List Printer in Active Directory & Find Where Printers Are in AD

Despite so many digital developments, printers are still used in organizations across the globe. Which also true for companies that operate their own Active Directory. Therefore, having the ability to list printer in Active Directory is a tremendous asset for any admin who is responsible for infra management.

Printers are useful devices but can quickly rack up costs if left unsupervised. Additionally, in an organization that uses an AD, the printers are not under the direct vision of users or admin. The only way to communicate is via the network. So a regularly updated monitoring chart for printers becomes necessary.

Moreover, during heavy demand, like an upcoming cross-forest AD migration, peripheral devices (including printers) come under a lot of stress. Resulting in their downtime. So if admins have a premade list, or make a list of Printers that got modified/were created recently it goes a long way in hardware resource management. Let’s address the reasons for forming such a list in more detail.

Why do Admins Want to List Printers in Active Directory Anyway?

A multitude of reasons push admins to get AD Printer metadata some of the most common ones are described below:
Inventory Management: Admins are often put in charge of the entire AD which means they also have to monitor all the underlying components as well.

• Availability Monitoring: This is done for the sole purpose of tracking printer devices that are connected to and disconnected from the AD network during a time period.
• Resource Count: It is only through the proper census of the number and types of printers that admins can estimate the cost to operate those machines.
• Troubleshooting Events: It is often the overwhelming barrage of user complaints that prompts an out-of-turn AD printer report generation.
• Granting Access: Printers in AD are accessed at the user level or computer level. With the latter superseding in permission level so if a user is part of an inactive computer in AD they are unable to use the printer. Admins need proper documentation to make sure that this does not occur.

Other scenarios like a scheduled audit, driver updates, and external app access require a list
of printers. Now that the reasons are out of the way let’s move towards the methods starting off with the most basic one.

Look Where are Printers Published in Active Directory via ADUC Console

There are two separate ways to look for printers in ADUC let’s go through them one by one
First,

• In ADUC
• Click Filter Icon
• Toggle “Show only the following types of objects”
• Mark the box next to the Printers
• Hit OK

Scan through the ADUC you will see that every object that is not a printer is hidden. This method is preferable when you know the OU/Container how ever it contains multiple object types so by default, you only see the printers.
As users may not want to manually click around the entire AD what they can do is use the Find option. To use it

• Press the Find Icon.
• Expand the Dropdown and select printers.
• Click Find Now

You can refine your search by using names with wild cards in place of missing characters or by mentioning the type of printer. There is an option to filter based on the features present, and an advanced tab that contains many more options to choose from. Admins can add these filters to refine their search. 

Once the search is complete, admins can export the Active Directory Printer list via the Export icon in the top toolbox of ADUC. Note that this is only available for filtered view. So if you use the search option, you have to manually copy the results. This is the major reason that the admin’s site for not using the default way.

Moreover, if your AD for some reason doesn’t have a User and computer snap-in, you can use the ADAC in its place. The next section covers

Use the AD Administrative Center Global Search Feature to Find Printers

Here are the instructions that you need to follow:

• Open ADAC
• Click on Global Search
• Convert the Search to LDAP
• Paste this query:

(objectCategory=printQueue)

Note: We have to take an indirect approach as Active Directory has no container “Printers”.

• Hit Apply
  

Every object that is in a printer queue should pop up. Like the search ADUC results, here too there is no option to export the results. However, one plus point is that you can select multiple objects at once. Still, the process remains largely manual. Technically gifted admins can bypass the limits of GUI with code-based alternatives.

Command line Queries to Find printers in Active Directory

Cmd has been used to find shared folders in Active Directory so its only natural that we try using them here as well. The following command should work:

dsquery * -filter "(&(objectCategory=printQueue))" -attr name location servername description

This query does the simple task of searching the printer queues and returning all the values with their name, location, server name, and description.
You can add or remove attributes for a custom result.  The limited nature of the command line can be surpassed by utilizing the PowerShell so let us see how.

Locate AD Printer Path With PowerShell Scripts

Use the Following Script.

Get-ADObject -Filter 'objectCategory -eq "printQueue"' -Property Name, Location, ServerName, Description | Select-Object Name, Location, ServerName, Description

Select the results, copy them, and paste the Active Directory printer list in a text or spreadsheet.

Modern Approach to Locate Published Printers in AD

Using the SysTools AD Reporting Software it becomes quite easy for admins to get a list of all the Active Directory printers.
The intuitive UI and multidomain addition feature allow admins to scan through their entire AD at once.

Download Now Purchase Now

Put a date filter and you have a fully capable assistant ready to inform you about the Active Directory Printer objects from any time period. So look at how easy it is to use this utility.

Steps to List Printer in Active Directory with a Tool

• Step 1. Open the software on your machine, allow the auto credential fill, and press Login.
  
• Step 2. Press the big blue “Register Domain Controller” button in the middle of the tool’s dashboard.
  
• Step 3. Inside the popup window type a Friendly name for the Domain, & add the IP address for the same. Press Save.
  
• Step 4. Go to the Domain Details Page to validate the Admin credentials, then move to the Report Tab.
  
• Step 5. On the Report Screen menu scroll till you see the Printers workload choose any one of the categories you want (All, Created, Recently Created/Modified)
  
• Step 6. Then, on the Report generation page, you can use the Preview button to see what the end result will look like.
  
• Step 7. After that Expand the Download Report section and click on CSV. Browse for a location to save the list. You can print this list of AD printers to keep a hard copy.
  

Conclusion

Here we made it clear that it is not difficult to list printer in Active Directory provided that the right approach is taken. AD has its own in-built methods, like ADUC, and Admin Center, although with some drawbacks. As an alternative, we also gave the script-based methods that work via command line, or PowerShell portal. However, we saw none of the traditional ways can match the easiness of the automated tool when it comes to finding where printer objects are in AD.

Frequently Asked Questions

If I, as an admin, decide to monitor printer behavior, would it take up much of my time? Shouldn’t I focus on other important parts of the Active Directory?
Like other resources, printers too reveal lots of information, on which users, at what time, and for what purpose use the printer. You can check if one printer gets overwhelmed by multiple requests and shift printers from other OU to the one where they are used the most.
Which can be automated to a high degree with the help of the tool we provided you earlier. Use it to save time and also monitor other AD objects.

I have more than one domain in my AD forest, will this tool be able to provide me necessary information on Printer objects in each of them?
Yes, the tool comes with a multi-domain setup feature that you can use to register multiple domains. However, at a time reporting will be allowed on a single domain only.

What security concerns do I need to keep in mind before I list printers in bulk inside my Active Directory?
You must ensure that proper naming conventions are kept as per your organization’s standards while you are at it, also ensure that location, server name, description, and timestamps are correctly mentioned.