Print drivers 64bit or 32bit?

Zaits

Our company is in the process of upgrading all of our servers to server 2008 R2 which requires 64 bit. These servers will also be acting as a print server. Now I always thought you had to install the print drivers that correlate with the type of CPU. I've installed 64 bit print drivers on the server, but the clients are 32 bit machines. A colleague of mine insists I need both 64bit and 32bit drivers on the server. Can someone share your experiences with this?

ajs1976

Unless you want to manually install the drivers on the client whenever you add a printer you need both if you have 32-bit clients.

The 64-bit driver is for the server itself. When you add a shared printer to a client, the printer driver is installed on the client, so if you have 32-bit clients you need to have the 32-bit driver on the server.

SWM

Make sure the 32 bit driver is exactly the same version as the 64 bit driver.

The 32 bit driver can be added several ways, one method that works is to browse to [URL="file://\\servername"]\\servername[/URL] from a 32bit computer (where servername is a 64bit print server) Then double click on Printers and Faxes. Right mouse click and open server Properties and then browse and add the 32 bit driver.

Zaits

ajs1976 wrote: »

Unless you want to manually install the drivers on the client whenever you add a printer you need both if you have 32-bit clients.

The 64-bit driver is for the server itself. When you add a shared printer to a client, the printer driver is installed on the client, so if you have 32-bit clients you need to have the 32-bit driver on the server.

We have login scripts that add the print drivers to the 32 bit client machines. The reason I'm asking this strange question is because I have 2 sites that only use a 64bit print driver and it's working fine for the 32 bit clients.

SWM

Some drivers containg both the 32 and 64 (x86 /x64) drivers in the one package. Have a look on the print Server under drivers and it should show whats installed

ajs1976

Zaits wrote: »

We have login scripts that add the print drivers to the 32 bit client machines. The reason I'm asking this strange question is because I have 2 sites that only use a 64bit print driver and it's working fine for the 32 bit clients.

You said these servers were upgrades. Are they replacing 32-bit printer servers? Could the clients have driver installed?

GosU-TecH

SWM wrote: »

Make sure the 32 bit driver is exactly the same version as the 64 bit driver.

The 32 bit driver can be added several ways, one method that works is to browse to [URL="file://%5C%5Cservername"]\\servername[/URL] from a 32bit computer (where servername is a 64bit print server) Then double click on Printers and Faxes. Right mouse click and open server Properties and then browse and add the 32 bit driver.

This is accurate and the method I use. Connect to the server from a 32-bit workstation with an account that has rights to manage printers using \\servername and then double-click on the printer. Might be prompted to add a driver to connect so just point to the location you downloaded the driver. Once connected go to File -> Server Properties -> Advanced tab and select "Additional drivers". From there check x86 and you should be prompted to point to the driver path again. Once complete the printer will push with the 32-bit driver as well.

Another poster said the clients will already have the 32-bit driver since its an upgrade, however, you don't want to rely on that as new machines/users will not get the driver pushed and will have to install manually. Same situation if the printer is replaced with a different model or if you want to administer a driver change for a specific printer to all users/workstations.

Zaits

ajs1976 wrote: »

You said these servers were upgrades. Are they replacing 32-bit printer servers? Could the clients have driver installed?

Like I said we use login scripts that automatically map the printers to the client machines based on the subnet they are in. These are brand new servers being brought up side by side the old machines. The 64 bit drivers are installed on the new server and the login scripts are updated to point to the new server.

I finally solved the mystery though...

Turns out another admin has been going in after my work and updating the servers with 32 bit drivers. A combination of this and the fact some drivers come with 32bit and 64 bit I think this is why I'm getting mixed results.

Thanks for the confirmation everyone.