Windows XP just won’t go away. It is still one of the most widely used operating systems in business so I still find myself having to go back and remember certain things I had to support. For example, there was one little known printing problem with Windows XP when using the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client. A user would log into a Terminal Server running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (Terminal Services is now called Remote Desktop Services) and try to print to their local printer, but the printer wouldn't appear in Devices and Printers. Printing to a local printer FROM your Terminal Server session is called "printer redirection" and is a built in feature in the RDC client. All that you need to do is enable the local resources to redirect in the Terminal Server session. But in order to use printer redirection with Windows Server 2008 RDC sessions, you need to update your Windows XP computer to Service Pack 3 and install a couple of mandatory software updates.
In order for printer redirection to work in Windows XP the computer must have the following software installed:
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=25150
- **This last update isn't required, but recommended since it solves a few issues with RDC in Windows XP: Remote Desktop Connection v7 -http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969084
At this point, it is wise to completely update the Windows XP computer using Windows Updates. Once that has completed, log into your Terminal Server, RDS server, or a Windows Server 2008 computer and check Devices and Printers (or Printers and Faxes in Windows Server 2003). You will now see that your local printers are available and will look similar to this:
As always, feel free to leave a comment below!
- Joe