Terminal Server and Local USB Printer. 2

[DColcl]

I have read various articles regarding the ability of printing to a local printer while connected to a 2k3 Terminal Server. Microsoft's Virtual LPT. Some say it works great, most say it stinks.

Anyone have any issues with this patch? Anyone able to lend me advice or suggest another 3rd party software?

Laptop USB 2.0, btw.

 

[ShackDaddy]

It usually works pretty well, but it also depends on how volatile the terminal server environment is. I mean by volatile, how many users are on the system and how locked down their environments are. Sometimes weird things happen, like one users documents will get sent to another terminal user's local printer. Typically my constant tserver users knew that when they logged in in the morning they should check their printer mappings and make sure they were pointed to the appropriate virtual port. If they were, then there were no issues.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[markdmac]

Run this script on the client BEFORE connecting to the Terminal Server. THis will fix problems with remapping of DOT4, USB and Network Printers.

'==========================================================================
'
' NAME: TSPrintFix.vbs
'
' AUTHOR: Mark D. MacLachlan , The Spider's Parlor
' URL: [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.thespidersparlor.com[/URL]
' (c) 2003 All Rights Reserved
' DATE  : 12/22/2003
'
' COMMENT: Fixes printing via terminal services to allow DOT4 printers
'          This script and many more are in the Admin Script Pack
'          from the Spider's Parlor.  [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript[/URL]
'==========================================================================
myPrompt = MsgBox("This script will set up your printers for use with Terminal Services",vbOKCancel,"Setup Printers for Terminal Services?")
If myPrompt = 1 Then 
	Set WshShell=WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
	keypath ="HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR\FilterQueueType"
	WshShell.RegWrite keypath, -1, "REG_DWORD"
	If WshShell.RegRead(keypath) = "-1" Then
		MsgBox "Setup was successful",,"Success"
	Else
		MsgBox "Sorry A Problem Was Encountered" & vbCrLf & "Make sure you have permission to write to the registry.",,"Something went wrong"
	End If	
End If
WScript.Quit

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[ShackDaddy]

Mark, how does changing the FilterQueueType setting actually resolve the remapping problem? From reading the description of that key, it's still not clear to me.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[markdmac]

It has been 4 years since I looked at (or for) the KB article where I found that. Take a look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/302361

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[ShackDaddy]

I can see how this would fix problems with non-standard printers not mapping across to the terminal server, but it wouldn't bring consistency to the printing environment on TS.

The "remapping" issue is one in which a user logs on five times in a row and always gets, say, port TS7 mapped for her printer, but one day the TS mappings shift and now her HP Deskjet 5740 isn't on TS7, but on TS9, but the printer properties of the HP printer on the server show its port to be TS7, which prints to John's Brother 1450N. She would then have to manually look at the ports in the printer properties and select TS9 as the new port for the printer, and check on it after each login to make sure it hadn't shifted to be somewhere else.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[markdmac]

The original poster makes no mention of any of what you have discussed ShackDaddy.

With respect to getting printers to map, the above solution has served me well.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[DColcl]

Excellent. I'll find out today.
Thank you both for taking the time to help those less intellegent (knowledgeable) than you. :+D

Dan