Hi Like you all I am getting ready for windows 7 deployment. My test PC is Windows 7 Pro (64bit). It is a domain member of a (currently) windows 2003 SP2 domain. There are 400 other Win XP / Vista clients. I have noticed that when adding printers only half the available network printers initially appear in the add printer wizard. Start -> Devices & Printers -> Add a printer -> Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer -> Windows automatically shows the printers it has detected. This list is incomplete, about half the available printers are shown. If I now click the 'The printer I want isn't listed' option I get the familiar options to search the directory, browse by NETBIOS name or specify the TCP/IP address. All of these options work as expected, in that all the printers are available. Specifically if the directory is searched all the printers are listed correctly. My question is - How can I change this so all printers are listed in the initial list?

Anything in common between the printers that are or aren't showing up? Are they in the same subnet? TCP/IP or shared printers? If shared are they on the same OS?Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Hi,Please answer Kerry's questions first. Meanwhile, assure the computer and the network printers are in the same domain(group) and the same subnet. Then, temporarily turn off the firewall on the current machine and the target network printer's machine. If all above items are verified, you may need contact the network administrator for further assistance.Thanks,Novak

They are all on the same subnet, TCP/IP HP & ricoh printers. Some are on the same switch as I am. Does anyone know what Win7 is using to discover the printers?

Is NETBIOS enabled? Do you have a WINS server? Is Network Discovery turned on? Can you post the results ofIPCONFIG /ALLfrom the Windows 7 computer?Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

netbios is enabled. do have a working wins setup. network discovery is off Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : copper Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : windows.domain.co.uk Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domain.co.uk co.uk Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 80-00-xx-xx-xx-xx DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 169.254.2.2(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 13 October 2009 09:47:42 Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 12 November 2009 09:47:42 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 169.254.2.1 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : windows.domain.com Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::xxx:xxx:xxx:5d24%11(Preferred) IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.xx.xx.(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 12 October 2009 16:47:22 Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 18 October 2009 16:47:24 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.xx.x.x DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.xx.x.xx DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 23xxx7307 DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-71-08-1E DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.xx.x.xx 172.xx.x.xx Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 172.xx.x.xx Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 172.xx.x.xx NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Tunnel adapter isatap.windows.domain.co.uk Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : windows.domain.co.uk Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter isatap.{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-8E76-xxxxxxxxxx2}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Do you know what windows 7 is doing when it does this initial search? the results are not the same as the active directory LDAP search or the NetBIOS browse search. hmmmmm. A.

The problem is probably because network discovery is off.I can't comment on the results of ipconfig because you've obfuscated the results. If turning network discovery on doesn't fix the problem I'd try temporarily disabling the Microsoft Windows Mobile Remote Adapter. The DNS search suffixes also look a bit unusual. Are the printers all registered in DNS? Can you use nslookup to lookup the name of one of the printers you don't see? e.g.nslookup printernameandnslookup printername.domainname.tldDo you get different results?Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

I have turned network discovery on and the list found is incomplete. I can nslookup the missing & discovered printers by short and FQDN name. Do you know what windows 7 is using to populate this initial list? it is not LDAP lookup nor does it seem to be NetBIOS. Do you know of any technet resources that discuss it? A.

I'm not sure how the search is done. I couldn't find anything on Technet. I don know the way DNS suffixes work is different in Vista and Windows 7 from previous versions of Windows. I haven't been able to nail down exactly what the difference is though. Can you ping the printers by short and FQDN name?It may be you'll have to use netmon to capture some packets and see exactly what is happening.http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=983b941d-06cb-4658-b7f6-3088333d062fKerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

That's a good suggestion, I will do that when I get more time. Alternatively maybe I can disable the search in GP. Thanks for your responses. A.

I wish moderators would stop marking replies as answers when the posts do not answer the question posed! It almost seems if people are only interested in accruing points for a league table no one in the real world cares about, rather than participating in a forum for public good. I have already marked the helpful answers kindly provided by Kerry Brown as helpful, but these do not answer the question posed.

Turns out that we had the same printing question. My coworker went the way of this being a Group Policy configuration and he found this posting. We made the change and tested, works like a charm. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpronetworking/thread/4c6f03f2-ae40-4e5c-9546-0b5046a1975a

Would have never guessed that. Thanks for updating the thread with the answer. Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience