Server 2016 Displays Driver Name Of Shared Printer Instead Of Share Name

Joe Hinkle 141 Reputation points
2020-12-03T16:48:00.807+00:00

I have an issue with a HP M605 and HP M425 drivers that are not displaying correctly in server 2016. I have verified that the drivers work correctly on Win 10.

The problem started yesterday. No changes were made to the RDP server they're using or the print server that controls this printer.

So far I've:

  1. Made sure that the attributes are correct in ADSI Edit. Because it works on Win 10 I didn't see any reason to change anything.
  2. Verified it's not a user, gpo, or print server issue by creating a test user, test printer, test ou, and test printer all from scratch. The problem continues on Server 2016.
  3. Verified AD replication is working correctly.
  4. Verified the printer is listed in AD. I typically just share them but I listed it for testing.
  5. The correct share name shows up in the printer properties. The name the user sees is the driver.
  6. Unshared the printer, reset print spooler, shared it.
  7. Renamed printer
  8. Tested printer by manually connecting via print server and GPO. Same problem shows up.

There is a recent update waiting to install. I'm going to run that tonight and reboot. I'm at the end of my rope here and I can't seem to find any good info on Server 2016 printer name issues. Has anyone seen this before?

I'm also going to run updates on our print server and reboot it tonight as well.

Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2016
A Microsoft server operating system that supports enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.
1,854 questions
Windows Server Printing
Windows Server Printing
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Printing: Printer centralized deployment and management, scan and fax resources management, and document services
533 questions
Accepted answer
  1. Eleven Yu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 10,621 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2020-12-08T08:13:04.603+00:00

    Hi,

    I have done a lab test and found it is a by design behavior on server 2016 if you add a shared printer with the specific driver. The printer name will display as the driver name.

    But if the printer driver is a universal driver (such as HP Color LaserJet 1600 Class Driver) which is listed in the driver list, then it will display the printer name correctly.

    So, this problem should come from the printer driver. You can try another universal driver for a test.

    46128-image.png
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    Thanks,
    Eleven

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    If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it. Thanks.

13 additional answers

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  1. Joe Hinkle 141 Reputation points
    2020-12-07T14:01:39.163+00:00

    It doesn't matter how you add the printer it always shows up as the driver name whether its GPO, manually using the UNC path, or powershell.

    The name of the printer is correct in all the configs. It's just the display name in Windows. I have verified it only does this on the 2016 servers. I've also ran win updates and verified it does not help on both the RDP and print server.

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  2. Joe Hinkle 141 Reputation points
    2020-12-08T13:46:47.677+00:00

    Thank you for your response. I'll try another driver and see what we can do. This will have to be scheduled for after hours work and due to holidays coming up it may take a bit for us to get up to date.

  3. ACE_336 1 Reputation point
    2021-06-05T17:18:26.567+00:00

    Any luck with this? Seeing the same issue with the HP Universal Print drivers and Ricoh universal drivers where it displays the printer by the driver version and not the share name. It also takes a while for the printers to install. It started on Win 10 2004 and 20H1, on both new and upgraded installs. This print server is hosted on Server 2019, but we saw the same behavior on Server 2012 R2.

  4. HGRitticuss 1 Reputation point
    2021-06-30T17:09:59.033+00:00

    ElevenYu placed an answer yet I have questions onto why this is even happening in the first place by design. Our servers were updated to Windows Server 2019 two weeks ago. I have one user out of 40 in our office that are affected by this issue. The rest of the users are getting the printers by name not driver so I cannot see this being “by design” when the rest of the staff in the office have the three RICOH printers mapped exactly by the name given in the Share this Device properties.

    EDIT: I failed to mention that if this one particular user goes into any Microsoft Office product the printers show up correctly there - no driver is shown.

    Double Edit: go to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/117586/windows-10-2004-printer-displaying-issue.html for the real reason this doesn't work. It's either RICOH or Microsoft. Both companies need to communicate to each other, already.