Possible to password protect a printer?

[jfall]

I just got a new printer and I want to go easy on the ink.. I have a friend that comes over a lot and prints out a bunch of stuff I don't want him to.. is there any way that I can password protect the printer so anyone that tries to print from any program has to enter a password to proceed?

 

[Mark R]

Which OS?

Win NT, 2K and XP, can restrict the use of a printer to specified logins. So, you can give your friend his own username/password, which can't print, etc.

 

[Mavrick007]

Just take the cable off and hide it when you're not using the printer.
Simple solution

 

[jfall]

Well, its XP professional. I don't really want to add him an account.. he usually uses my computer when it's already logged in etc. I was just thinking that there would be some way that I could password the spooler some how.. so any program that tries to access the printer itself requires a password

 

[bunker]

How much does he know about computers?

Set the spooler service to manual startup. Create a shortcut to the services that you can access quickly. Stop it when you're not using the machine.

 

[Smilin]

hehe yeah, what bunker said.

Just click start | run and type "net stop spooler" before he comes over. It will act 'broken' and tell him you don't know what the problem is yet. A reboot or "net start spooler" will bring it back online.

You can also edit the permissions (see security tab) and remove yourself before he comes over and then re-add yourself when he leaves.

 

[Trevelyan]

Originally posted by: jfall
I just got a new printer and I want to go easy on the ink.. I have a friend that comes over a lot and prints out a bunch of stuff I don't want him to.. is there any way that I can password protect the printer so anyone that tries to print from any program has to enter a password to proceed?

kill your friend. simple. effective. and mmmmmm, boy is it fun!