RDP Support for Local Printers

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Providing access to a station's local resources within a session is one of the properties of RDP. In addition to local drives and serial connections, local printers in particular can be addressed in a session. For application sessions using NetMan Desktop Manager, the use of local printers is configured in the launch rules:

 

1. In the NetMan Client section of the NetMan Settings, open the Launch Method page.

 

2. Select a launch rule and click on the Edit button above the list.

 

3. On the Local Resources page of the Launch Method dialog, select Yes in the Printer field to connect local printers in sessions:

 

warning Note: All local printers are automatically connected in the session by the settings configured here. With this technique, the required printer drivers for all connected printers are installed and configured automatically. There is one potential problem, however:

If the printer driver on the server is an earlier version than that on the workstation, printouts might not show the expected results. If this is the case, you might need to install the latest driver version on the Remote Desktop Session Host, which can be a difficult undertaking.

If the driver for the printer in question is made for use only with Windows 9x/NT/2000, it might not be possible to install it on Windows 2003. Even if you do manage to install it, you might find that it is not supported by the manufacturer.

 

For details on how to avoid the necessity of installing printer drivers on a Remote Desktop Session Host, see "Modifying Printer Mapping". Alternatively, use the universal printer driver in Windows.