Remote Desktop Printer issue

[Leftfoot]

Hello All,

My wife is preggy and has decided to remote desktop into her work pc after delivery. I have successfully configured the connection and she can use all her work software just fine.

The issue I have is the use of my local printers during the remote desktop session.
The "local resources" tick boxes are checked for printers and the "microsoft document writer" and other Microsoft misc soft "printers" do transfer to the work machine via the remote desktop connection perfectly.

My issue I think is that my local printers use WIN7 64bit drivers while the office uses drives for (looks like) XP 32BIT or Server 2003

How do I get the right drivers to the right places so that Remote desktop can use my local machines?

 

[mintydroid]

It should work as is. Your other option is to print to pdf and then copy and print like normal on your side.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Load the drivers for your printer on the remote desktop server. They need to be compatible with the OS on the remote server.

 

[Park@82]

Look at ThinPrint. But it won't be cheap. There is no need to install drivers on the terminal server with ThinPrint installed (on client and server) , it will automatically create your local printers in the session - this eliminates any printer driver compatibility problem with the server.

 

[Odly]

It should work as is. Your other option is to print to pdf and then copy and print like normal on your side.

This is most likely your easiest solution, instead of having to fight with drivers for different OS's and between 64 and 32 bit rather print to pdf and send it to your local pc through google drive or dropbox then just print it out normally.

 

[Leftfoot]

Update:
Thanks for the replies guys.

As a little test I have a WIN XP 32bit PC at home and I moved my local printer to that PC and loaded the 32bit drivers for it. I performed a Remote Desktop session and the printer now appears as an option and I can successfully print.

So I confirmed basically that it is the 32bit/64bit driver issue when working from the WIN7 machines. The PDF story is an option but its a schlep and she'll be printing Pastel invoices and statements (many documents) etc.

So now that I know the driver issue, which side gets which driver? I have taken note of InvisibleJim's comments about "Load the drivers for your printer on the remote desktop server. They need to be compatible with the OS on the remote server."

I see on the Remote PC that under "Print Server Properties" that the x86 printer driver is indeed there. Do I need to also see the 64bit driver here?

 

[irBosOtter]

Drivers (64 and 32 bit) needs to be on the server before it will pull it through on a 2003 server (no need to load a printer on the server, just the drivers needs to be added. Exactly the same driver version you have on the home pc)

 

[Ipwn 4]

Process I use:

1) don't bother with 32 and 64 mixes.
2) disable the easy print driver in group policy on the remote machine.
3) down load a driver, test printing locally.
4) install same driver on remote machine.
5) repeat steps 3-5 till printing works.

Simple as that... Do it enough and just about any printer will redirect and print with no issues.

Edit: Final tip, use 7 zip to extract drivers that download as exe files and install dummy local printers to force the installation of the driver on the remote pc.

 

[irBosOtter]

Process I use:

1) don't bother with 32 and 64 mixes.
2) disable the easy print driver in group policy on the remote machine.
3) down load a driver, test printing locally.
4) install same driver on remote machine.
5) repeat steps 3-5 till printing works.

Simple as that... Do it enough and just about any printer will redirect and print with no issues.

Edit: Final tip, use 7 zip to extract drivers that download as exe files and install dummy local printers to force the installation of the driver on the remote pc.

What? I manged 9 TS servers with 2000 users, you have to load 32 bit and 64 bit drivers, please don't tell the guy not to bother with it, it's the only thing that will work (unless it's Win 2008/2012)

 

[Ipwn 4]

What? I manged 9 TS servers with 2000 users, you have to load 32 bit and 64 bit drivers, please don't tell the guy not to bother with it, it's the only thing that will work (unless it's Win 2008/2012)

All our rds deployments are Server 2012 or 2012 R2, 90% of the "clients" connecting are on Win7 64bit or higher. Lucky for me I have corporate and green policies making printing easier
Aint nobody got time for a 32bit XP HP InkJet driver.

Also, shared as my process. I'm sure you will have some tips as you have dealt with large deployments? 200+ users per server must have made for some fun times? Just out of curiosity, care to share the spec of the tin/vm that allowed this?

 

[Leftfoot]

Thanks for the replies...I will try some options on Tuesday