How to copy an existing Windows print queue to a new Queue Deployment

If a network is managed by a Windows domain, print queue connections can be deployed to client PCs using Group Policy. There are many cases, however, where a local print queue needs to be installed on each PC, for example when:

• there is no print server,
• client PCs are joined to Microsoft Entra ID with no on-premises Active Directory, or
• the network has no domain at all.

Installing local print queues by hand on every PC is labour intensive and hard to keep consistent. With Print Director’s Queue Deployment feature the process is automated and centrally managed.

The quickest way to create a Queue Deployment is to copy a queue that is already installed and printing correctly on one PC. Print Director takes the driver and all of the queue’s settings from that PC and uses them as the template for every other PC.

Before you start

PDAgent must be installed on the user PCs. The PDAgent carries out the deployment and updating tasks, so it must already be installed on each PC that will receive the queue. The PDAgent on the PC you are copying from must also be online while the copy runs.

The driver must be “package aware”. Any queue you copy must use a package-aware driver. Most modern print drivers meet this requirement. If the driver is not package aware, Resource Manager shows an error when you try to copy the queue.

The queue must use a Standard TCP/IP or IPP port. The queue you copy must print through either a Standard TCP/IP port or an IPP port.

What gets copied

When you copy a queue, Resource Manager connects to the PDAgent and downloads:

• the print driver package,
• all of the queue’s settings, and
• the user printing preferences (for example, default to single-sided or black and white).

Set the printing preferences you want users to start with on the source queue before you copy it, so the new deployment starts with the right defaults.

Copy a queue to a new Queue Deployment

1. Open Resource Manager.
2. In the tree on the left, expand Print Management > Print Queue Management and click Installed Queues.
3. Find the queue you want to copy in the list on the right. The PDAgent on which it is installed must be online.
4. Right-click the queue you want to copy and choose Copy and link to new Deployment. Resource Manager connects to the PDAgent and downloads the driver and all queue settings, including user printing preferences. The Queue deployment window opens, already filled in from the copied queue.
5. At the top of the window, check the name details:
   • Deployment name: the name of the deployment as it appears in Resource Manager.
   • Deployment type: set from the copied queue, for example Manual port configuration for a queue that prints through a Standard TCP/IP port. It cannot be changed after the deployment is created.
   • Installed queue name: the name the queue gets on each PC. Choose Use deployment name to use the deployment name; the resulting queue name is shown alongside.
6. In the Deployment scope section, choose how the queue reaches users:
   • Auto deploy: which PCs get the queue automatically: Deploy to all PDAgents, Selected deployment zones, or Do not auto deploy.
   • Self install: whether users can install the queue themselves from the Install print queue option in the PDAgent Client: Not allowed, Allowed for all PDAgents, or Allowed for selected deployment zones.
7. In the Updating and deleting queues section:
   • Tick Auto update queues to update every linked queue automatically when the deployment changes. For example, if you later copy new printing preferences after changing the default to single-sided, every linked queue picks up the change.
   • Tick Auto remove queues if not in zones or the Deployment is deleted to remove the queue from PCs that no longer match the deployment, or from every PC when the deployment is deleted. Queues that users installed themselves with Self install are never removed automatically.
8. On the PD settings tab, set the options that every queue created by this deployment inherits:
   • Match to Device: the printer the queue’s jobs are recorded against. Tick Matched to Fiery IP address if the queue prints to a Fiery controller.
   • Secure release: whether jobs are held for release at the printer. Use matched device setting follows the setting of the matched device.
   • Alter to b&w and Alter to duplex: tick to change every job to black and white, or to duplex.
   • Jobs wait at: where held jobs wait for release. Choose PDAgent (default) to keep them on the PDAgent that captured them, or PDServer: followed by the server name to upload them to that PDServer. Choose the PDServer for laptops, VPN users and PCs that are not always on, so a job can still be released when the PC that printed it is switched off. See How to store held print jobs on the PDServer.
9. Check the Platform configs tab. It lists one driver configuration per platform, showing the Platform (for example Windows x64), the Driver name, and the Last driver data update with the queue it was taken from. Scroll sideways for Copied driver data, Copied printing preferences, Set as default and Ports. The message area at the bottom of the window confirms the copy, for example that the required driver and version were found, the driver is stored, and the driver configuration was retrieved successfully. Use Add, Edit and Delete to manage the driver configuration for each platform, for example to add a Windows ARM64 driver.
10. If the Deployment zones tab is shown, open it and tick each zone the deployment applies to. The tab appears when Auto deploy is set to Selected deployment zones, or when it is set to Do not auto deploy and Self install is set to Allowed for selected deployment zones. Each zone shows its Name, whether it includes or excludes the PCs it matches (Include or exclude), and which PCs it matches (Match hosts), for example all hosts, specific PDAgents, or hostnames that contain or end with given text. Use Add, Edit and Delete to manage the zones themselves.
11. Click OK to save the Queue Deployment.

The original queue on the source PC is linked to the new deployment, so it is managed in the same way as every queue deployed from it.

What next

• To control which PCs receive the queue automatically, see the auto-deploy articles: by specific PDAgents, by hostname matching, by IP range, or by specific users.
• To change the template later from an updated queue, see Update a Queue Deployment from an existing queue.
• For every setting on the Queue deployment window, see Queue Deployment Configuration.

How to copy an existing Windows print queue to a new Queue Deployment