Anyone else dealt with unauthorized printing on shared Windows PCs?

Posted by CollectorAK@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 8 comments

We manage a small lab with shared Windows machines and unauthorized printing was a constant headache — students printing personal stuff, accidental jobs clogging the queue, no accountability.

Windows doesn't have a native way to require authorization before a job prints. Group Policy can restrict printers entirely but there's no built-in "pause and prompt" mechanism.

So I built a small tray app that intercepts every print job before it releases, shows a password prompt, and only prints after authorization. Offline-first, no cloud dependency, per-PC license.

Curious if others have run into this and how you handled it — GPO workarounds, third-party tools, or just gave up and accepted the waste?

(Happy to share the tool if anyone wants to try it — still early, looking for feedback)