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mtabor
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Floating pool, persona management, default printer not remembered

I've deployed a small View 5.0 floating pool with Persona Management enabled to a few users, so far everything seems to be working just fine.

The only exception is with default printers, a looks up the network printer in the directory, adds it to their virtual machine and sets it as their default printer. Will use that VM throughout the day without any issue, but when they log off and log back in the following day, the default printer is not remembered.

The printers are re-added, just the default printer is not right. It always reverts to the "Microsoft XPS Writer".

Any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?

Thanks in advance!

-Michael

Mike, miketabor.com
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mtabor
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Sorry for not updating this thread long ago. I was able to resolve this issue using a .vbs script at log-in to add network printer(s) and then set them as default.

I've just posted more details about this on my blog today:http://miketabor.com/set-default-printer-view-floating-desktop-persona-management/

Hope this helps someone else!

Mike, miketabor.com

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mtabor
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bump

Mike, miketabor.com
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gmtx
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Are you using Group Policy to set the default printer? Any chance this is a Windows 7, 2008R2 (print server) environment? If so, I have the same problem and it appears to be a known (for some time) Windows bug that has yet to be addressed.

If your environment matches the above, check the event logs on the client and look for GP printer error IDs with "environment is not correct", or "printer not found" details in the event.

Geoff

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mtabor
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No group policy is not being used to set the local printer. The pool is a floating pool, a user logs into the pool adds the printer by searching the directory for it or going directly to the UNC path of the print server and adding their needed printers. They then set one printer as their default printer on their VM and continue to use the VM and default printer throughout the day with no issues.

Upon logoff and back on either after lunch or the following day, the default printer is no longer remembered. All printers that was added previously is re-added, however the default printer is now set to the MS XPS file printer.

The VM's are Windows 7 and the print servers are a mix of Windows Server 2003 and 2008.

Mike, miketabor.com
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gmtx
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Have you seen this post?

http://communities.vmware.com/message/2164836

Disabling NLA will probably screw up GP processing so I'd be concerned about doing that, but the second option - a reg fix to disable location-based default printer settings - may be worth a shot. In theory that shouldn't work since Windows shouldn't be detecting the zero client as a "portable" device, but the poster claimed it fixed his issue.

Geoff

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mtabor
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Geoff,

I tried disabling the NLA service on the parent image and then recomposed the pool, however the recompose would not finish the "Customizing" state and would eventually time out to an "Error" status.

I'll try using the reg edit method next to see if that makes any difference.

Thanks!

Mike, miketabor.com
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ericblc2
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Had the same issue and i disabled one of the thinprint services (tpautoconnect I think). We don't use thinprint so I did not care about it,

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iamxCPx
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Just curious if you found the solution on this?

Did you open a ticket with support?

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edinburgh1874
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Hi, please see my post, which details on how I resolved this

Solution - Saving default printers after recompose

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gmtx
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One other thing to try if you are using GPO to set the default printer: There's a hotfix rollup out there that for whatever reason isn't being publicized much (I guess because it's a hotfix), but addresses a bunch of GPO and slow startup issues. Since applying this we've had substantially fewer instances of the default printer not being set properly.

Here's the link to the hotfix: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2013/03/12/slow-boot-slow-login-sbsl-hotfix-rollup-for...

Geoff

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jonathanjabez
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This issue occurs because the default printer that is configured in the Persona Management profile is getting overwritten.


Default printer settings do not persist through View sessions when Persona Management is enabled:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=203972...

Refer to the below given Administration guide for the detailed steps on "Configuring Location Based Printing"

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standal
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Hi, had the same issue in our environment.

Solved it by adding network printer in logon script, and using a gpp to add a scheduled task - (run 30 secs after logon) to set default printer.

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iamxCPx
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I fixed ours by configuring the Location Based Printing through the GPO just like what jonathanjabez stated.

It takes a while to configure since there isn't a lot of examples/guides out there that I can find on how to configure it. But with trial and error, I finally able to get it to work.

Just watch out if you have 50+ users and 10+ printers to choose from where each user will have different default printer.

The LBP list could go very long or you will have to utilize the Windows Print Server (on my case) and users will complaint about the delay when trying to print.

I don't think it's the LBP issue but it's the communication between the Windows 7 (on my case) and Windows Print Server somehow. (You can google Windows 7 slow printing)

A tweak needs to be done or driver needs to be updated. Something like that. I believe it's fine with Windows XP.

Microsoft needs to get it together. :smileyplain:

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mtabor
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Sorry for not updating this thread long ago. I was able to resolve this issue using a .vbs script at log-in to add network printer(s) and then set them as default.

I've just posted more details about this on my blog today:http://miketabor.com/set-default-printer-view-floating-desktop-persona-management/

Hope this helps someone else!

Mike, miketabor.com
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