Scanning Local printers

[tonyperez0]

I have a lot of network printers that scan normally, which is great. However I have some execs and upper management that have local printers. I'd like to know if there is any way to successfully scan these local devices just as you would a networked printer. I don't know if its possible to scan "through" their networked PC's, or if there is some other way

I must believe there is some way since I can get make & model & other info for attached monitors. If I can get that from a device that relatively doesn't "talk", I should be able to get toner type, printer make/model & hopefully more info on a local printer.


Your thoughts?

[Susan_A · Accepted solution]

All of a Windows computer's installed printers are automatically scanned and listed in the Config\Devices\Printer section of the computer webpage, but make, model and toner type can only be retrieved for network printers scanned as separate assets through SNMP.

The data you see on the Windows computer webpage is pulled from WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation), a framework built into Windows operating systems that stores system data. The Win32_Printer WMI class we get installed printers from doesn't store information like make and model. Unless this information is included in the printer name, you won't be able to retrieve it from the WMI class. I'm not sure it is even possible to retrieve this data in any another way, e.g. through the registry or another WMI class. (Monitor information is pulled from the registry.)