ie. you can't see a printers folder icon in either control panel or my comupter? Have you got a printer you can attach directly to a box and do a little troubleshooting?

Maybe try the add new hardware thingy (a stretch, I know).

I haven't heard of any viruses/exploits that exhibit this as a symptom but it seems odd that you have several boxes showing this.

A search at MS technet using the terms "printers folder missing" turned up nothing applicable.