I am looking for a way to disable WSD on Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2. Basically, a number of our printers on a number of our print server have decided that using this bloody service is better than using the TCP/IP ports they were assigned, and they are changing themselves over to WSD ports which results in users being unable to print to these printers.
On Windows 2008 R2 server, I can prevent this behavior by stopping and disabling the PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator service, however, that service doesn't seem to be present in Server 2012.
The only suggestions I've come across for stopping this behavior are all sub-optimal.
- Turn off Network Discovery (which WDS relies on to function)
- Block WDS at the Firewall
- Disable the WDS functionality on the printers.
I'd like a way to disable this service (and only this service) at the print server, because any of the other options involve a lot more work than I'd like (2, 3) or have undesirable side-effects (1). Does anyone know of a way to do this?
Best Answer
I'm afraid there is no "Off"-switch for WSD specifically for Printer discovery in Windows Server
As an alternative to disabling the "Function Discovery Provider Host" service, you could change the following outbound rules' Action to Deny, in the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security:
This will specifically block WSD and WSDAPI discovery events
If your print servers are segregated from your printer networks, block interzone traffic on these specific ports instead:
I don't think you need to disable WSD inbound on your Print Servers.