Adding Network Printers via Powershell

Question

So I am trying to add printers using PowerShell. Before this, I did look into using GPOs to deploy printers, but I kept getting an errors. My predecessor created a VBS script to deploy them, but I am in the process of converting them all to PowerShell. Now at first I used the Add-Printer cmdlet with the -ConnectionName parameter. This worked at first, but after multiple tries, I kept getting errors that said the printer is not accessible. Then I thought about going to COM objects, and this works perfectly. However I am running into one snag. If the printers are already added, they just go away, and then I get an error saying "Value does not fall within the expected range."

The script is called via a GPO logon. The reason I am deploying them in this fashion is that all users profiles are purged (using WMI objects) and each logon session should be new for the user. Also, they do not have administrative privileges. However, they do have access to the print server, and they do have the ability to add printers. I know this because I can manually run the script in the user's context and it runs just fine. I can also see the printers being added, if they are not already there. It's just if the user logs out, and then logs back in, the printers are there, but then they disappear one by one, even though the profile is being created the first time each time. So I thought I could possibly remove all printers (except for the Microsoft PDF) printer, but that doesn't seem to work either.

Here is the code I am using. Obviously the names have been changed, but in the real script, the names are just fine. I am also using FQDN in the true script as well.

Start-Transcript -Path C:\Temp\PowerShellLog.txt

$printers = Get-Printer
Get-Printer | Where-Object Name -NotLike "*PDF*" | Remove-Printer

$var = New-Object -COM WScript.Network 
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
if ($printers.name -notcontains "\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A P1") { $var.AddWindowsPrinterConnection("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A P1") }
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
if ($printers.name -notcontains "\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A P2") { $var.AddWindowsPrinterConnection("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A P2") }
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
if ($printers.name -notcontains "\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A Duplex") { $var.AddWindowsPrinterConnection("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A Duplex") }
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
if ($printers.name -notcontains "\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A Color") { $var.AddWindowsPrinterConnection("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A Color") }

#Makes default printer
$var.setdefaultprinter("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A P1")

Here is the error I get if the printer is already installed (but then goes away):

 Value does not fall within the expected range. At
\\server\Hidden$\printer.ps1:12 char:87
+ ...  Duplex") { $var.AddWindowsPrinterConnection("\\printerserver ...
+                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], ArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.ArgumentException

Answer 1

So after doing research for the past 3 hours I figured out what the issue could possibly be. At startup, we clean up all user profiles. This requires administrative access, so it is down at the system level. Since the printers are being added in the user context, the profile cleanup doesn't clean up the printers as well. I figure there is some conflict, and the printers are caught in limbo. So if I go to add the same printer with the same network path, that is way it disappears.

With that said, I have a logoff script to empty the Recycle Bin, as this is also in the user's space. Right under that, I added Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Printer | Where-Object { $_.Network -eq 'true' } | ForEach-Object { $_.delete() } which should clean up the network printers during logoff. As far as the script goes, COM objects would work, but figured using WMI objects would be just as effective. Here is the script to add the printers at logon. I hope this helps someone else in the future.

$printclass = [wmiclass]"win32_printer"
$printclass.AddPrinterConnection("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A P1")
$printclass.AddPrinterConnection("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A P2")
$printclass.AddPrinterConnection("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A Color")
$printclass.AddPrinterConnection("\\printerserver.company.com\LAB A Duplex")

#Makes default printer
$P1Printer = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Printer | Where-Object { $_.Network -eq 'true' -and $_.Name -like "*LAB A P1*" }
$P1Printer.SetDefaultPrinter()