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Manual Print Server Migration

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Steps to perform on Old/Current Server

Ø Create a Backup folder to some location which can be accessed from new print server.

Ø Backup ‘Drivers’ and ‘Prtprocs’ folder from spool folder to Backup Folder. //This will backup all Print drivers and Print Processors

Ø Export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print to Backup folder. //This will backup complete print configuration registry

Steps to perform on a New Print Server

Ø Copy ‘Drivers’ and ‘Prtprocs’ from backup folder to Spool folder on a new Print Server.

Ø Take backup and delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print on a new Print Server. Restart Print spooler. This will remove all existing print drivers, printers, print monitors, ports and print processor from new print server.

OR

Run Cleanspl utility to clear spooler // download from https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9D467A69-57FF-4AE7-96EE-B18C4790CFFD&displaylang=en

Ø Double click on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print exported from old server to import on the new server.

Ø Restart Spooler service and you will be able to see all print queues on a new server.

Batch to change OBJECTGUID to NULL (save below query to a text file as *.bat) //so that there is no reference to Old server

reg query HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers /v ObjectGUID /s | findstr "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" > OG.TXT

for /F "delims=" %%a IN (OG.TXT) do reg add "%%a" /v objectGUID /t REG_SZ /d "" /f

Restart spooler.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Yeah, Marc you are right, its always good to use Printmig tool for Print migration if it works successfuly. Above steps are to be performed only if printmig fails to backup/restore due to third party print processor, monitor and print ports.

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2009
    I find it easier to use the Print Migrator tool from Microsoft. Packages up the drivers, how the ports are configured, shares, etc into a cab file that you just use the same tool to apply to the new print server. Done.