Network Printers

Question

Hi Experts How to get the list of network printers over the current network /domain using C# and not from the local machine ?

Sam Hobbs · Answer

I am nearly certain that you can use WMI to get information from other systems in the network.

Vulpes · Answer

I wouldn't expect that you'd need any special privileges for the code to work though I can't say for sure as I'm using a non-networked machine and so can't test it. Do you get any printers returned if you use PRINTER_ENUM_REMOTE with the Name argument set to Print Provider!Domain ? If you can use Active Directory and the sample code is working I'd be inclined to go with that.

Muralidharan Deenathayalan · Answer

Vuples Thanks for your response. I was also looking the same link. If I pass the enum value as PRINTER_ENUM_NETWORK it is not returning any printer details but if I change the enum value to PRINTER_ENUM_LOCAL then it is returning all my local system printers. For enumerating the N/W printer do I need domain Administrator ? Please suggest me. I got an one more sample code to get all the n/w printers by using the Active Directory. Imports System Imports System . DirectoryServices Public Class Foo Public Shared Sub Main ( args () As String ) Dim entry As New DirectoryEntry ( LDAP://DC=redmond DC=corp DC=microsoft DC=com ) Dim searcher As New DirectorySearcher ( entry ) searcher . Filter = (objectCategory=printQueue) Dim result As SearchResult For Each result In searcher . FindAll () Console . WriteLine ( result . GetDirectoryEntry (). Path ) Next End Sub End Class Source Link : http://forums.asp.net/t/443425.aspx/1

Vulpes · Answer

Sorry I misunderstood the question. To get all network printers in the current domain I think you'll need to call the API function EnumPrinters ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd162692(VS.85).aspx ) and pass it the PRINTER_ENUM_NETWORK flag. The printer information (including the name) will then be returned in an array of PRINTER_INFO_1 structs. Try the following: using System; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential CharSet = CharSet.Auto)] struct PRINTER_INFO_1 { public uint Flags; public string pDescription; public string pName; public string pComment; } class Test { const uint PRINTER_ENUM_LOCAL = 0x02; const uint PRINTER_ENUM_CONNECTIONS = 0x04; const uint PRINTER_ENUM_NAME = 0x08; const uint PRINTER_ENUM_REMOTE = 0x10; const uint PRINTER_ENUM_SHARED = 0x20; const uint PRINTER_ENUM_NETWORK = 0x40; [DllImport(winspool.drv CharSet = CharSet.Auto)] static extern bool EnumPrinters(uint Flags string Name uint Level IntPtr pPrinterEnum uint cbBuf ref uint pcbNeeded ref uint pcReturned); static void Main() { uint cbNeeded = 0; uint cReturned = 0; EnumPrinters(PRINTER_ENUM_NETWORK null 1 IntPtr.Zero 0 ref cbNeeded ref cReturned); IntPtr pAddr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal((int)cbNeeded); EnumPrinters(PRINTER_ENUM_NETWORK null 1 pAddr cbNeeded ref cbNeeded ref cReturned); var pia = new PRINTER_INFO_1[cReturned]; int offset = pAddr.ToInt32(); Type type = typeof(PRINTER_INFO_1); int increment = Marshal.SizeOf(type); for (int i = 0; i { pia[i] = (PRINTER_INFO_1)Marshal.PtrToStructure(new IntPtr(offset) type); Console.WriteLine(pia[i].pName); offset += increment; } Marshal.FreeHGlobal(pAddr); } }

Muralidharan Deenathayalan · Answer

I wanted across the network systems and not from the local machine.

Vulpes · Answer

You should be able to do something using WMI and the Win32_Printer class in particular ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394363(VS.85).aspx ). Here's some C# code to try: using System; using System.Management; class Test { static void Main() { var searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(SELECT * FROM Win32_Printer); foreach(ManagementObject mo in searcher.Get()) { bool isNetwork = (bool)mo[Network]; if (isNetwork) Console.WriteLine(mo[Name]); } Console.ReadKey(); } }