Configure Printer Support

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Terminal Services provides printer redirection, which routes printing jobs from a server to a printer that is attached to a client computer or to a shared printer that is available to the client computer. On a terminal server, you can use the Terminal Services Easy Print printer driver to simplify printer configuration. The Terminal Services Easy Print driver is useful if a terminal server does not have a printer driver installed that matches the printer driver on a client computer.

By default, the terminal server first tries to use the Terminal Services Easy Print driver. If the client computer does not support this driver, the server looks for a matching printer driver on the server. You can either install a matching printer driver on the terminal server, or you can create a custom printer mapping file.

Note

The terminal server fallback printer driver is not supported in Windows Server 2008.

Client requirements

To use Terminal Services Easy Print, the client computer must have the following components installed:

  • Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 6.1

Note

The RDC 6.1 client supports Remote Desktop Protocol 6.1.

  • At least Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1

Note

The version of Microsoft .NET Framework that is included with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 supports Terminal Services Easy Print.

For more information about client requirements, see the "Terminal Services Printing" topic in the "What's New in Terminal Services for Windows Server 2008" guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=87440).

Configure printer driver behavior

To change the default printer driver behavior, you can use Group Policy to modify the Use Terminal Services Easy Print printer driver first policy setting. This policy setting is located in the following node of the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC):

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\Terminal Server\Printer Redirection

Note

If you are using the Local Group Policy Editor, "Policies" is not part of the node path.

By using this policy setting, you can configure the terminal server to do either of the following:

  • Use the Terminal Services Easy Print driver first. If that fails, look for a matching printer driver. (This is the behavior if you enable or do not configure the policy setting.)

  • Look for a matching printer driver first. If that fails, use the Terminal Services Easy Print driver. (This is the behavior if you disable the policy setting.)

Other printer redirection policy settings that are available in this node of Local Group Policy Editor include:

  • Do not allow client printer redirection

  • Do not set default client printer to be default printer in a session

  • Redirect only the default client printer

For more information about these policy settings, view the policy setting descriptions in the GPMC or the Local Group Policy Editor.

Additional references