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Printing stories on BrianMadden.com

Printing in virtual desktops, VDI, and Terminal Server-based environments has always been challenging. (Mainly due to the fact that the application you want to print from is running remotely, yet the printer you want to print to is local.) So to combat this, there have been quite a few innovations in the printer space... things like driver-free printing, driverless printing, universal drivers. Citrix and Microsoft have each added specific capabilities to their products to help people print. We've also seen third-party vendors like ThinPrint, triCerat, and UniPrint come to market over the years.

  • Citrix announces XenDesktop 5. Here's our full analysis & what you need to know.

    Last week at Citrix Synergy 2010 Berlin, Citrix surprised everyone by announcing XenDesktop 5 , the latest iteration of their main desktop virtualization product suite which will ship by the end of the year. XenDesktop 5 actually has quite a few changes...
    by Brian Madden on October 11, 2010 : 17 comments , 132,687 views
  • BriForum 2009 DEMO Lab: UniPrint

    During BriForum 2009 , we shot videos of our sponsors live in the DEMO Lab. In these videos, viewers can experience the technologies and products that vendors brought with them to showcase to our attendees. In this video, we hear from Arron Fu, Vice President...
    by Brian Madden on July 22, 2009 : 0 comments , 2,056 views
  • Is anyone using add-on printing products anymore, or is the built-in stuff from Citrix and Microsoft good enough?

    Back in the day, (which was what, six years ago?), it was a de facto "requirement" that you used third-party add-on printing products to make your Citrix or Terminal Server environment work. In addition to solving the driver management problem...
    by Brian Madden on April 16, 2009 : 23 comments , 5,665 views
  • XenApp 5 Feature Profile - Citrix Universal XPS Printer Driver

    I hate printing. Sadly, it's one of those necessary evils like backups, patch Tuesday, and renewing your driver's license (where I've actually helped fix a printer...sigh). That said, among the many changes in XenApp 5, Citrix has added some...
    by Gabe Knuth on December 16, 2008 : 7 comments , 18,423 views
  • Bring us your hardest printing problems (Workshop) from BriForum 2008

    This is a video of a breakout session from BriForum 2008 , presented by Rick Mack, Joe Shonk, Tim Mangan, and Eric Musgrave. Session Description: We've been talking about printing at BriForum for years. In this session, instead of focusing on how...
    by Brian Madden on June 18, 2008 : 0 comments , 710 views
  • Tidbits on Citrix Presentation Futures, from the Citrix Solutions Conference in Antwerp

    Today I'm at the Citrix Solutions Conference in Antwerp, a Citrix event with 1500 people that is something like iForum for Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Brad Pedersen gave the technical keynote. He began with the technical history of Citrix's...
    by Brian Madden on November 07, 2007 : 8 comments , 13,535 views
  • Free DEFSET GUI manages default printer settings in Citrix and Terminal Server environments

    DEFSET is a standalone Windows GUI tool designed to manage default printer selections on a per user basis. This tool is suited to users accessing a Terminal Server/ Citrix session and is designed to retain a user's default printer choice. DEFSET allows the user to change their default printer during program execution, and writes this information to an ini file located in the users individual windows directory. This information is then used to remember the selected the default printer for later sessions. ...
    by Brian Madden on August 24, 2007 : 2 comments , 22,703 views
  • Session Printers: To Script or Not To Script, from BriForum 2007

    This is a video of a breakout session from BriForum 2007 , presented by Stefan Vermeulen. Session Description: This session will go into all the options and hidden features you can use to create, alter, and manipulate autocreated printers in Citrix Presentation...
    by Brian Madden on April 25, 2007 : 0 comments , 595 views
  • Surviving Printing III: Present and Future, from BriForum 2007

    This is a video of a breakout session from BriForum 2007 , presented by Stefan Vermeulen. Session Description: This session will go into the current situation regarding printing using built-in functionality or by using third party solutions. We will also...
    by Brian Madden on April 24, 2007 : 0 comments , 488 views
  • Mission Impossible Printing - Printer and Driver Management, from BriForum 2007

