I am using a Windows 2003 R2 server. In group policy for a particular group of users I have the policy 'prevent the addition of printers' enabled. This works flawlessly for Windows XP clients. In Windows 7 is works if a user selects 'devices and printers' and trys to 'add a printer'. The issue that I am having is that if that same user goes into control panel, category view, and selects the 'Hardware and Sound' Category and then selects 'add a printer' they are granted access. I believe this to be an oversight on Microsofts part, but I could be missing something. I have even tried using a local policy in Windows 7 to 'prevent adding printers' and I get the same unwanted behaviour. Is there a way to prevent users from adding printers from the control panel category view or is there a way to prevent the category view in control panel all together (I know you can change the default view but not how to disable category view all together). Thanks for any assistance

Hi, This policy just prevents users from using familiar methods to add local and network printers. However, this setting does not prevent users from using the Add Hardware Wizard to add a printer. Nor does it prevent users from running other programs to add printers.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.