Since I have been dealing with Citrix for 2+ years now, I have read every article, blog, post about using only the Citrix UPD. But no matter how I configre the printing policy, drivers ALWAYS end up getting installed and the UPD is hardly ever used.
We have come across some print issues with new HP printers, 1312nfi and 2727mfp to be exact that have caused some issues. Also, on a daily basis, the print spooler is hovering around 50% cpu (would be 100%) if it wasn't for CPU management.
Is there anyone out there that uses ONLY the Citrix UPD with no other drivers installed and that has an environment that is similar to the following:
Citrix Xen App 5Windows Server 2003 32bit R2HP BL460 blades, dual core, 4GB ram (8)Internal: Towers, thinclients, mix of printer makes and models, HP, Xerox, Canon, DellExternal: Web users, unknown mix of printersI can give any other info. This is just frustrating as hell...
Hi,
Confirm the following settings in your Citrix policy where printer redirection is defined:
The last item prevents printer driver installations that result from administrators remoting into a server using RDP.
Alan Osborne
President (MCSE, CCNA, VCP, CCA)
VCIT Consulting - Citrix/Terminal Services Remote Desktop Solutions for SMB
VCIT website My Blog
I am missing the last item, I will try that shortly. Thank you so much.
Alright, on Saturday night while performing some maintenance, I deleted the print drivers out of Printers and Faxes --> Server Properties --> Drivers, that are giving me the issue. I did this so that this model of printer would use the Citrix UPD.
I came in this morning and even though that printer is using the UPD, the drivers have made their way back into the print driver list.
Do I need to delete those drivers in another location like the windows folder or registry?
Is the CTX policy containing the UPD setting being applied to ALL users (incl. admins)? You might want to try applying the policy to all servers instead.
Did you disable client printer mapping on the RDP listener?
Do you have any auto-replication rules configured in Printer Management (PSC)?
Check the system event log for printer creation events for the printer in question.
As far as deleting the printer drivers goes, Kyocera makes a printer driver removal utility that you can download here:
http://usa.kyoceramita.com/KMAGlobalpub/jsp/upload/resource/18418/0/Deleter291523.exe
The description implies that it only works with Kyocera drivers, but that's not the case. Just be careful not to remove any of the UPD drivers: HP Color LaserJet 4500 (PCL5c UPD), HP Color LaserJet PS (PS UPD), HP LaserJet Series II (PCL4 UPD), and Citrix Universal Printer.
I have now deleted all print drivers except for the 4 that are needed for the UPD. I used terminal server to get in and the drivers appeared back on the list. Here are the answers to your questions:
Not sure how to check whether its being applied to everyone.
I did disable the printer mapping.
No auto replication rules.
You said "I used terminal server to get in and the drivers appeared back on the list...". Do you mean you logged in to the server via an RDP connection and the printer drivers all reappeared?
If so, you haven't disabled printer mapping on the RDP listener correctly. From tscc.msc, right click on RDP-Tcp, select Properties, then on the Client Settings tab and enable the checkbox "Windows printer mapping" under the heading "Disable the following:". Reboot the server after making this change.
To check who your Citrix policies are being applied to:
From the PSC, select Policies on the left then Actions -> Search... and from the Search window, specify a user search filter that includes your admins (i.e. Domain Admins) and click on the Search button. Select the search results, then click on the "View Resultant Policy" button. Review to ensure that the UPD settings you applied appear in the RSOP results as expected.
Also, on each Citrix policy that contains printing related settings, right-click on the policy and select "Apply this policy to..." and make sure that the policy is getting applied to all users or alternatively all servers (since you want to use the UPD exclusively for ALL users on ALL servers).
Alright, I wasn't rebooting after I made the change for disabling the printer mapping. Rebooted the server last night and today only 1 HP driver was back in the list - weird.
On your first suggestion, I tried to run a search on that criteria and nothing came up. No matter what criteria
On the second suggestion, I can right click and select, "Apply this..." but nothing ever happens.
I think I am getting closer to solving the issue, so I am going to reboot one more time and see if I can walk through those steps again.
Thanks for all of your help, Alan.
Ok, another reboot fixed the above issues. I applied the policy to everyone and did a search against domain admins and it showed up.
Now I just have to delete the print drivers off of all of my Citrix servers and reboot them and go from there.
Thanks once again.
Sure, no problem. Once you've cleaned up the drivers, you should find that the UPD will be used exclusively now that the appropriate Citrix policy is being applied to all users and now that the RDP listener has printer mapping disabled.
Well, its going much better. The spooler isn't maxing out one of the cores anymore and the UPD is being used by every printer.
But..........some drivers found their way back. A Dell, a few HP's and a Xerox. I don't mind if they are in there only if the UPD is being used, which currently it is.
In this whole mess, I accidentally deleted the Citrix UPD on one of my servers. How do I re-install it?
In Add/Remove Programs, repair the Citrix installation - that fixes the UPD.
Cool, 5 minutes after I posted that, I found it in another topic. Everything is still running smooth, UPD is being used for all printers, yet drivers are still getting installed. I give up.
Hi Joe C, don't give up you are just getting to where printer drivers in Windows is interesting
Are your users using network printers with their sessions? If so connecting to a print server (read shared printer) with automatically install the drivers. Set a couple of policies:
Computer Confi\Admin Templates\Printers\Disallow installation of kernel mode drivers
Computer Conf\Win Settings\Sec Settings\Local Pol\Sec Options\Devices: Prevent users from installing printer drvivers
you can also set:
Computer Conf\Win Settings\Sec Settings\Local Pol\Sec Options\Devices: Unsigned driver behaviour: Disallow
--Emil