Hi.

It has been brought to my attention that all of my Windows 8.1 machines on our domain change their network default printers when the print spooler is restarted.  Printers are being assigned by group policy, using the print management tool, as Branch Office Direct IP printers.  

A little bit of research indicates that the default printer is changing "BY DESIGN!!!???" to the last printer being assigned in the OU.  Gotta say....if this is by design, it's a bad design!  As well as unacceptable.  Then I discover that the default printer precedence is something like 1. Locally installed printers, 2. Software installed printers, 3. Network printers in reverse order that they are assigned in the OU.  COME ON!!  I.e., changing the order of assignment in the OU is useless because local printers and software installed printers are still taking precedence, and on every log in the users default printers are being changed to something as useless as WebEx Document Loader.  

I know this is a radical thought.....but how about if the default printer stays set to whatever the user sets it to??  That way, they won't hate me and curse me.  Selfish, I know.

I am shocked by the lack of information that I am finding for this simple and sensible option, and am accordingly loosing faith in Microsoft by the day, and beginning to feel that the end really is nigh for this platform, because I seriously don't appreciate absorbing hostility that is better directed at them, and self-preservation instincts do eventually kick in.    

Can somebody tell me how to prevent user selected default network printers on domain computer's from changing when the users log off, before the lynch mob gets here?

To be clear, these are domain computers.  Users are not administrators.  Printer assignments are made via group policy.  Users do not wear glass slippers (so solutions requiring manipulation of special footwear will not be effective).  

THANKS

Hi,

Please refer to this similar thread Althornin's solution to add the registry to see if it could be fixed.

Go and edit the users registry hive:

HKEY_USERS\USERS_SID_HERE\Printers\Connections

Found old printer connections there that were no longer valid.  Upon clearing those out, after a reboot, the problem went away.

I also cleared out the HKEY_USERS\USERS_SID_HERE\Printers\Settings key - the users had old printer setting sid there also.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/316fd408-4957-43b1-92e3-8dda96dcdded/default-printer-keeps-changing