ThinPrint – How To

Why preconfiguration?

The objective of unattended installation is to roll out and to use ThinPrint Client immediately without user interaction. In most cases, the default settings are suffi­cient: The print data of ThinPrint Engine will be decompressed by ThinPrint Client. The client printers will be created or mapped into a terminal or a virtual desktop ses­sion, while default printer will be retained.

If these settings are not sufficient, a preconfiguration can make sense – instead of local or remote configuration of each ThinPrint Client. A couple of ThinPrint Client parameters can be set with its installation using the .msi file. For all further settings, one should use a tool for generating .mst files. This tool is able to preconfigure all of the ThinPrint Client settings – you can even set further values in the Windows Reg­istry which are not changeable with ThinPrint Client Manager user interface.

Preconfiguration can also be useful when Connection Service shall be used, because specific settings on ThinPrint Client are necessary. Or if you want to print with encryption, the name of the imported client certificate can be set here. More information can be found in the section Unattended installation with preconfigura­tion.

Unpacking the .msi file

ThinPrint offers a Setup.exe file for the installation of ThinPrint Client Windows. The file can be downloaded at https://www.thinprint.com/en/resources-support/soft­ware/clientsandtools/. The unattended installation can be performed using the Setup.exe or using the .msi installer. To extract the .msi file copy the Setup.exe to a local directory and run the following command in this directory:

setup.exe /a

Note! See also the section Unpacking the setup file in Unattended installa­tion of ThinPrint Engine components.

• Version 11 of ThinPrint Client Windows can be installed on Windows machines running from Windows 7 / 2008 R2.
• Version 10 of ThinPrint Client Windows can be installed on Windows machines running from Windows XP / 2003 with Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3 (for XP x86) and Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack (XPSEP).
• Version 9.0 can be used on Windows Vista machines.
• For older Windows versions the ThinPrint Client version 7.0 can be used; for unattended installation of this version a different instruction is available.

Process

ThinPrint Client Windows can be installed with or without preconfiguration. The set­tings can also be changed later on unattended.

• Installation with­out preconfigura­tion
  If you want to run an installation of ThinPrint Client Windows without preconfigura­tion, simply copy the relevant .msi installation file (see above) to the client machines and start unattended installation from the command prompt or with a batch file. Therefore, you can use different Windows or ThinPrint parameters (see section Exam­ples with parameters).
• Installation with preconfiguration
  If you want to run an installation of ThinPrint Client Windows with preconfiguration, the process is as follows:1. Creation of a Windows Installer transformation file (with the file extension .mst)
  using an appropriate tool (including saving the selected installation options in the transformation file).2. Software distribution / installation
  Copying the .msi, the .mst, and the .bat files (if desired) to the client machines and starting unattended installation.

Preparing to install

For installation of ThinPrint Client Windows, you need the .msi installation file (see above) in a local directory. Administrator permissions are required.

If the ICA type of ThinPrint Client Windows shall be installed you should know the path to the Citrix ICA client on the target machines.

Installation of a preconfigured file requires uninstallation of all (old or recent) Thin­Print Clients on client machines. This can also be done unattended, as described in the section Unattended uninstallation. The values of ThinPrint Client in the Windows Registry will not be deleted. A list of Registry values can be found in the client man­ual.

Unattended Installation without preconfiguration

Unattended installation without preconfiguration means that ThinPrint Client Win­dows will be rolled out to client machines with default settings. An appropriate administration tool is used for distributing ThinPrint Client through the network, e. g. Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.

Alternative 1: Setup.exe

1. Copy the ThinPrint Client Windows installation software Setup.exe to a direc­tory of the target computer.
2. Run the Command Prompt, and change to the directory the Setup.exe has been copied to.
3. Start the unattended installation e. g. with the following command:

Setup.exe /s /v"/qb"

Example:

Setup.exe /s /v"/qb adminonly=1 certname=\"ThinPrint GmbH\" addlocal=TCPAPP"

After /v always a quotation mark ( ” ) follows. If a parameter necessitate another quo­tation mark (here for certname) then a backslash ( \ ) is necessary before it (in this example: \” ThinPrint GmbH \” ). A parameter description can be found in the section Parameters.

Alternative 2: .msi file

1. Copy the unpacked .msi file including its subdirectories (see above) to a direc­tory on the target computer.
   

   Note! As an alternative to copying the ThinPrint installation files to the clients, you can also leave them on the server and map the relevant drives on the cli­ents.

2. Start the ThinPrint Client installation routine with:<system directory>\msiexec /qb /i <path to .msi file>Example:c:\Windows\System32\msiexec /qb /i "c:\install\Thin­Print Client Windows 11.msi"

Examples with parameters

In contrast to unattended installation with preconfiguration, here you can use specific parameters in the command line call-up of the ThinPrint Clients. The following shows the use of both Windows Installer parameters and ThinPrint parameters.
The parameters you can use with both Setup.exe (parameter /v) and .msi file installation.

Windows Installer parameters
Naming an installation directory

If you want to name an installation directory for the unattended installation of ThinPrint Client Windows, start the ThinPrint Client installation routine with:

<system directory>\msiexec /qb /i <path to .msi file> INSTALL­DIR=<installation path>

Example:

c:\Windows\System32\msiexec /qb /i "c:\install\Thin­Print Client Windows 11.msi" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\ThinPrint Client"

Further parameters can be found in the section Parameters.

