Install a shared Printer on a Windows Server

When I started my last job the company that I was working for shared it's printers from one central server. While this method works in practice there are several benefits that a Windows Print Server brings to a network. This being the case until I was able to fully implement our new Windows Print Server into the environment I had to set up several shared printers on their Windows Server. The below directions are pulled from a Windows 2003 installation but have not changed much with the more recent iterations of Windows Server:

First, Log into server and navigate to Printers and Faxes. This menu can be found under control panel. Click on Add Printer

When presented with the Add Printer Wizard click on "Next"

Choose "Local printer attached to this computer", make sure "Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer" is unchecked and click "Next"

On the next screen choose the bullet located next to "Create a new port" and in the "type of port" drop down box select "Standard TCP/IP Port"

When presented with the Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard click "Next"

When presented with the next window add your printers IP address in "Printer Name or IP Address". The "Port Name" field should be populated automatically. 

Verify the information is correct and hit Finish

Next, you will be prompted to install the printer drivers. If the driver is available via Windows it will show in the presented list otherwise you will need to add the driver manually by using the "Have Disk" button and pointing to the correct location. In our case the driver was found and so we select it and click "next"

In the next window, if you already have a similar driver installed on the computer, you will be prompted to "keep the existing driver (recommended)" or "replace the existing driver." More often than not you will just keep the driver that is already in place. Click "Next" to continue. 

In the "Printer Name" field add what you would like your printer to be displayed as and click "next". This will complete the installation and add your new printer to the computer. 

After the printer has been successfully installed go to "Printers and Faxes" (Printers and Devices in Windows Server 2008 and above - ed.)  

Right click on the server that you just installed and select "sharing". 

Select the box next to "Share Name" and type in the name you would like users to see when selecting the shared printer. Click "Next" 

In the next window fill out the location and any comments and click "Next". 

Click the box next to "Yes" if you would like to test your new share otherwise leave "No" selected and click "Next".

And finally in the next window select "finish"