When managing a print server with a large number of
printers, its nice to know which ones are being used and which are
idle/abandoned.
To audit printer activity on a print server:
1. Enable the appropriate event log -> right-click on it and choose “Enable”:
2. Wait a while for events to accumulate in the log.
3. Now, run a Powershell script:
$MyFilter =
@{LogName = "Microsoft-Windows-PrintService/Operational";ID=307; StartTime
= (Get-Date).AddHours(-24)}
$Events =
Get-WinEvent -FilterHashTable
$MyFilter
[System.Collections.ArrayList]$PrintJobs =
@()
ForEach ($IndividualEvent
in $Events)
{[void]$PrintJobs.Add([regex]::match($IndividualEvent.Message,'(?<=printed on
).*?(?= through port)').Groups[0].Value)}
"Used
printers with number of print jobs:"
$PrintJobs |
Group-object |
Select Name, Count | Sort Name
$UsedPrinters =
$PrintJobs |
Group-Object |
Select Name
-Unique | Sort Name
$AllPrinters =
Get-Printer |
Select Name
| Sort Name
"."
"Idle
printers:"
Compare-Object $AllPrinters
$UsedPrinters -Property
"Name" -PassThru
| Select Name
…and then you get a nifty little report that shows which
shared printers (on this server) were used and which were idle during the
audited period of time! 😊
