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 for business | Windows Server | User experience | Print jobs
Windows for business | Windows Server | User experience | Other
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Accepted answer
  1. Anonymous
    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.

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    Thanks,
    Eleven

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

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13 additional answers

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  1. Justin Vaughn 1 Reputation point
    2021-09-26T13:11:28.683+00:00

    So far wiping and reloading the affected machines with the latest 21H1 SEEMS to be fixing the issue for me, I don't want to claim it's a good fix but is working in some areas.

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  2. Morgan Cotten 6 Reputation points
    2021-12-08T22:37:04.277+00:00

    The issue is still persisting with my company. However, we experienced two different models that were not of the original 3 started producing the same or similar issue as of yesterday. We had a plan to upgrade our Server 2019 last night anyways to Version 1809 Build 17763.2330 (KB5007266) as we saw it would fix some printer problems. Issue was not resolved with it and made some of our printers change our one-sided print preference to two-sided. Weirdly enough it was the HP LaserJet M501 that started printing the error sheet with the M501 PCL - 6 driver. With the server updated and machines updated to V 21H2 Build 19044.1387 (KB4023057) AND updates from HP Support Assistant the share name still breaks or an error sheet prints after the print job (both issues depending on a specific driver).

    HOWEVER, upon curiosity, my colleague installed Windows 11 to test its features. I've installed the problematic Lanier and HP M428 printers I've mentioned previously and tested both of the problematic drivers. The share name nor error sheet produced. I've tried my best to use all of the methods I've used to break and test, but it would not budge.

    This ultimately proves that within our environment our: server version, desktop version, group policies, and printer drivers are not the cause of the breaks that happen within Windows 10 and that it is the OS.

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  3. Chandler, Andrew 6 Reputation points
    2021-12-08T23:13:52.92+00:00

    This has been a fascinating bug to watch. One of my earlier comments on this thread mentioned that the (at the time) Insider Previews for Win10 21H2 did not reproduce the issue. Well, now that Win10 21H2 is out, the final build does reproduce the issue. So that's fun...

    However, same as @Morgan Cotten , I can't seem to reproduce it on Win11 either. Everything shows up with their share name as expected.

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  4. Nikole Goodrich 1 Reputation point
    2022-04-11T14:20:01.19+00:00

    Has anyone come up with a resolution or workaround? We are experiencing this issue on 2019 Server. RICOH printers. All the printers are the same driver. It's literally driving my staff to madness. We have to manually install the printers on each laptop. I have had it come up correctly on FRESH windows 10 installs. Just weirdness.


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