'Adding Shared Printer to Remote Computer via Powershell
I am unable to run an invoke-command script to install printers on a remote machine. My code works locally, but as soon as I pipe it into Invoke-command, i get errors.
Local:
$Printer = "\\server1\printer1"
(New-Object -Com Wscript.Network).AddWindowsPrinterConnection($Printer)
And this adds the printer just fine. I can do this same command on the remote computer with no issues. But when i tried to execute the command remotely I have the issues.
Remote:
$compname = "computer"
$Printer = "\\server1\printer1"
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $CompName -Scriptblock {(New-Object -Com Wscript.Network).AddWindowsPrinterConnection('$Printer')}
Which returns the error "The printer name is invalid"
So I tried to see what the shell was sending to the remote computer with the following code, and everything in the write output looks good, but I still get errors:
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $CompName -Scriptblock {(New-Object -Com Wscript.Network).AddWindowsPrinterConnection('$Printer'); write-host "(New-Object -Com Wscript.Network).AddWindowsPrinterConnection('$Printer')"}
Output:
Exception calling "AddWindowsPrinterConnection" with "1" argument(s): "The printer name is invalid. (Exception from
HRESULT: 0x80070709)"
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ComMethodTargetInvocation
+ PSComputerName : computer
(New-Object -Com Wscript.Network).AddWindowsPrinterConnection('\\server1\printer1')
Edit 1/5/2015
So I've tried Paul's code with a number of different entries to the argumentlist. All have not worked so far. i think the first 3 are closer to an answer.
-ArgumentList ""\\server1\printer1""
-ArgumentList ""'\\server1\printer1'""
-ArgumentList "\"\\server1\printer1""
Results in:
Invoke-Command : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '\\server1\printer1'.
At line:1 char:1
+ Invoke-Command -ComputerName $CompName -Scriptblock {(New-Object -Com Wscript.Ne ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Invoke-Command], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeCommandCommand
-ArgumentList "'\\server1\printer1'"
-ArgumentList \'"\\server1\printer1"'
-ArgumentList \""\\server1\printer1""
-ArgumentList \"\\server1\printer1"
Result in:
Exception calling "AddWindowsPrinterConnection" with "1" argument(s): "The printer name is invalid. (Exception from
HRESULT: 0x80070709)"
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ComMethodTargetInvocation
+ PSComputerName : sso-mxl327082y
Solution 1:[1]
Try this:
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $CompName -Scriptblock {(New-Object -Com Wscript.Network).AddWindowsPrinterConnection($args[0]); write-host "(New-Object -Com Wscript.Network).AddWindowsPrinterConnection($($args[0]))"} -ArgumentList "\\server1\printer1"
I think it´s because your $printer
variable is placed between single quotes, variables between single quotes are not interpreted by powershell. So the printername your function probably gets is "$printer".
In case you wonder it is printed out correctly in your write-host
statement because here the single quotes are inside a string.
Solution 2:[2]
you need to use $Using:yourvar to pass variables to the scriptblock
$compname = "computer"
$Printer = "\\server1\printer1"
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $CompName -Scriptblock
{
(New-Object -Com Wscript.Network).AddWindowsPrinterConnection($Using:$Printer)
}
Solution 3:[3]
I think it's because of the so called 'double hop problem', where your authentication isn't transfered to the next remote computer which is sharing the printer. I tried to solve similar problem using add-printer and following this article double hop problem solution.
However, although it works with get-childitem etc. it doesn't work with add-printer cmdlet.
Sources
This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Source: Stack Overflow
Solution | Source |
---|---|
Solution 1 | |
Solution 2 | David C |
Solution 3 | ndrjvvr |