ThinPrint – Configurations

The Self Service feature gives users the opportunity to choose and manage their own session printers.

Start menu

When ThinPrint Engine is installed on a remote desktop (terminal server or virtual desktop), three new Start menu items are added:

• ThinPrint Configuration
  = ThinPrint configuration in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), see below
• ThinPrint Self Service
  = printers are selected by the user(s)
• Printers
  = classic Printers folder for a better overview (when MMC-based Print Management is not available)

Start menu entries generated by the ThinPrint Engine installer

Enabling Self Service

To allow your users to select their own printers, you have to enable that option as administrator, in the AutoConnect settings on the relevant remote desktop or using the AutoConnect group policies. Additionally, specify the Storage destination for AutoConnect settings. Otherwise, a corresponding error message appears in the Self Service console (Illus. after the following).

message in the self-service console that Self Service is not yet enabled or con­nection to the AutoConnect database doesn’t exist

• If you want to delete the connection of the shared network printers before enabling the User Self Service Portal you can use one of the following power­shell commandsWindows 7 / Windows Server 2008 or earlier
  Get-WmiObject Win32_Printer | where {$_.SystemName -ne $env:computername} | Remove-WmiObjectWindows 8 / Windows Server 2008 R2 or later
  Für Windows 8 / Windows Server 2008 R2 und neuer:
  Get-Printer | where Type -eq Connection | Remove-Printer
• On a remote desktop, open the AutoConnect properties in the ThinPrint Config­uration console (Illus. below).

opening AutoConnect properties

• In the Printer Creation tab, enable the Printer Self Service option (see next Illustration). Confirm with OK.
• If, on the other hand, you use the AutoConnect group policies (for example, when using the Desktop Agent), then select Enable Printer Self Service on the Computer Configuration→ Policies→ Administrative Templates→ ThinPrint→ThinPrint AutoConnect branch (Illus. following the next)

Note! From the time when the option Printer Self Service is enabled, the printers of users who log on to a session for the first time aren’t created or mapped automatically anymore if they’re defined in the Map Additional Print­ers table. This table then only provides the input for printers to be selected.

enabling Printer Self Service as an AutoConnect setting

Enabling Printer Self Service as a group policy

Caution! If you turn off Printer Self Service again, depending on the entries in the Map Additional Printers table, it is possible that many printers will be cre­ated for many users the next time they run AutoConnect.

Creating printer groups

How to create printer groups for a better user experience you’ll find out here.

User session

• In the remote desktop session, users can send a Printers request to view the available printers (Illus. below).

Printers in a user session

• With ThinPrint Self Service, the users can (see first Illus. on this site) make use of these printers according to their needs (Illus. below).

user session printers in the Self Service console
(Registry value HidePrintserverNames=1, see Appendix)

Printers are differentiated into three categories:

• Printers installed on the remote desktop – for example, PDF­Creator in previous Illustration
• Printers mapped in the remote desktop session from the workstation – for example, Samsung ML-2855 (s3) in Illus. before (s3 is the session number)
• Printers connected to the remote desktop session from a central print server – for exam­ple, \\CPS50\HP Color LaserJet CP3505dn#tphub-c25e75:2 or \\CPS50\Lex­mark T650 in Illus. above (cps50 is the print server’s hostname)

The following options are available to the users here (see the following six Illustrations).

Menu / Information	Description
	refresh display
+ Add Printers	add printer(s) provided by AutoConnect or previously removed from here
	printer group with number of printers still contained in this group
	number of checked printers per group
	search results per printer group
Apply	confirm adding printers and back to MY PRINTERS
Cancel or	back to MY PRINTERS
	new printer
	printer is being added or removed
	current default printer
	printer cannot be connected (maybe it doesn’t exist on the print server)
Set as Default	set printer as the default in this and in following sessions
Other printers	source, e. g. printer group If no printer group is detected or set up in Map Additional Printers, OTHER PRINTERS appears.
	location
	color printing option possible
	print on both sides (duplex) option possible
Created by Management Center	comment
Remove	printer no longer offered undo option for + ADD PRINTERS
Printer Preferences	change the printer preferences
Repair Printers	delete all the printers created and connected by AutoConnect and then immediately create the appropriate new connections
Settings	go to the SETTINGS menu
Version	software version information
Language	select language
Close or	close the Self Service console

Note! If a printer has been added by the administrator to several printer groups, it appears to the user in only one of these groups.

Self Service console: editing printers
(Registry value HidePrintserverNames=1, see Appendix)

Self Service console: adding a printer
(Registry value HidePrintserverNames=1, see Appendix)

Self Service console: printer added (Registry value HidePrintserverNames=0, see Appendix)

Self Service console: language selection and version information

Self Service console: icons for sources and new printers (Registry value HidePrintserverNames=0, see Appendix)

Self Service console: adding printers from a group (Registry value HidePrintserverNames=0, see Appendix)