Deploying printers to devices
Put a printer on a site, a whole customer, a device group, chosen devices, chosen people or an Entra group, set default printers, and follow each device's install.
A deployment says which devices should have a printer and whether it should be their default. Devices pick it up at their agent's next reconcile, and devices that join the target later get it too. Take a deployment away and Tenvara removes the printer again from devices that no longer need it.
Deployment targets
| Put it on | Who gets it |
|---|---|
| A site | The site's workstations and laptops, as they come and go |
| The whole customer | Every workstation and laptop the customer has |
| A device group | Every device in the group, whatever its type |
| Chosen devices | The devices you pick, whatever their type |
| People | The contacts you pick, on any of the customer's workstations and laptops they sign in to |
| An Entra group | The members of a Microsoft 365 security group, the same way |
Site and customer deployments deliberately skip servers, hypervisors and virtual machines, so they do not collect every office printer. If a server does need a printer, choose it as a device or put it in a group. A device whose type changes gains or loses its site's printers at the next rebuild.
Note: A protected device is never given printers by a deployment. It can still check printer status and run discoveries.
Deploying a printer
- Go to Devices > Printers, the Deployments tab and click Deploy a printer. You can also start from a printer's page (Deploy next to Deployed to, or ... > Deploy to devices) or a device's Printers block (Deploy), which open the same form.
- Choose the Printer.
- Under Put it on, choose A site, The whole customer, A device group, Chosen devices, People or An Entra group, then pick the site, group, devices, contacts or Entra group. The choices are limited to the printer's customer.
- Tick Make it the default printer if it should become the default for the people using those devices.
- Add Notes saying why, for whoever looks at it next.
- Click Deploy.
The Deployments list shows every deployment with its Printer, Customer, Target, whether it sets the Default, how many Devices it reaches (with pending or failed installs) and when it last Changed. Filter by Customer, Target type, Default and Devices.
To change or remove a deployment, open the printer and use the edit or delete button on the deployment under Deployed to.
Printers for people and Entra groups
Some printers belong to people rather than places: the finance team's printer, a manager's desk printer. Deploy those to People or An Entra group and the printer follows the person to whichever of the customer's workstations and laptops they sign in to.
- People are contacts of the printer's customer. An Entra group is a security group from the customer's connected Microsoft 365 tenant, with its members as the Microsoft 365 sync sees them. Entra groups need the customer's tenant connected (see Connecting a tenant).
- Each person is matched to the accounts they sign in with on Windows, by their email, their user principal name and the usual name patterns, including Entra-joined PCs.
- The agent adds the printer when one of its people signs in, and keeps it while one of them has signed in within 30 days (by default). Until then the device shows the printer as Waiting for sign-in, which is never an alert.
- Make it their default printer makes it each person's own default, through their tray. A person's own default wins over the device's: chosen people first, then an Entra group.
Like site and customer printers, printers for people go to workstations and laptops only, never to a shared server where every user would see them.
Default printers
Only one printer can be the default on a device. When two deployments make different printers the default, the more specific one wins: chosen devices, then a device group, then a site, then the customer. So you can make the office colour printer the default for a site and still give reception a different default through a group.
On Windows the default printer belongs to each user, not the machine. The agent asks every signed-in user's session to make the printer their default, and switches off Windows' "Let Windows manage my default printer" so it stays put. It does this once per user and printer, so a user who later picks another default keeps their choice. The device page lists the result under Default for users.
What the agent does
When a device's list changes (a printer is added or edited, a deployment changes, the device moves site or group) the device is told straight away, and every device is checked every five minutes anyway. The agent then:
- installs printers it should have and does not
- updates printers whose name, address, driver or defaults changed, and retries any that failed
- removes printers it added that are no longer wanted, and their ports and drivers when nothing else uses them
It only ever changes printers it added itself, which it keeps a record of and marks on the system. A printer of the same name that someone else created is left alone, and Tenvara's install fails with a message saying so. One printer failing never stops the others.
Following the install
On the printer page
The Devices table on a printer's page lists every device that should have it, its State, the Driver it got (and whether it came from an uploaded package, the operating system or a fallback) and any Error or note.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | The device has not reported it yet, usually because it is offline or has not reconciled |
| Installed | The printer is on the device |
| Failed | The agent tried and could not, with the reason under Error or note |
| Removing | The device no longer needs it and the agent is taking it off |
| Waiting for sign-in | A printer for people: none of its people has signed in to this device yet |
Default next to a device means this printer is its default.
On the device page
A device's Printers block shows whether the device is In sync (about the printers Tenvara manages), when it last reported, each printer Tenvara put there with its state and driver, the deployment it came through, and Default for users. Under them, Not added by Tenvara lists the printers someone set up another way. See Printers Tenvara did not add.
Click Reconcile now to make the agent check its printers straight away rather than waiting, for example after fixing a problem on the machine. Deploy starts a deployment to this device.
Printers Tenvara did not add
Most devices you take on already have printers someone added by hand, through a print server or with another tool. The device's Printers block lists each one under Not added by Tenvara, with its name, port, driver, whether it is the default (and whose), whether it is one person's own connection, and which of your printers it is. Tenvara matches it by the IP address or host name of its port, a print server share, or the model at the device's site.
What it offers depends on what the queue is:
| What it says | What you can do |
|---|---|
| This is one of your printers in Tenvara, added another way | Take over: Tenvara installs its own printer on the device with its driver and settings, as the default where the old queue was, then the agent removes the old queue. Or Leave it. |
| A second queue for a printer Tenvara already gives the device | Remove the extra one: the agent removes it once Tenvara's printer is installed. |
| Known, not managed: found by discovery or a network scan | Manage it adds it as a printer in Tenvara, then Only add it, Deploy it to the site or take the queue over. |
| Not known to Tenvara | Add to Tenvara creates the printer from the queue (address, model, driver, site), with the same choices. Or Ignore, on this device or on every device of the customer. |
The old queue is removed only after Tenvara's printer reports installed, so a device is never left without its printer. If the new one fails to install, the old queue stays as it was. Each change shows its state on the row (waiting for approval, sent to the agent, waiting for the new printer to install, or failed with the agent's reason) with Cancel. Windows' own software printers, such as Microsoft Print to PDF, are listed under Built-in and never offered. Ignored ones are under Show ignored, with List again.
Unmanaged queues across a customer
Devices > Printers, the Unmanaged queues tab, brings a site's printers under management in one go. Without a customer chosen it shows how many queues each customer's devices have. Choose a customer to see every queue across its devices, grouped by the printer it points at (your printers first, then known ones, then by address or share), with Take over, Manage it or Add, and Ignore for the whole group.
Taking over printers on more than one device at once waits for approval when the person is not an administrator (Taking over printers on several devices needs approval in Settings > Approvals, on by default); one device never does. A customer in takeover or onboarding mode holds take overs and removals until the mode ends. A take over is an ordinary deployment to the device, listed under Deployments, and every request is in the audit log and on the device's timeline.
Was this page helpful?
Thanks for the feedback.