Automating Printer Deployment with NinjaRMM

The Problem

Managing printers across a 700-person organization is a special kind of hell. Users move desks, new devices get added, drivers break after Windows updates, and suddenly you’re drowning in tickets. I needed a better way.

The Solution

NinjaRMM has solid scripting capabilities that most people underutilize. Here’s how I tackled automated printer deployment without losing my mind.

Step 1: Standardize Your Print Environment

First, identify your printer models and consolidate where possible. We had 15 different printer models - I got that down to 4 standard configurations.

Step 2: Build the Deployment Script

The script needs to:

• Detect the user’s location (AD site or subnet)
• Install the correct driver package
• Map printers based on department
• Set the default printer intelligently
• Log everything for troubleshooting

Step 3: Create Smart Conditions

Don’t just blast scripts to every device. Use NinjaRMM’s conditions:

• Only run on workstations (not servers)
• Check if drivers are already installed
• Verify network connectivity to print server
• Skip if user is on VPN (local printers won’t work anyway)

Key Lessons Learned

Test, test, test. Print driver issues can brick a workstation. Always test on a sacrificial machine first.

Log verbosely during testing, minimally in production. You want details when troubleshooting, but you don’t want to fill up disk space with logs nobody reads.

Handle edge cases gracefully. Users on laptops might dock at different locations. Build logic to handle that.

Results

• Reduced printer-related tickets by 60%
• New employee onboarding went from 30 minutes to 5 minutes
• Zero manual printer installations in the last 3 months

The best part? I can push updates to all machines with a single click. Game changer.

Next Steps

Planning to extend this to handle printer firmware updates automatically. Because if there’s one thing worse than managing printers, it’s managing printer firmware.