Printing

The Printing node in the Policy Properties dialog allows you to configure printing options.

In the Technology section, select the technology to use when redirecting printers to a remote computer:

• None. No printer redirection will be used.
• RAS Universal Printing technology. Select this option if you want to use RAS Universal Printing technology.
• Microsoft Basic Printing Redirection technology. Select this option if you want to use Microsoft Basic printing technology.
• RAS Universal Printing and Microsoft Basic redirection technologies. Select this option to use both Parallels RAS and Microsoft technologies.

RAS Universal Printing

If you selected RAS Universal Printing technology, use the Redirect Printers drop-down list to specify whether to redirect all printer on the client side, default printer only, or specific printers.

If you select Specific only in the step above, click Tasks > Add. Type a printer name and then click the Options button. In the dialog that opens, specify settings described below.

In the Choose Format drop-down list, select a data format for printing:

• Print Portable Document Format (PDF). Adobe PDF. This option does not require you to install any local applications capable of printing a PDF document. All the necessary libraries are already installed together with Parallels Client.
• View PDF with external application. To use this option you must have a local application installed which is capable of viewing a PDF document. Note that not all applications are supported. For example, the built-in PDF viewer in Windows is not supported, so you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader (or a similar application) installed.
• Print PDF with external application. This option works similar to the View PDF option above. It also requires an application capable of printing a PDF document installed locally.
• Enhanced Meta File (EMF). Use vector format and embedded fonts.
• Bitmap (BMP). Bitmap images.

In the Client printer preferences section, select one of the following:

• Use server preferences for all printers. If this option is selected, a generic printer preferences dialog will be shown when a user clicks Print in a remote application. The dialog has only a minimal set of options that they can choose.
• Use client preferences for all printers. With this option selected, a local printer preferences dialog will open when a user clicks Print in an application. The dialog will contain a full set of options for a particular printer that the user has installed on their local computer. If they have more than one printer installed, a native preferences dialog will open for any particular printer that they choose to print to.
• Use client preferences for the following printers. This option works similar to the Use client preferences for all printers option (above), but allows users to select which printers should use it. Select this option and then select one or more printer in the list below. If a printer is not selected, it will use the generic printer preferences dialog, similar to the first option in this list.

Default printer settings

To configure default printer settings, click the Change Default Printer settings button.

The default printer list shows printers that can be redirected by the client to the remote computer:

• To disable the default printer, select <none>.
• To redirect the default local printer, select <defaultlocalprinter>.
• When <custom printer> is selected, you can specify a custom printer. The first local printer that matches the printer name inserted in the Custom field will be set as the default printer on the remote computer.

Select Match exact printer name to match the name exactly as inserted in the Custom field. Please note that the remote printer name may not match the original printer name. Also note that local printers may not redirect due to server settings or policies.

The Force Default printer for option specifies the time period, during which a printer will be forced as default. If the default printer is changed during this time after the connection is established, the printer is reset as default.

Select the Update the remote default printer if the local default printer is changed option to change the remote default printer automatically when the local default printer is changed. Please note that the new printer must have been previously redirected.

A Windows 10 and 11 note

Windows 10 and 11 have a feature that automatically sets the default printer to the one used most recently or more often. This can break the default printer control on RD Sessions Hosts, guest VMs, and Remote PCs. To resolve this issue, the default printer management in Windows 10 and 11 should be disabled. To disable this feature using the Group Policy, do the following:

1. Open the group policy editor.
2. Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Printers.
3. Find the Turn off Windows default printer management policy and enable it.
4. Force the group policy to all computers attached to the domain.

You can also disable the default printer management in Windows 10 and 11 locally by using the GUI or the registry editor:

1. On a Windows 10 or 11 computer, click Start, then click the "gear" icon which will open the Settings page.
2. On the Printers and Scanners tab, set the Let Windows manage my default printer option to OFF.

Using the registry editor:

1. Open the registry editor (regedit).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows.
3. Create a new DWORD item and name it LegacyDefaultPrinterMode.
4. Change the item's Value data to hexadecimal and set the value data to 1.

In addition to disabling the default printer management, the Download over metered connections option should be enabled in Settings > Devices > Printers & Scanners.