⚙️🪟💻🔓CP - Security - Print Spooler Hardening - Exemption
What this policy is for 🔓
The counter-policy to ⚙️🪟💻CP - Security - Print Spooler Hardening.
That policy clamps the print spooler shut. This one un-clamps it. Only for the handful of devices that have a written, justified reason to be uncuffed. 🔑
Why does this even exist? Because almost every setting in the hardening policy writes under HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\… or the equivalent CSP surface, and those values tattoo. They survive an unassign. So removing a device from the hardening policy doesn't actually undo anything. The values stay until something explicitly rewrites them.
That "something" is this policy. Assigned to the 🛡️🪟💻👈🔓⚙️Group - Print Spooler Hardening Exemption, every row below is a deliberate "set this back to the way Windows shipped it." ⏪
This is not a "soften the baseline" policy. It is a registry rollback for devices the hardening policy can never be quietly undone on.
When you use this 🎯
The exemption group itself documents who belongs in it. Short version:
- The one warehouse PC that shares a Zebra label printer to four other devices over SMB
- A dev workstation that actively needs to test print-driver installs
- A customer with a stubborn LOB app that ships its own driver and refuses to be Win32-packaged
If a device doesn't have a written justification, it doesn't belong in the group, and therefore it doesn't get this policy. Period. 📝
🛠️ Configuration Settings
All values applied via Settings Catalog, device scope. Every row is the explicit reset for a value the main hardening policy tattoos.
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Point and Print Restrictions | Disabled | Turns the whole guardrail set off again. Note: Not configured leaves the registry key behind. Disabled is the explicit reset. |
| Point and Print, When installing drivers for a new connection | Do not show warning or elevation prompt | Rolls back the "ask for admin on new printers" behavior. The original Windows default. |
| Point and Print, When updating drivers for an existing connection | Do not show warning or elevation prompt | Rolls back the elevation prompt for driver updates on existing queues. |
| Restrict driver installation to administrators (RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators) | Disabled (value 0) | The headline reset. Standard users can install print drivers again. Without this row, an excluded device stays locked out forever. |
| Limits print driver installation to Administrators | Disabled | The ADMX twin of the registry value above. Both surfaces must be reset. |
| Configure RPC over named pipes for the Print Spooler (RpcUseNamedPipeProtocol) | Enabled (value 1) | Allows named-pipe RPC again. Required for some legacy print queues that don't negotiate TCP. |
| Configure RPC connection settings, Protocol to use for outgoing RPC connections | Not configured / vendor default | Drops the protocol pin. |
| Configure RPC connection settings, Authentication protocol | Not configured / vendor default | Drops the authentication pin. |
| Configure RPC listener settings, Protocols to allow for incoming RPC connections | Not configured / vendor default | Drops the inbound protocol pin. |
| Configure RPC listener settings, Authentication protocol | Not configured / vendor default | Drops the inbound auth pin. |
| Package Point and print, Only use Package Point and Print | Disabled | Allows legacy (non-package-aware) drivers via Point and Print again. The whole reason this exemption usually exists. |
| Package Point and print, Approved servers (enable) | Disabled | Removes the approved-server allow-list entirely. Clears the toggle and lets the list be ignored. |
| Allow Print Spooler to accept client connections | Enabled | Lets this device share printers over the network again. The actual operational need for most warehouse/shop-floor exceptions. |
| Manage processing of Queue-specific files | Do not limit Queue-specific files (or Disabled) | Allows arbitrary queue-specific files again. Required for some old vendor drivers that ship sidecar DLLs. |
Every single setting in the main hardening policy has a counterpart row here. There is no "well, this one probably reverts on its own." Treat the whole stack as tattooed. 🔒
Caveats ⚠️
This policy is dangerous by design. It re-opens every attack surface the baseline closed. That's the entire point. A device that needs Zebra driver installs as a standard user has to live without the hardening. There is no half-measure. ⚖️
Audit footprint. Any device receiving this policy should be loud in your monitoring. A clear group membership, a written justification on file, a quarterly review reminder. Treat it the same way you treat the Screen Lock Disabled exception.
Don't reassign the device to the baseline later and walk away. If a device leaves the exemption group, you actually want the hardening to take effect again. The baseline policy will (re)write the hardened values on the next refresh. Verify that on at least one canary device before you call the migration done. Print Spooler hardening is one of those places where "Intune said it deployed" and "the registry actually shows the new value" occasionally disagree. 🤔
License fit. Identical to the baseline. Settings Catalog / ADMX on Windows 11 Pro/Business, Business Premium covers it. No tier-up needed.
💡 SuperVision tip
This policy is paired with the hardening baseline. Membership in 🛡️🪟💻👈🔓⚙️Group - Print Spooler Hardening Exemption is the single source of truth. Being in the group means the baseline excludes you and this rollback policy assigns to you. Don't manage the two assignments separately; mirror them off the group membership. 🪞
No tag candidates. Same logic as the baseline. These are rollback values, not customer-preference settings. Every value in this policy is a deliberate "Windows default" choice; there's nothing here for SuperVision to make dynamic.
Drift detection. Watch the same surfaces as the baseline (Point and Print elevation prompts and RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators). A device in the exemption group whose values drift back to "hardened" usually means a recent baseline run beat the exemption to the punch. Re-trigger this policy on the device and confirm. If it keeps happening, the assignment mirror is broken.
Multi-tenant scaling. Identical across every customer. The variable is who's in the exemption group, never what this policy does.
👥 Group Assignments
✅ Included groups:
❌ Excluded groups:
- None explicitly. Every other device on the tenant is protected by ⚙️🪟💻CP - Security - Print Spooler Hardening and has no business receiving this rollback.
📝 Governance Check
If you add a device here without a documented reason, you're not creating an exception. You're creating a hole. 🕳️ Every membership change should ride alongside:
- A written justification from the customer (ticket, email, signed napkin, pick one, just write it down)
- A clear scope ("Zebra label printer share on WAREHOUSE-PC01") not a vibe ("printing issues")
- A quarterly review reminder so the exception doesn't outlive its reason
If you cannot say out loud why a specific device needs the spooler de-hardened, that device should not be in the group.
Tags
🛡️🪟💻👈🔓⚙️Group - Print Spooler Hardening Exemption
Standardize like a pro. Configure with intent. And remember: the inverse policy isn't softening the baseline. It's the only way to actually leave it. 🚪