Printing in Windows Terminal Server/Citrix Environments

Here are a few ideas to consider when setting up printing within a Terminal Server environment:

Will this printer require the use of Text Drivers in AGRIS in order to print correctly?
Do the users desire to have station printers 1, 2, and/or 3 setup to facilitate ease of use?

NO - If the answer to both of these questions is no, then the printer can be setup as a standard local or network printer on the workstation and it can be printed to using the option 7 printer in AGRIS.

YES - If the answer to either of the questions above is yes, then one of the methods below will need to be employed to setup printing successfully. If users have auto-created printers in this scenario, there will be a session number added to the end of the printer name by default. Because AGRIS remembers the station printers by name, if the name changes at all (i.e. the session number changes), AGRIS treats it as a completely different printer. There are a few ways to work around this as noted below:

Use VPNs, share the printer locally, and connect to the shared printer in the TS session.

For a local printer (printer connected to LPT port of workstation) you will need to create the printer on your local workstation and share it. On a Win9x unit you will also need to make sure your Workgroup is set to the same name as your Domain Name. Once this has been done, you can then login to your terminal server session as administrator and make a connection to the shared printer. The easiest way to make this connection is to go to START then RUN and type \\COMPUTERNAME(COMPUTERNAME being the name of the computer sharing the printer) and click OK. This will bring up a window that should show the shared printer. You can right click on this printer and click on Connect. You should then be able to go to the printers folder and see a printer named PRINTERNAME on COMPUTERNAME (PRINTERNAME being the name of the shared printer). Right click on this printer and go to properties and go into the security settings and add the domain groups or users that you wish to allow access to this printer and give them allow permissions to Print and Manage Documents. You can then remove the Everyone group from the permissions. Once this has been applied the user should be able to login to their terminal server session as the user and setup the printer in AGRIS and specify the text driver if necessary. Do not choose a printer that shows as Client Printer Name/Client Computer Name/Session Number but rather choose the printer that shows as \\COMPUTERNAME\PRINTER. If you use the other printer it will become unavailable when your Session Number changes.

2. Not use auto-created printers and use print servers, but this again involves using a VPN connection.

For a network printer you will need to login to your terminal server session as administrator and create a connection to the network printer of your choosing. Once the printer is created you will then need to go into the properties on the printer and go into the security settings and add the domain groups or users that you wish to allow access to the printer and give them allow permissions to Print and Manage Documents. You can then remove the Everyone group from the permissions. Once this has been applied the user should be able to login to their terminal server session as the user and setup the printer in AGRIS and specify the text driver if necessary. Do not choose a printer that shows as Client Printer Name/Client Computer Name/Session Number but rather choose the printer that shows only as a Printer Name. If you use the other printer it will become unavailable when your Session Number changes.

3. If using Citrix, there is a setting ('Legacy Printing') that can be used to remove the session number from the auto-created printers.

4. Use a 3rd party product to disable the session number from being added to the printer name.