    This is a video of a breakout session from BriForum 2007 , presented by Christoph Hammer. Session Description: Printer Management is an often neglected topic, but when it comes to practical use it can cause nightmares if used in a wrong way. This session...
    by Brian Madden on April 23, 2007 : 0 comments , 507 views
  • Free script parses event logs and compiles client printer autocreation errors

    Robert Iutzwig has created a script that connects to your servers one-by-one and scans their application logs searching for 1103, 1104, 1106, and 1107 printer autocreation errors. It then outputs this list of printer drivers to a text file....
    by Brian Madden on December 05, 2006 : 10 comments , 17,400 views
  • Citrix Printing: Brush up on the basic best practices

    Everyone who's been around Citrix for awhile knows that printing has always been a challenge. We've all been reading about tips and tricks over the years, but it's easy to forget the basics. In this article, Kevin Buchaniec walks through the best practices of configuring printing in a Citrix Presentation Server environment. This article is refreshing if you're a seasoned admin, and vital if you're a beginner!...
    by Kevin Buchaniec on August 22, 2006 : 42 comments , 91,456 views
  • Printing to Unsupported Client Printers with a free PDF Creator

    Chris Cairns sent me an email a while back with a novel printing fix / workaround for printing to unsupported printers. It's an open source project called PDFCreator. All of the configuration is done on the client's computer, including the ability to save directly to a file without prompting the user and then to automatically print that saved file to a printer.

    ...
    by Jack Madden on July 30, 2006 : 7 comments , 16,525 views
  • BriForum 2005 Video: Charlotte Kuenzell on how Windows printing really works

    Printing is one of the biggest headaches for most administrators, but many people do not know how Windows printing actually works. In this session, Charlotte Kuenzell will go deep into the Windows print system and show what you can do to improve it....
    by Charlotte Kuenzell on March 27, 2006 : 1 comments , 10,286 views
  • 60-second review; triCerat Simplify Suite v4

    triCerat's Simply Suite combines several useful server-based computing management products into a single suite, including printing, profile management, security, and performance management. In this article, Wilco van Bragt steps you through the product....
    by Wilco van Bragt on February 13, 2006 : 33 comments , 18,225 views
  • BriForum 2005 Video: Stefan Vermeulen on Surviving Printing

    Here is Stefan Vermeulen's (creator of www.printingsupport.com) presentation from BriForum 2005 last April. In this session, Stefan looks at real-world Citrix printing tuning and best practices....
    by Stefan Vermeulen on December 13, 2005 : 1 comments , 10,577 views
  • How Microsoft's Windows 2003 SP1 Fallback Printer Driver Works (which now supports color!)

    Microsoft added fallback printer driver support to Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003. The final version also offers color printer support. This article looks at how this support works and how the system figures out which driver to use....
    by Stefan Vermeulen on April 25, 2005 : 16 comments , 40,449 views
  • How Windows Printing Really Works, from BriForum 2005

    This is a video of a breakout session from BriForum 2005. Session Description: Printing is one of the biggest headaches for most administrators, but many people do not know how Windows printing actually works. In this session, Charlotte Kuenzell will...
    by Brian Madden on April 12, 2005 : 0 comments , 1,010 views
  • Surviving Printing, from BriForum 2005

    This is a video of a breakout session from BriForum 2005. Session Description: This session will explore what people are actually doing in the world of Citrix and Terminal Server printing. We'll discuss printer autocreation processes, tuning, and...
    by Brian Madden on April 12, 2005 : 0 comments , 959 views
  • Technical Overview of the UniPrint Product Suite - Sponsored by UniPrint, from BriForum 2005

    This is a video of a breakout session from BriForum 2005. Session Description: This session will provide a technical overview of the various products that make up the UniPrint Suite. It will include information on UniPrint, the UniPrint Gateway Module...
    by Brian Madden on April 12, 2005 : 0 comments , 824 views