I have about 15 printers in my organization. We are currently dealing with the problem that when we change or add one (or god forbid, more) printers we have to go to each client PC, remove the old printer, install the new one, etc. (more than a days worth of work)
We are a low budget small business, so buying a large scale enterprise solution is out of the question. We are also a mixed environment with many Macs and PC's.
How do you all handle multiple printers, printer changes, and making sure that the printers are available to every client?
Best Answer
Share the printers from the server and then to update the drivers write a script to do the legwork. Find a way to easily push it out. Either that or send a memo outlining the process and let the users do the work. They need to be accountable for at least some technology skills if they use computers at work.
I found this below that might work out for you. I didn't write it myself so I dont know if it will work. Im sure you can remove the driver if you edit it to do so.
http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/21020-adding-a-network-printer-from-the-command-line-or-bat-file
http://ss64.com/nt/rundll32.html
EDIT 1: I do see the problem with the user accounts now. You could try to create one general user with printer access as stated above and have them log in using that account when adding the printer. Honestly I would send out memos, does everyone really need to have every printer added right away? If they need the new printer they will go through the process of adding it. They don't have a choice. We make all our nurses and doctors do it. If anyone has a problem they can ask for help. I'm sure there are a few super users out there.