What printers work best with a Windows Remote Desktop Server?

In the Windows 2003/Windows XP days, printing on a Remote Desktop server was limited to those servers who have drivers for that particular server. Drivers for any locally attached printers would not only have to be installed on the PC that they were attached to, but also on the server you were remotely connecting to.

Now with Windows 2008 R2, Remote Desktop users have the ability to use printer redirection using Microsoft’s EasyPrint. Basically EasyPrint is part of Windows Server, and allows print jobs in a Remote Desktop session to be sent to the client for print job handling, instead of trying to print the job itself. While this is slightly slower than the old method, it allows for a much larger number of compatible printers without the need of installing drivers on the server.

Which printers will work? Well most printers that work with Windows 7 will work with Microsoft’s EasyPrint technology. If you are planning on purchasing a new printer and want to ensure that it will be fully compatible with any Remote Desktop servers you are connecting to, then check out Microsoft’s Windows Catalog database.

Any new printer you are considering should be certified for Windows 2008 R2 to fully ensure it will work well with a Remote Desktop server.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2012/06/windows/what-printers-work-best-with-a-windows-remote-desktop-server/

4 comments

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    • Nina Denial on January 9, 2013 at 10:45 am
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    Even if printer doesn’t work with RDP, there is third-party solution: Printer for Remote Desktop. It doesn’t require to have printer drivers installed on the server, works with both RDP and ICA protocols, and your printer will be isolated within individual session.

    • Osven Tiwek on February 21, 2013 at 8:01 am
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    Yes, printer redirection is a very useful option. If you are a small user, that is if you connect from a single station, and there aren’t many others that also regularly connect and print. Everything should work just fine. But if you are a part of a larger network with different printers and servers, then you are going to encounter issues if you have a big number of drivers on the server. Nina has offered a solution from Fabulatech, which is a good software. In my company we also have a couple of servers and almost a hundred clients connected. We offer them TSPrint from Terminal Works. Also works fine. Not to many issues so far.
    http://www.terminalworks.com/remote-desktop-printing/

    • Softprogger on August 6, 2013 at 5:49 am
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    Yes, thirdparty solutions are the best way to forget the trouble with bad printerdrivers or slow performance of tseasyprint!
    But there are cheap solutions with rare features!
    My favorite is
    You can try it without any registration!

    • Alex on May 2, 2014 at 10:40 am
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    This is really good. Thank you so much plus maintain the
    excellent creativity!!

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