We have a Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Server and are having problems with redirected printers on it. The problem occurs for users running the RDP client from Windows 7, 8 and 10.
Users are connecting over a WAN connection and are needing to print to their local network printers. The printers are connected successfully to their local workstations, and the option to redirect printers is selected in the RDP client. When users remote connect
to the server the local printers show as available from within an application, such as Word, and they can print successfully using them, however they don't show in the Devices and Printers in the remote desktop session.
The problem is they want to change the default settings on the printer to be single-sided B&W and the default is Auto-color, double-sided. This can be changed manually from within the application but it doesn't stick once they log off and back on again.
Following the recommendation from this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/243942 I was able to change the defaults by going to the redirected printer in Devices and Printers and making the change under both Printing Preferences and Printing
Defaults on the printers, then waiting for at least a minute before logging off and the settings are persistent for that user through a logoff and back on again.
We had major printing issues with this server and printers when using the Windows Easy Print driver as they constantly randomly never printed jobs, and Microsoft Support concluded we needed to disable using Windows Easy Print drivers first and load matching
drivers on both the local workstation and the server. This resolved the problems they had re the non-printing, but it meant changes to the default settings had to be made on the redirected printer as above, as changing them on the local printer doesn't carry
through the redirection.
I was able to configure the redirected printers at the time as they showed up in the Devices and Printers, but for some reason they don't any more. The changed defaults have stayed persistent for users that the change was made on, but they now want it made
for new users. Also checking for existing users they no longer have the redirected printers showing up in Devices and Printers either.
There have been no changes to the server that I am aware of that would cause the printers to no longer show up. Directly attached printers show up OK, just not the redirected printer. Checking the device manager does show the print queue for the redirected
printer, and as mentioned earlier, it's available to print to.
I thought perhaps copying the registry configuration of a working configured printer and loading that each time a user logs on to the Remote Desktop Server might be an option, but the redirected printers change the redirection number each time so they wouldn't
match.
Any thoughts or suggestions about how to either get the redirected printers showing up again, or configure them for persistent defaults would be greatly appreciated.
