Adding Printers
These are the instructions for adding printers via Universal Print, for both Windows and Mac users.
NOTE: Not every network printer we manage supports Universal Print. Some printers have needed features that UP doesn't yet support, keeping us from adding them in UP even though they otherwise would work with it for basic features. Most of the printers we manage have not yet been tested and confirmed working with UP, but most printers have at least been added to UP and shared out. Every user who has access to certain printers should also be able to see those printers as available for adding via UP. If you don't, then it probably means that the printer has already been confirmed as not working with UP.
Windows users
You should be able to find any UP printers you have access to if you:
- Open the Start menu.
- Type 'Print' to search for "Printers and scanners".
- Click on that item when it appears.
- Click on "Add a printer or scanner" (in Win 10) or "Add device" (in Win 11), which should start a printer search.
- Make sure to select "Work or school printer or scanner" (if using Win 10) or "Work or school" from the pulldown labeled "Show printers and scanners associated with my" (if using Win 11).
- You can also search by partial name keyword, like GAB210, or by location and drill down through UNT Denton -> GAB -> 210.
NB: You may need to click on the Refresh button before your selections will change what results are returned.
Mac users
Will need to install the Universal Print app first, via Self Service. It will create a new icon in your System Preferences named Universal Print that launches the UP app.
- Open that Universal Print app.
- The first time opening the app, you will see a consent prompt, click Allow and follow the on screen instructions to proceed.
- Click the Sign In button at the top right, and provide your UNT email address and EUID password.
- Once signed in, click "Add printers".
- Scroll through the available printers or search for a specific printer by name or location.
- Select printer(s) to add by using the checkboxes, then click "Add".
That's it. To see screenshots of these Mac user steps, refer to the instructions here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/universal-print/macos/universal-print-macos-setup
Automatic Printer Deployment
If a printer is confirmed to work fully with Universal Print, we offer the option of auto-installing the printer (via an Intune configuration) for all the Windows users in the printer's print access group. Alternately, it can be set to be auto-installed to a specific list of computers, which can be more ideal in lab environments. Auto-install for Mac users is unfortunately not currently supported.
Speeding Up Automatic Deployment
If we have only recently set up a printer for automatic installation via Intune, it may take a while for the printer to get installed for Windows users. This delay can be bypassed by following these Win 11 instructions:
- Right-click on the start menu button and select Settings.
- Or, open the start menu and type 'settings', then hit Enter.
- Click on Accounts in the left-side section, then click on "Access work or school".
- Click on "unt.ad.unt.edu - Connected to UNT AD domain" to expand that section, then click on its Info button.
- Click on the Sync button. (You may need to scroll down to find it.)
- Wait for it to finish syncing, which can take a few minutes.
Troubleshooting
There may be rare cases where you've already installed the Universal Print queue for a printer and then need to install a newer version of the same print queue with the same name. In those cases, you will need to remove your existing UP print queue manually (by clicking on its name in "Printers & scanners" and clicking the Remove button), and then perform the sync mentioned above. Performing the sync without first manually removing the defunct older version of the UP print queue will not make the queue start working nor update it to use the newer functionality.
This issue can arise in cases where a printer is registered into UP via the Connector app on our print server, but then we later register it directly into UP through the printer's web interface, using its built-in support for UP. We always try to register printers into UP directly if they support doing so, as this generally makes more print options available for users. Since experience has proven that UP will neither install two print queues with the same name, nor replace an older queue with a newer version of the same name, the existing one must be removed manually before UP will add the new (directly registered) version that has more print options.