Troubleshooting Remote Desktop Printing
Author: RentalPoint
Date: January 23, 2013
RentalPoint systems are often deployed on Cloud Servers or Terminal Server instances. Terminal Server, now renamed Remote Desktop Services, and regular Windows Remote Desktop, offer users a way to print to local printers while logged into a remote system.
If you are having trouble printing from a remote session, to your local printer you should first check for issues that are specific to your model of printer and its drivers,
and second check for operating system level specific concerns.
Here are the troubleshooting steps for the Printer level:
Printer Hardware and Driver Checks
- First try printing from a local program like Notepad, or even going to your control panel and finding the printer and printing a Test Page. If that works, continue.
- There are some brands of printers that do not work well in this case. Others are known to work well. Brands that are known to work especially well are HP Laserjet, Lexmark, and IBM laser printers. Many small inexpensive inkjet printers and low-end laser printers (even some HP ones) do not work with Remote Printing. If your printer uses the GDI printer method of operating (also known as a host-based printer in HP's documentation) then it will not work. Extremely cheap printers (ones that cost under $100 US) are often incompatible with remote desktop printing. If you are not sure, please check your printer manufacturer's documentation.
- If you are administering a Terminal Server or Windows Server remote computer that has Group Policy settings, check your group policy settings. Microsoft link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee791784(WS.10).aspx
- If your document still does not print, and you have not yet located and installed the printer driver for this printer on the remote system, try that.
Operating System Checks
Windows
- Windows 7 and Windows 8, 10 and Windows Vista have everything you need built in, all you need is a quality printer and you should be good to go.
- Windows XP : You will need some updated information installed on to your machine for this to work.
- Windows XP SP3 (Service Pack 3) Installed. This will give you the updated Remote Desktop Connection software (Version 6.1) that is required to connect o the Windows 2008 Server and have the “Easy Print” service work.
- Install a copy of Windows dot net Version 3.0 SP1 or Version 3.5. You MUST have this installed and having a copy of dot net version 4 is not adequate. You must have a copy of Version 3.0 SP1 or Version 3.5 on your Windows XP Machine. You can download Version 3.5 from here (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=25150). You need some of the technology that is built into Version 3.0 or 3.5 to make this work, that is left out of dot net version 4.0. As dot net version 4.0 was built for later operating systems (Windows 7) and doesn’t need the technology that was put in dot net 3.0 / 3.5.
- You may need to install ‘Windows Installer 3.1’ on to the Windows XP machine so that the above installers run. This normally only happens if the Windows XP machines are not updated for some reason, as this should already have been installed by Windows updates many years ago.
MAC OSx
- Microsoft Remote Desktop for MAC is recommended - If you experience issues, try updating to the latest version, or trying the Microsoft client (Remote desktop Connection in Windows, link to apple store..)
- CoRD has known issue with remote printing from 64 Bit Windows Servers