The problem
A classic Windows print server lives in Active Directory. When you move your devices to Microsoft Entra ID and Intune, the print server often becomes one of the last reasons to keep a domain controller running.
Office printers are easy to move. Engineering firms have one more device that isn’t: the large-format plotter that prints A0 and A1 plans from a roll.
Why Universal Print doesn’t solve it
Microsoft’s cloud printing service, Universal Print, is the obvious replacement, and for office printers it works well. For plotters it doesn’t, and Microsoft says so: its FAQ states that Universal Print currently supports page printers only, that plotters need special handling for roll sizes and other plotter functions, and that there is no projected date for plotter support.
The technical reason shows when you connect a plotter through the Universal Print connector anyway. The connector translates the printer driver’s options using a fixed mapping table, and any option without a mapping is dropped. The table is built around office printing: it has no A2, A1 or A0 media sizes, and any plotter option without a mapping is dropped, so many of the large-format settings your team relies on don’t make it through.
The options
- Keep a small print server just for the plotter. It works, but you keep a server, its updates and often the domain dependency you wanted to get rid of.
- Universal Print for office printers, plotter deployed directly. Office printers go through Universal Print. The plotter’s own driver is installed on the few devices that need it, with a direct network port.
- Deploy every printer directly. All printers, including the plotter, are installed straight on the devices through your device management, with the manufacturer’s drivers and a direct network port. No print server, no cloud print service.
What we do
For engineering firms with 30 to 150 people we recommend option 3, because it’s the simplest setup that keeps every driver feature:
- Drivers from a central store. Each manufacturer’s driver package sits in a protected web store, and devices download only the packages they need.
- Printers by team. A small catalogue maps teams to printers, so the structural team gets its plotter and the front office doesn’t.
- Default settings included. The settings people are used to, such as paper size, colour and duplex, are exported once from the old print server and applied to the new printers.
- Runs through device management. A script in the management platform runs on every device, compares what’s installed with the catalogue and only changes what’s different. Running it twice changes nothing.
- Old connections removed last. The connections to the old print server are only removed once the new printers are confirmed in place on that device.
Before you switch off the print server
- List every printer, its driver and who uses it.
- Export the default settings you want to keep.
- Pilot with one team for a week, old and new side by side.
- Switch off printer deployment by group policy when the new rollout starts, so the two don’t fight each other.
- Pause the old print queues for a few days before removing the print server role, so you hear about anything you missed while it’s still easy to undo.