Does anybody know of a way of identifying printers on a network of Windows 10 machines?
We have an office of a few dozen Win10 workstations and 3 or 4 printers of the same model. It’s very difficult to pinpoint issues as all the printers have the same name.
Each time a workstation is added, Windows automatically installs the printer and gives it a default name. Is there a solution for this?
Thanks
Change the hostnames of the printers on the network? I identify between printers in my network by their hostnames. What kind of “default” name is Windows assigning?
Tony
I’d set each printer with a unique network name for one. Then I’d go by the printers IP address. They are static IP’s, right… With only 3-4 printers, keeping a post-it with IP’s on it really isn’t that hard, and windows will show you what the printer ip’s are.
From the sounds of it, it seems like a flat network of ~40 things, nothing bad can happen with that. 
More advanced network printers let you go to the administration and set a hostname. If that’s available, set the name…
The dumber ones like some Epson inkjets don’t let you do that, so what I recommend is print out a test page which has the unique default name. And then take a label Printer, and stick it as a identification on the device along with a static IP.
Next time you setup devices you should know what you’re setting up.
Hmm, maybe I should have clarified that it’s for the users to identify the printers. Under “Printers & Scanners” in the Windows 10 settings menu, there are a list of 4 printers of the same name(@TSB707 The default name I mentioned is the model#). For the users to understand, I would have to manually change the name of 4 printers on a dozen workstations. I would also have to do this for several other offices as they have similar setups.
I’m looking for a solution to change the names within Windows that doesn’t require remotely logging into 50 different workstations and typing in names.
Our canon MF230 hostname can be edited to a more unique name. I think for windows 10 our problem is the shared printers like Epson L360-L220. After like 2-3days the users report that the shared printer is not available…So we need to re shared the printer and connect to it again.
Anyone have this same problem? What could be the cause of this?Thanks
I waited to see if anyone else would post.
The nutshell version, you’re sorta boned. It’s Windows, it caches names on everything, and it’s a general pita to “fix after the fact”. My best guess would be to create a registry edit file, that correctly names everything based on their IP, using a working system, and then run the file on all the workstations to ‘reset’ things. It may or may not ‘take’, but it’s worth a shot to spend a few minutes to save a few hours.
This is why everyone always says, plan plan plan, then execute. Going in as the cleanup/restore team, generally sucks once everything fubared up.