Enable printer location tracking

Open Active Directory Sites and Services
Create the sites you want, if you haven't done so already. To create a site, see Related Topics.
Associate a subnet for this newly created site, if you haven't done so already. To associate a subnet for the site, see Related Topics.
Right-click each subnet you created, and then click Properties.
Click the Location tab, enter the location of the subnet in the following format based on your location naming convention, and then click OK:
location/location
Using Group Policy, double-click the Pre-populate printer search location policy setting, and then click to enable it.
The following example demonstrates how to set the policy to a group (organizational unit in Active Directory terms) of users that use that printer. However, you can set the policy to a different object using the appropriate Active Directory utility.

Start Group Policy from Active Directory Users and Computers. To apply Group Policy to a domain or organizational unit, see Related Topics.
Right-click the organizational unit you want to apply the policy to, and then click Properties.
Click the Group Policy tab, and then click New to create a new object. Type the name of the new object, and then click OK.
Select the newly created object and then click Edit.
Expand Computer Configuration, then Administrative templates, and then Printers.
Double-click the policy setting Pre-populate printer search location, and then click to enable it. When you search the directory service for printers, it automatically fills in your location field using the value specified in the Location tab of the Subnet properties page. If this policy is disabled (default), the location will be empty.

Open Printers
Right-click the printer, and then click Properties.
Type the printer location, or click Browse to find it. You probably want to be more precise in describing the printer location than the subnet location. For example, for the subnet location US/NYC, you might enter US/NYC/Floor42/Room4207.
Repeat the last two steps for each printer in Active Directory.

note Note

To open Active Directory Sites and Services, click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tasks, and then click Active Directory Sites and Services.
To open Printers, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
To enable printer location tracking, you must have the following:

A working directory service with more than one site or more than one subnet.
A network IP addressing scheme that corresponds roughly to the physical layout of your enterprise.
Client computers that can query the directory service.
A subnet object for each site. You can create them using the directory service Site and Subnet MMC snap-in.
Your own naming convention for printer location.
Administrator privileges.