Windows Server® 2008 Bible

Chapter 12. Print Services

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Installing and managing printers

• Adding, setting up, and publishing printers

• Sharing printers, permissions, and ownership

• Managing and troubleshooting printer services

This chapter covers everything you need to know about the Windows Server 2008 printing service. Despite all of our efforts to create a paperless office, hardcopy and thus printers are not going away. For all intents and purposes, for good or for evil, printers are becoming more sophisticated, cheaper, and easier to use; and Windows Server 2008 isn't helping to conserve trees. In fact, the operating system now includes support for more than 4,000 printers, as well as support for industrial, high-performance, printing supporting devices that would cost a small island.

In addition, technologies such as e-mail and the World Wide Web have not done much to alleviate the need for printers. Instead, they have often succeeded in shifting the burden of hardcopy output from the sender to the receiver. Today, even attorneys e-mail contracts; and then ask you to print them out, sign them, and return them.

The network operating system lives and dies by its ability to host access to printers. The print service is the third leg of the "stool" that makes up a network operating system. Without it, a network OS simply falls over. Windows Server 2008 has inherited a rich and robust printing service, culled from years of research and development and the experiences of more than 100 million users. It ...