl/~tmk/clipper/clpwinprint.htm

 

[mobajwa]

here is a batch file that u can use to print a file from the command line..

PrintAny.bat, Version 1.01

Finally, a version that will print any known file type by using the associated print command from the registry.

@ECHO OFF
:: For Windows NT 4 or later only
IF NOT "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" GOTO Syntax

:: Localize variables
SETLOCAL
SET PrintCmd=
SET FileType=

:: Command line parsing
IF "%~1"=="" GOTO Syntax
IF "%~n1"=="" GOTO Syntax
IF "%~x1"=="" GOTO Syntax
SET File2Print=%~1
ECHO.%File2Print% ¦ FIND "?" >NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Syntax
IF NOT EXIST "%File2Print%" GOTO Syntax

:: Strip quotes from TEMP variable
SET TEMP=%TEMP:"=%

:: Get the file association from the registry
FOR /F "tokens=3*" %%A IN ('REG.EXE QUERY "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\%~x1" /ve') DO SET FileType=%%B
SET Filetype=%FileType:"=%

:: Get the print command for this file type from the registry
FOR /F "tokens=3*" %%A IN ('REG.EXE QUERY "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\%FileType%\shell\print\command" /ve') DO SET PrintCmd=%%B
:: If no default was found, then the file type is probably unknown in Windows
IF NOT DEFINED PrintCmd GOTO NoAssoc
SET PrintCmd=%PrintCmd:\"="%
SET PrintCmd=%PrintCmd:""="%
SET PrintCmd=%PrintCmd:\\=\%
:: Next line enables long file names, added by Michael Lintner
SET PrintCmd=%PrintCmd:"%1"=%%1%

:: Actual print command has to be stored in a temporary batch file,
:: which is used as the batch language's "eval" substitute
> "%TEMP%.\~PrintAny.bat" ECHO START "Print" %PrintCmd%
CALL "%TEMP%.\~PrintAny.bat"

:: Cleanup
DEL "%TEMP%.\~PrintAny*.*"

:: Done
GOTO End

:NoAssoc
ECHO.
ECHO Sorry, this batch file works only for known file types with associated
ECHO print commands defined in the registry hive HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

:Syntax
ECHO.
ECHO PrintAny.bat, Version 1.01 for Windows NT 4 / 2000
ECHO Prints any known file type from the command line
ECHO.
ECHO Usage: PRINTANY file_to_print
ECHO.
ECHO Where: "file_to_print" is the name of the file to be printed.
ECHO.
ECHO Notes: This batch file works only if the file type's print command
ECHO is defined in the registry hive HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.
ECHO This batch file requires REG.EXE, which is native in Windows
ECHO 2000 and later, or part of the Windows NT 4 Resource Kit.
ECHO Idea inspired by Eric Grux.
ECHO Modification to enable long file names by Michael Lintner.
ECHO.
ECHO Written by Rob van der Woude
ECHO

http://www.robvanderwoude.com

:End
IF "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" ENDLOCAL






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is what needs to be done.. We need to make 2 batch out of the one that i pasted above. One for each printer. Then a third file can be made which simply run the batch file for printer A and printer B .

R you with me ???


-
mobajwa

After the game ,the king and the pawn , both go in the same box.

 

[ssnider]

I want to thank everyone so far. My IS Group is working on multiple items right now, but they understand the direction with the batch files and when they get their final solution I will share with everyone here.

 

[ssnider]

Hi guys,

Me again, user jakob314 supplied an answer on thread 96-1007393 for someone that had a similar problem to me. There is some free software at

http://www.andtechnologies.com/mpp.html

Basically if you can set up print queues to the printers you need then install this multiport print driver and set up on more driver this driver then does a re-broadcast to all the ones selected in it up to 64 queues (why would anyone want that many copies?).

Thanks for all the help.