I'm looking for some advice on whether I need a print server in my company. Everyone in our organization is using Intune for device management, and we don't have a domain controller or local Active Directory, which means we can't set up a Windows Server as a print server. Since all our printers are network-enabled, I'm wondering if it's feasible to just handle printer distribution through Intune. What do you think?
4 Answers
Check out Microsoft Universal Print; you might have access based on your licensing. It does the basic job for simple printing needs, although it’s not particularly feature-rich.
We’ve been moving away from using print servers in many setups, even in places that do have on-prem servers. Back in the Windows XP days, using print servers for driver distribution was straightforward. Now, drivers often download automatically from Windows Update, so users usually just end up adding printers themselves anyway, often through their IP. You can get around this by manually adding printers with their hostnames instead.
Nope, you don’t actually need a print server to manage your printing needs. Since your printers are network-capable, they can function independently without a print server.
Directly mapping printers can lead to some annoyances, like each printer having unique connections without default settings, such as duplex and color options. Plus, you'd be depending on the printers' own job management instead of having a central handling system. Microsoft is moving toward Universal Print as a potential replacement for traditional print servers, probably to monetize the process more.
Universal Print seems pricey for what it offers. It's included with certain licensing tiers, but if you're hitting limits on print jobs, you might get charged extra. Feels like Microsoft is just cashing in on incidental printing.