Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Workaround for Printers that are not Redirected in a Remote Desktop Session

This article is from Microsoft Knowledgebase. It was forwarded to me by Chit De Jesus. Like other remote users she cannot print on the all in one wireless HP printer. This workaround requires you to go under the hood and get your hands dirty by going into your Windows XP registry. She tweak the Registry setting of her workstation and now the walla, the problem is gone.

I have to warn you, editing the registry of your pc might render your perfectly working windows xp unusable.

Ok here we go:
Printers That Use Ports That Do Not Begin With COM, LPT, or USB Are Not Redirected in a Remote Desktop or Terminal Services Session.

To resolve this problem on a computer that is not running Windows Server 2003, force all ports (including DOT4) on the client computer to be filtered for redirection. To do this, add a DWORD value named FilterQueueType to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR and set its value data to FFFFFFFF.

Follow these steps, and then quit Registry Editor:
1.Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2.Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR
3.On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4.Type FilterQueueType, and then press ENTER.
5.On the Edit menu, click Modify.
6.Type FFFFFFFF, and then click OK.
This enables all ports on the client to be redirected.

To work around this problem on a client computer that has a multifunction print device, change the port that the multifunction print device uses from DOT4 to an LPT port.

For example, to configure a multifunction print device to use an LPT port on a Windows XP-based computer, follow these steps:
1.InControl Panel, openPrinters and Faxes.
2.Right-click the local printer that is not redirected, and then click Properties.
3.Click the Ports tab, click an LPT port, and then click Apply.

The printer should now appear next to that port.
4.Close the Printer Properties window, and then reconnect by using Remote Desktop.
Important When a multifunction printer is using a standard LPT port instead of the DOT4 port, it loses its multifunction capabilities, such as scanning, faxing, or copying. To regain the multifunction capabilities, the print device must use the DOT4 port.
To read the complete article please go to microsoft.com. Here is the complete link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302361/en-us

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