Moving user folders and printers to a new server

[poppachocks]

I am currently in the process of building a new 2003 member server to replace our old (hardware wise) 2003 file server. The original server hosts several network printers and about 300 individual user folders. All of the users have a shortcut to their own folder on the desktop of their PCs. No mapped drives. I don't know why my predecessor set it up this way, but it may be because many of our users are using network resources via a site to site VPN (Watchguard). The current plan is to move all of the user folders, reinstall the printers with the same share names, then take down the old server. I then hope to rename the new server to the old server's name. I'm wondering though if the shortcuts to folders on the users desktops will still work or will they have to browse to the server, and then create new shortcuts. Same thing with the printers. Will everyone have to re-install the printers even though the share names and the server name will be the same. Any suggestions welcome, but management wants to keep things the same so users won't be confused.

[cluberti]

Consider checking out print migrator 3.1 (printmig) from the microsoft.com download site. As to the shares, you'll either have to recreate them, or back up and restore the subkeys of the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver once you change the machine name of the new server back to the old server name.

[fizban2]

if you went to Server 2003 R2, the print manager console (PMC) in R2 will let you map printers out for your users as they log onto the machine, no more having to manually add printers, i would say this would be a great time to implement home shares for your users. setup the share path in their AD profile so that it will map the drive for them when ever they logon