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Scott Johansen
Asked: 2009-11-01 11:37:26 +0800 CST

Remote printing using Terminal Services

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We have 250 staff and all need to be able to print to their printer at home. What it is the best way to do this? Do I need all 250 printer drivers on the server? If I upgrade from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 R2, will I gain anything in this area?

terminal-server

2 Answers

  1. There are several ways to do this:

    1. Many of the printer drivers may already be on the server. W2K3 comes with support for a large number of printers "out of the box".

    2. Use the Printer Driver Fallback GPO setting for drivers that Windows doesn't have. You need SP1 on the TS servers to make use of this setting.

    3. Use a custom print.inf file.

    4. Updgrade to W2K8 and make use of the Easy Print GPO setting. All clients need to have RDP client 6.1 and .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 to make use of this setting.

    Here's a great guide to TS printing:

    http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2004/02/02/the-ultimate-guide-to-terminal-server-printing-design-and-configuration.aspx

    Also, some printers inevitably will probably not work. Host based printers that use LIDL don't work in a TS session AFAIK.

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  2. If your printers are reasonably generic, you likely can get away with using a standard HP-LaserJet driver.

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