Printing policy settings
The Printing section contains policy settings for managing client printing.
Client printer redirection
This setting controls whether client printers are mapped to a server when a user logs on to a session.
By default, client printer mapping is allowed. If this setting is disabled, the PDF printer for the session is not auto-created.
Related policy settings: auto-create client printers
Default printer
This setting specifies how the default printer on the user device is established in a session.
By default, the user’s current printer is used as the default printer for the session.
To use the current Remote Desktop Services or Windows user profile setting for the default printer, select Do not adjust the user’s default printer. If you choose this option, the default printer is not saved in the profile and it does not change according to other session or client properties. The default printer in a session is the first printer auto-created in the session, which is either:
- The first printer added locally to the Windows server in Control Panel > Devices and Printers.
- The first auto-created printer, if there are no printers added locally to the server.
You can use this option to present users with the nearest printer through profile settings (known as proximity printing).
Printer assignments
This setting provides an alternative to the Default printer and Session printers settings. Use the individual Default printer and Session printers settings to configure behaviors for a site, large group, or organizational unit. Use the Printer assignments setting to assign a large group of printers to multiple users.
This setting specifies how the default printer on the listed user devices is established in a session.
By default, the user’s current printer is used as the default printer for the session.
It also specifies the network printers to be auto-created in a session for each user device. By default, no printers are specified.
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When setting the default printer value:
To use the current default printer for the user device, select Do not adjust.
To use the current Remote Desktop Services or Windows user profile setting for the default printer, select Do no adjust. If you choose this option, the default printer is not saved in the profile and it does not change according to other session or client properties. The default printer in a session is the first printer auto-created in the session, which is either:
- The first printer added locally to the Windows server in Control Panel > Devices and Printers.
- The first auto-created printer, if there are no printers added locally to the server.
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When setting session printers value: to add printers, type the UNC path of the printer you want to auto-create. Alternatively, click Browser to search the entire network for a printer. You can also browse for printers by entering the printer server’s FQDN or NetBIOS name. For more information, see Session printers. After adding the printer, you can apply customized settings for the current session at every logon.
Printer auto-creation event log preference
This setting specifies the events that are logged during the printer auto-creation process. You can choose to log no errors or warnings, only errors, or errors and warnings.
By default, errors and warnings are logged.
An example of a warning is an event in which a printer’s native driver cannot be installed and the Universal print driver is installed instead. To use the Universal print driver in this scenario, configure the Universal print driver usage setting to Use universal printing only or Use universal printing only if the requested driver is unavailable.
Session printers
This setting specifies the network printers to be auto-created in a session. Inside the ICA/HDX session, the Citrix Print Manager service (CpSvc.exe) creates a network printer connection during the session logon for each network printer specified in the Session Printer policy setting. It deletes the printers during the session logoff. By default, no printers are specified.
In the Session Printer policy setting, the network printers can reside on a Windows Print Server or a Citrix Universal Print Server.
- Windows Print Server: Shares one or more network printers. It also has the native printer drivers required to use the network printers.
- Universal Print Server: A Windows Print Server where the Citrix Universal Print Server software has been installed.
When using a Windows Print Server, the Citrix Print Manager service creates the network printer connections using native printer drivers. The Citrix Virtual Apps server must have the native printer drivers installed on it.
When using a Citrix Universal Print Server, the Citrix Print Manager service creates the network printer connections using either native printer drivers, Citrix Universal Printer Driver, or Citrix Universal XPS Printer Driver. The driver that you use is controlled by the Universal Print Driver usage policy setting.
All Windows printer drivers currently fall within either the v3 or v4 driver version. For more information, see Support for the Microsoft V3 and V4 Printer Driver Architectures.
To add session printers and verify if they appear in the sessions, complete the following procedure:
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Sign in to Web Studio, select Policies in the left pane, and then click the Policies tab.
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Select the Session printers policy and click Edit.
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On the Edit Setting page, clear the Use default value checkbox, and then click Add to add a printer by following these steps:
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Enter the UNC path of the printer in the format of
\\<FQDN of the printer server>\<printer name>.Alternatively, click Browse to search the entire network for a printer. You can also browse for printers by entering the printer server’s FQDN or NetBIOS name.Note:
To ensure you can search for a specific printer using Browse, when configuring the printer, make sure that the List in the directory option is selected under Printer Settings > Printer Properties > Sharing.
- By default, your user name and password are used to browse printer servers. If different domain credentials are required, select Use different domain credentials to browse, enter the necessary user name and password, and then click Browse.
- Click Done.
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After the policy has been set, the published application might not display session printers. This issue might occur because the printer driver is missing from the Citrix Virtual Apps server or the policy has been created but not enabled.
Note:
If a session printer needs a native printer driver and the native printer driver is not installed on the VDA, then the session printer might not be created in the session.
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Start the published desktop and manually add the session printer in Devices and Printers > Control Panel.
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If this fails, investigate the communication between the Citrix Virtual Apps server and the print server. Consider running a test with RDP.
Wait for printers to be created
Use the policy on the Delivery Controller to enable the feature on Citrix Virtual Desktops.
Wait for printers to be created (Server Desktop):
This setting allows a delay in connecting to a session so that client-redirected printers can be auto-created.
By default, a connection delay does not occur.
Wait for printers to be created (Citrix Virtual Apps):
Running the following PowerShell cmdlet allows a delay in connecting to virtual apps running on multi-session hosts so that client-redirected printers can be auto-created before the application is opened.
Set-BrokerApplication -Name <VirtualAppName> -WaitForPrinterCreation $true
By default, a connection delay does not occur.