How to make any printer work over Remote Desktop
OK here’s a solution that should be able to get any windows printer to work over Remote Desktop. It cures the following problems.
DOT4 printer doesn’t show up in remote desktop
Network printer doesn’t show up in remote desktop
Printer not sharing in remote desktop
Cannot share printer in remote desktop
Remote Desktop Printer Sharing doesn’t work.
rdc printer doesn’t work. rdp printer doesn’t show up.
(phew – hopefully that will find most google searches.)
OK – the solution for this I am using is the same as the one that works for sharing a Windows Printer to a mac…
I’m using the solution at http://home.comcast.net/~heretrythis/hp3100/psemuxp.html
To summarise, you set up a HP Color LaserJet 4550 PS on LPT1 on your guest PC. It should appear in the RDP session OK because it’s a well known printer.
You then use the Port Redirector and a PostScript to GDI converter on the guest machine that takes jobs printed to that LaserJet and spits it out instead on another printer that the guest PC knows about.
There may be some issues with paper sizes, formats, etc, but it might be enough to get you out of trouble, or even be good enough 🙂
I can’t seem to find a contact for the site quoted above. If it disappears, please let me know and I’ll re-post it elsewhere.
If you find it useful, but confusing, please let me know and I’ll make clearer instructions that work for the more recent versions of GhostScript, etc.
Another aside – there are some other tips on the Internet on how to make the printers show up correctly in RDP, but in my case the first two tips I tried didn’t work – sharing some weird canon network printer copier fax.