Overview

When user authentication is enabled on Print Portal, administrators can now limit which printers users see when they're logged in. This can prevent use of the incorrect printer and accidentally using up extra printer licenses.

BarTender 2021 R9 and later now reads from printer permissions from local server printers to determine which printers to show for a logged in user. If a user is denied permission to print to a printer, it no longer shows up on the available printers list.

This article will show you how to set up printer permissions and use them in Print Portal.

Applicable to 

BarTender 2021 R9 and later

Enterprise Edition only

For BarTender 2016 and 2019, please see Print Portal: Limiting what printers a label can be printed to (by user) 

Information

Enable Authentication

First, enable authentication in Print Portal. 

1. Open Print Portal in a web browser
2. Click Administrative Setup in the top right corner
3. Click the Security tab
4. Check the Enable Authentication checkbox
5. Click Save
6. Open the IIS Manager
7. Expand the website tree and click on Application Pools
8. Right click on BPP_AppPool and select Advanced Settings
9. Click on the [...] next to the Identity and use the Set button to change the identity to a domain account which does not change its password (does not need to be a domain admin)
10. Click OK on both text boxes then stop and start the app pool to set the account

Configure Printers

Repeat this process for each printer you wish to configure. You can also set these settings via PowerShell if you have a large number of printers to configure. This example uses a local user called SeagullVM but any account or group can be used for this configuration.

1. Open the Control Panel then open Devices and Printers
2. Locate the printer you wish to configure
3. Right click and select Printer Properties
4. On the Security tab, click the Add button to add a user or group you wish to apply permissions to

5. Once the user is added, select the user and click the Deny checkbox next to the Print permission

6. Click OK. An additional Windows Security dialog may appear, stating that the permissions are being denied. Click Yes

Applying the Permissions in Print Portal

After you've configured the printer permissions, the website must be restarted in IIS to properly apply them. This must be done after each change, so it is recommended to do bulk changes before restarting the website.

To restart the website:

1. Open the IIS Manager
2. Open the tree and locate the Print Portal website under the Sites folder. If you have no other sites, it may be listed as Default Web Site
3. Select the website and in the Action bar on the right, click Stop then Start to restart the website

Once the website has been restarted, when a user logs in, they will no longer see a printer they do not have permissions to use. 

Using the example above, SeagullVM was denied using the Zebra 105 printer. It no longer appears on the available printers list.

If your users no longer see the denied printer on the list, the settings have been properly applied. If they do see the printer, try restarting the website in IIS once again and checking that the permissions have been properly set in the printer properties.