Printers are not published in Active Directory when “List in the directory” is checked

When sharing a printer and publishing the printer in Active Directory using the “List in the directory” checkbox, the printer may not be available to workstations when browsing to add printers using the “Find a printer in the directory” option of the Add Printer Wizard.

The following application log is seen:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Print
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
User: DOMAIN\User
Description: Printer PrinterName was set.

If compared to a server where publishing is working the publishing event is missing:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Print
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
User: DOMAIN\User
Description: Printer PrinterName was set.

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Print
Event Category: None
Event ID: 36
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Description: PrintQueue CN=SERVER-PrinterName was successfully created in container LDAP://dc.domain.com/CN=SERVER,OU=Servers,DC=domain,DC=com.

Using ADSIEDIT.MSC it is possibly to see that the printQueue object has not been created under the server object in Active Directory.

Resolution

Check the following registry keys:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers]
“PublishPrinters”=dword:00000001
“VerifyPublishedState”=dword:0000001e

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\Wizard]
“Auto Publishing”=dword:00000001

These values can be set using the following local policies:

From GPEDIT.MSC

– Navigate to Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Printers
– Set “Allow printers to be published” to “Enabled”
– Set “Automatically publish new printers in Active Directory” to “Enabled”
– Set “Check published state” to “Enabled” and set “Published State Check Interval” to “30 minutes”

Restart the Print Spooler service to activate the changes.