VMware Horizon Community
cbombard
Contributor
Contributor

VM "Windows cannot connect to printer" when trying to connect to network printer

Running Horizon View 7.11

APP VOL 4.0 writable volumes

Windows 10 1909 Education

Using non-persistent composed linked-clones.

The base image when prepping and trouble shooting can connect/add printers without issue.. Once composed the desktops will get an error when trying to add a network printer. You can create a local TCP/IP connection to add the printer without issue..

When trying to connect to a network printer.. it will go through the discovering drivers.. installing drivers.. and then will give the error "Windows cannot connect to printer"

operation failed with error 0x0000006

I have one snapshot before installing APPVOL that works. The SNAP after APPVOL does not work.

I am out of ideas of what to look at/try.. I have reached out to support but have not heard back yet (just wrote them this morning) but thought I would reach out to this community as well..

I am stumped!

14 Replies
MaxStr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Did this issue only just start after app volumes 4.0? Because I've had printer driver issues for a while, and all seem to be related to Windows automatically looking for printer drivers in Windows Update (and the Microsoft Store)

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ryul
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

We experience the same issue on some, not all, VDIs.

We block and deactivate the Windows Update service (which is best practice).

Of course the Windows Update service in Windows 10 is quite a headache, because it activates itself in some time, but this is another topic.

Could this be the issue (Windows Update service not running)?

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hoang92bn
Contributor
Contributor

can i ask, which browser you are using to access Horizon Admin panel 7.11. i cannot login by chrome latest verstion...

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MaxStr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Take a look at the the latest version of the Horizon Optimization Tool. They recently added a checkbox for disabling checking Windows Update for drivers when a new device is added. I found this helped resolve a lot of the printer issues

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skinnieh
Contributor
Contributor

We have the exact same issue with Windows 10 1909 and App Volumes 4.01. If i unassigned all my app stacks and attempt to then install a network printer it will work fine (with App Volumes still running as a service). The moment i just add one app stack,here comes the 0x00000006 error. I have verified the app stack in an update to see if it introduces problems with "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider" ... but this is not the case.

I am stumped too, for now.

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Shreyskar
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi skinnieh

1) Make sure windows update service is disabled while adding the printer.

2) Follow VMware Knowledge Base  and create 'processdriverstore' registry on master image and test again.

Please mark reply as helpful/correct if it helps you.

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skinnieh
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Shreyskar,

Thanks, I have tried it and followed the KB article exactly, but unfortunately it didn't fix the issue. I am still getting the 0x00000006 error when installing network printers that are served by a print server in our network (and only occurs when app stacks are assigned).

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Shreyskar
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi skinnieh

What kind of desktops are you connecting to?

Are they getting refreshed Or deleted on logoff?

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skinnieh
Contributor
Contributor

Its a floating instant clone pool of Windows 1909 vdi machines, with everything latest and greatest: horizon 7.12 agent & app volumes 4.01.

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Shreyskar
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi skinnieh

Thanks for the update.

Please follow below action plan and let me know:

Note: First test it on a test pool/ test machine before moving to production.

  • Power on master VM.

  • Navigate to C:\Program Files(x86)\CloudVolumes\Agent\Config.

  • Create a new folder called "Custom"

  • Then create two folders called "app"

  • Create a notepad file, open the file and below lines:

exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider
exclude_path=%SystemRoot%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository
exclude_path=%SystemRoot%\INF
exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers
exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print\Printers

  • Save the file as snapvol.cfg. Make sure file extension is correctly set to '.cfg' not '.cfg.txt'.

  • Reboot the VM, Shutdown the VM and take a snapshot and recompose/publish the pool with this snapshot.

Let me know if this resolves the problem.

Please mark reply as answered/correct if resolves your issue.

skinnieh
Contributor
Contributor

Ok, Tested it just now and that fixed the problem! Thanks a lot.

Can i consider this custom folder to be a permanent fix or is it something that will make its way into a future release of App Volumes?

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Shreyskar
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi skinnieh

This is a fix for now.

VMware support is already aware of this issue and working with App Volumes dev team to roll out an external KB article very soon. You can keep an eye on next App Volumes release notes if it is included there as permanent fix.

Please mark my answer as correct if it helped you.

Regards,

Shreyskar

skinnieh
Contributor
Contributor

I can't mark it as correct, unfortunately, i didn't start this thread.

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JoshN80
Contributor
Contributor

I know this is an old thread, but I have the same issue. When you say "create two folders called 'app'", does that hierarchy look like this?

Custom
> app
>>app

So there's an app folder inside of an app folder which is inside a Custom folder?

 

EDIT: After testing, it should be Custom with one app folder inside.

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