How to Copy a Printer's Configuration to Another Machine

By Ryan Menezes

PrinterUI.dll handles settings such as a printer's color profile and hardware ID.
i George Doyle/Stockbyte/Getty Images

Microsoft lets you configure Windows printers in a few different ways. The Control Panel offers a graphical interface for editing your printer settings, but you can also control other settings through PrinterUI.dll, an executable file accessible through the Windows command prompt. This utility can edit your current printer configuration and export it as a DAT file. If you have several printers in your office in separate networks, you can use this DAT file to copy one machine's configuration to another.

Right-click the desktop's lower-left corner, and then click "Control Panel" to launch the Control Panel.

Click "View Devices and Printers," and then note the exact name of your printer as displayed in the "Devices and Printers" window.

Press "Windows-R" on your keyboard to open the Run window. Type "cmd" and press "Enter" to launch the command prompt module.

Type "cd\" (omit the quotes) to change the active directory to the C: drive's root folder.

Type the following command, replacing "name" with your printer's name, and then press "Enter":

printui.exe /Ss /n "[name]" /a "config1.dat"

Open your C: drive and copy the new "config1.dat" file to a storage device such as an external hard drive or a USB drive.

Connect your storage device to your second machine, and then copy the config1.dat file to your second machine's C: drive.

Open your "Devices and Printers" window as in Step 2, and note the second printer's exact name.

Launch the command prompt module as in Step 3, and then type "cd\" (omit the quotes) to change the active directory to the C: drive's root folder.

Type the following, replacing "name" with the second printer's name:

printui.exe /Sr /n "[name]" /a "config1.dat"

Press "Enter" to import your first printer's configuration.

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