VMware Horizon Community
TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Default printer does not get saved.

I have the problem that my default printers get not saved. The "Network Printers.zip" is getting saved but with the wrong default printer. The XML inside the zip-file shows me:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<defaultPrinter name="Microsoft Print to PDF (vdi)"/> 

... instead the name of one of our network printers.

I have read that in the past ThinPrint could hijack the default printer but TP is not part of the Horizon agent anymore. We are running Horizon 8.1 with DEM 2103.

This are our common settings to save the printer settings:

[SpecialSettings]
DefaultPrinter

[IncludeRegistryTrees]
HKCU\Printers
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Devices
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PrinterPorts

[IncludeIndividualRegistryValues]
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\UserSelectedDefault\[SKIPLOGGING]

 

What could be wrong? 

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @TomH201110141,

Before DEM attempts to save your default printer at logoff, do you see the correct printer as the default in Printers & scanners?

VMware Integrated Printing added a Do not change default printer policy setting in 8.1/2012. Maybe that would help?

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TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes, I can change any network printer to my default printer and I see this in Printers & Scanners. 

Now after enabling the VMware Integrated Printing policy setting in User Configuration setting the behaviour changed a little bit: the correct default printer is saved now (I see it in the xml-file in the zip-file) but does not survive a next login. It’s still a local printer (now a software PDF24 printer) after login. I don’t think that the PDF24 printer catches the default printer role by itself. 


Just to add as information:

All printer mappings are configured in the User Environment tab of DEM (but no printer is default). I have a VDI-Pool with 20 different network-printers and I want that the users can choose their preferred printers and delete all other unwanted printers and set one as default. Is this the right way? 
At the moment no printer settings dones by a uset gets saved. 😞

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @TomH201110141,

Can you file a support ticket and let me know the SR#?

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ifsdd
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have opened a SR #21215525204.

TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Oh, I wrote it with our common company account ifsdd.

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TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Is disabling of Printer Redirection via GPO mandatory for setting the default printer? It seems that my default printer is set when I disable the redirection of my local printers with a GPO.

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @TomH201110141,

> Is disabling of Printer Redirection via GPO mandatory for setting the default printer?

You mean whether VMware Integrated Printing (VIP) needs to be disabled for DEM to persist and restore a user's preferred default printer? No, definitely not – the Enhanced Default Printer Roaming introduced in DEM 2103 was built with VIP in mind.

I have a hunch that you might need to be on Horizon 2103 as well, though – I vaguely recall an issue with 2012 when we were developing this feature. Would you be able to test with Horizon agent 2103?

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TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

You mean whether VMware Integrated Printing (VIP) needs to be disabled for DEM to persist and restore a user's preferred default printer? No, definitely not – the Enhanced Default  Printer Roaming introduced in DEM 2103 was built with VIP in mind.

Yes, I recognized that the restore only works when VIP is disabled.

I will give Horizon Agent 2103 a chance. Do you think it's enough to test against Horizon Agent 2103 with connection server 2012 or shell we setup an additional connection server 2103?

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @TomH201110141,

Do you think it's enough to test against Horizon Agent 2103 with connection server 2012 or shell we setup an additional connection server 2103?

No idea, sorry – I'm just DEMdev 🙂

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TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have now updated the connection server to version 8.2 and the agents in the masters as well. DEM is also on latest version and default printer setting works now as expected with enabled VIP - the default get's restored.

BUT: what about the default printer when VIP is now disabled? The default printer doesn't get restored with disabled VIP. There are scenarios where we want to disable VIP (so that the users don't get flushed by tons of local printers).

So we have the situation with the printers the exact other way round.

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @TomH201110141,

So roaming a user's preferred default printer does not work if it's a native (non-redirected) printer when VIP is disabled? How exactly are you disabling VIP, just so I can try to reproduce?

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TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I disable VIP with the help of a User-GPO in DEM.

TomH201110141_0-1619634131625.png

I don't know exactly what you mean with "native" printer but I assume we mean both the same (I mean network-printers deployed by "Printer Mappings" in DEM (User Environment)).

 

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @TomH201110141,

Indeed, my "native" reference was meant to imply "not redirected". Thanks for the screenshot; we'll give it a go.

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @TomH201110141,

Instead of disabling VIP through that ADMX-based setting, could you try it via a Horizon Smart Policies configuration file, setting Printing to Disable?

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ifsdd
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi @DEMdev No luck: The Horizon Smart Policies disables the redirection but the default printer doesn't get restored.

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TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Oh, I wrote again with the wrong account (ifsdd=TomH201110141) 🙂

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @ifsdd / @TomH201110141 ;),

Can you provide a FlexEngine log at log level DEBUG, capturing both a path-based export (where the default printer setting should be saved), and the next path-based import (where it should be restored)?

If you feel more comfortable adding the log to the SR, that's fine; I can pick it up from there.

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TomH201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I will do that. Please tell me how to disable the VIP - AMDX or Horizon Smart Policies based or doesn't it matter?

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi @TomH201110141,

Please do that via Horizon Smart Policies, thanks!

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