Print Stalker User Guide

Details

Category: User Guides

Published on Saturday, 11 May 2013 00:00

Written by Christian Dunn

Print Stalker allows you to easily monitor printers and print jobs and automatically remove old print jobs from your print queue. The application can be scheduled using the Windows Task Scheduler to run even if you are not logged onto the computer/server and can send an email notification to advise when errors occur, the number of jobs, jobs over a certain age or when jobs are deleted.

The Free version includes limited features.

Print Stalker is easy to use with all features displayed in one interface.

Getting Started

1. Click Get Printers to find all printers on the local machine.
2. Select the printers you wish to monitor from the Printer list.
3. Specify any options.
4. Click Check Printers to check for alerts or terminate jobs.

Monitors

• No printer selected
• Print Jobs Deleted
• Print Jobs in Queue or older than specified time period
• Print Job Errors
• Printer Errors
• Printer Not Found

Features

• AutoStart will automatically list printers and then check any jobs as soon as the program starts. This is ideal for automatic scheduling.
• AutoStop will close the program 30 seconds after a check is complete. This is ideal for automatic scheduling.
• Log will generate a CSV file with the alert information any time an event occurs.
• Start Minimized will run the program minimized in the taskbar.
• Delete Jobs will purge any jobs for the selected printers when a check is run.
• Notify Only will send an email with the number of jobs in queue.
• Older than X minutes allows you to specify an age for print jobs. Only print jobs older than the specified time frame will be purged if the Delete Print Jobs option is enabled or reported if the Notify Only option is enabled.
• Show Alert will send a popup alert to all users on the current machine (on XP requires Messenger service to be enabled).
• Send Email will send an email to the specified email address whenever an event occurs.
  • Use SSL specified secure email transmission.
  • Email Server specifies the server used to send email.
  • Username and Password are optional and can be used if your email server requires authentication.
  • From Address is the address email will come from.
  • To Address is the address email will be sent to.
  • Subject allows a custom subject to be specified for the email
  • You can use "<computer>" in the email subject and the computer name will be inserted when sent.
• Clear Selections will clear any selected printers.
• Settings are saved in an ini file that is automatically created in the same folder as the executable.

INI File

• Aged={True|False} Enables feature to allow you to specify an age for print jobs. Only print jobs older than the specified time frame will be purged if the Delete Print Jobs option is enabled or reported if the Notify Only option is enabled.
• AgedTime={Minutes} Specifies time period if aged feature is enabled (Default: 10 minutes).
• Terminate={True|False} Enables deletion of jobs if aged feature is enabled.
• TerminateNotifyOnly={True|False} Enables notification of aged jobs if aged feature is enabled.
• AutoStart={True|False} Automatically runs a check when application starts.
• AutoStop={True|False} Automatically closes application after running a check or after 15 seconds.
• Minimised={True|False} Starts application minimised.
• SendEmail={True|False} Sends an email when an alert is triggered.
• EmailSSL={True|False} Use SSL for sending email.
• EmailServer={smtpserver} Specify email server for sending email.
• EmailPort={port} Specify port for sending email (Default: 25).
• EmailUsername={username} Specify username for sending email.
• EmailPassword={password} Specify password for sending email.
• EmailTo={email} Specify recipient address for alert emails.
• EmailFrom={email} Specify sender address for alert emails.
• EmailSubject={subject} Specify email subject(can include variable).
• AlertToFile={FilePath} Specify target location to generate HTML alert notification if alert is triggered (can include variable).
• TargetMachine={computer|ip} Specify target machine for monitoring.
• Execute={FilePath} Specify application to execute if alert is triggered.
• Log={True|False} Creates a log file and records triggered alerts.
• SendAlert={True|False} Shows a popup message on the current machine if an alert is triggered.

Command Line Parameters

• /INI={FilePath} Specifies ini file to use for settings (Default: application-path\application-name.ini).
• /LogFile={FilePath} Specifies file to save log file if enabled (Default: application-path\application-name.csv).
• /AutoStart={True|False} Automatically runs a check when application starts.
• /AutoStop={True|False} Automatically closes application after running a check or after 15 seconds.
• /Minimised={True|False} Starts application minimised.
• /TargetMachine={computer|ip} Specify target machine for monitoring.
• /Execute={FilePath} Specify application to execute if alert is triggered.
• /Log={True|False} Creates a log file and records triggered alerts.
• /SendAlert={True|False} Shows a popup message on the current machine if an alert is triggered.
• /AlertToFile={FilePath} Specify target location to generate HTML alert notification if alert is triggered (can include variable).

Installation

Print Stalker has been tested on Windows XP,2003,Vista,7,8 and 2008 and requires the .Net Framework 3.5 to be installed.
You can download the .NET Framework from here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=21

Print Stalker does not require installation. The executable can be located anywhere on your computer and settings and log files are automatically created in the same location when the program is run.

The configuration and log file are specific to the name of the executable. If you would like to run multiple instances of this application in the same location to monitor different criteria you can create a copy of the exe file and rename it and a new configuration and log file will be created to match the new name.

Scheduling

Print Stalker does not include scheduling capabilities but can be easily scheduled using Windows Task Scheduler. This is designed so that the program can run even if you are not logged on to the server/computer. Simply create a new scheduled task in windows and specify the option to 'run whether user is logged on or not' and remember to select AutoStart and AutoStop. The program will now run on the schedule you define.

• Schedule a Task (Windows 8)
• Schedule a Task (Windows 7)
• Schedule a Task (Windows XP)

Find out how to Schedule multiple Stalker applications or commands with Stalker Go