ThinPrint parame­ters
Installation of a certain language version

To install ThinPrint Clients Windows in a certain language start the installation rou­tine with:

<system directory>\msiexec /qb /i <path to .msi file> LANG=<lan­guage>

Example:

c:\Windows\System32\msiexec /qb /i "c:\install\Thin­Print Client Windows 11.msi" LANG="esn"

Further parameters can be found in the section Parameters..

Installation with path to Citrix ICA Client for the ICA type of ThinPrint Client Windows

If multiple Citrix ICA Clients are installed on the target computer (e. g. general or web client) or if problems occur during automatic path detection, you can run unattended installation for the ICA type of ThinPrint Client Windows with input of the path to the desired Citrix ICA Client. Start the installation routine with:

<system directory>\msiexec /qb /i <path to .msi file> ADDLO­CAL="ICA" CITRIXCLIENTDIR=<path to citrix ica client>

Example:

c:\Windows\System32\msiexec /qb /i "c:\install\Thin­Print Client Windows 11.msi" ADDLOCAL="ICA" CITRIXCLI­ENTDIR="C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICA Client"

Further parameters can be found in the section Parameters.

Installation of ThinPrint Client Service Windows

Under certain conditions the installation of ThinPrint Client as a Windows service require input of a user (with administrator permissions) and password. This informa­tion can be entered at the start of the unattended installation as follows:

<system directory>\msiexec /qb /i <path to .msi file> ADDLO­CAL="TCPSRV" SRVUSER=<user name> SRVPASS=<password>

Example:

c:\Windows\System32\msiexec /qb /i "c:\install\Thin­Print Client Windows 11.msi" ADDLOCAL="TCPSRV" SRVUSER="admin" SRVPASS="xxxx"

If the account (srvuser + srvpass) has been omitted the network service account will be used. To specify more ThinPrint specific preconfigurations, we recommend use of a transformation file (see Creating a transformation file). Further parameters can be found in the section Parameters..

Unattended installation with preconfiguration

An appropriate tool (e. g. Orca or InstEd) lets you create a sample configuration for a selected ThinPrint Client Windows type as a Windows Installer transformation (.mst) file. The tool’s user interface offers you the option of making several configuration set­tings for ThinPrint Client Windows and these settings may be saved to an .mst file. By installing the selected .msi file using this .mst file, you can install a preconfigured ThinPrint Client Windows on the target computers – attended or unattended.

Creating a transformation file

Create an .mst file for the ThinPrint Engine’s .msi file. To do so, use a (free) transfor­mation tool – e. g. Orca (from Microsoft) or InstEd (www.instedit.com). Here is an example for InstEd:

• Run InstEd.
• Select File→ Open, mark the installation software of ThinPrint Client (in this example: ThinPrint Client Windows 9.0.msi), and click Open to confirm. This window will appear:

• Select Transform→ New Transform, and enter a file name for the .mst (trans­form) file. The names of .mst and of .msi file should match.

• Under Property select Add Row in the context menu for each parameter. In each case enter a parameter’s name (Param­eters) as well as its value.

• In this way add all required parameters (see Parameters).

• Save the .mst file. Afterwards you can distribute the .msi file of ThinPrint Client together with its .mst file to the target computers.

Note! There are many possibilities for software distributing, for example from the command prompt, using a batch file, the Active Directory or a third-party solution.

Parameters

Parameters of the ThinPrint Clients Windows installer

Parameter	Description
/s	Doesn’t show the initial dialog
/v	Setup.exe: All following characters will be assigned as parameters to MsiExec.exe (see below).
InstallDir	ThinPrint Client installation directory
AddLocal	ThinPrint Client types: RDP (default) ICA TCPAPP = TCP/IP as an application TCPSRV = TCP/IP as a Windows service
SrvUser	Administrator account for ADDLOCAL = TCPSRV
SrvPass	Administrator password for ADDLOCAL = TCPSRV
CitrixClienDir	Full path of Citrix ICA Client installation for ADDLOCAL = ICA
Lang	ThinPrint Client language versions: enu = English (default) deu =German fra = French esn = Spanish Note: Lang has priority over /L.
/L	Setup.exe language ID: 1031 = German (Germany) 1033 = English (United States, default) 1036 = French 3082 = Spanish
ForceLang	1 = hkey_local_machine\software\ThinPrint\Lang will be overridden with LANG property value.
/a	Setup.exe: Extracting the .msi file

Parameters for setting registry entries of ThinPrint Client Windows

The installer can create the following registry entries parametrically in:
hkey_local_machine\software\ThinPrint\client

Parameter (= Reg-value)	Menu item in ThinPrint Client	Description
AdminOnly	Administrators only	restricts client configuration to administrators only
Bandwidth	Bandwidth	client-side bandwidth setting (bit/s or bps)
ConnMode	Use Connection Service	0 = receiving print jobs without Connection Service (Listen Mode) 3 = using Connection Service 1 = both modes at the same time (0 + 3)
ConnPort	TCP port (Connection Ser­vice)	TCP port for communication with the Connection Service; be sure: same TCP port number as Connection Service’s ClientPort
ConnServer	Connection server address	IP address of the computer on which Connection Service is run­ning
ConnWait	Connection retry interval	Wait time for connection retries if Connection Service is not reachable (in seconds)
DefaultState	Default at server	AutoConnect defines current printer as default printer at server
DefPrintState	Reload (printers)	New printers in ThinPrint Client are checked immediately
Port	TCP port (Advanced)	TCP-Port for communication with the ThinPrint Engine; must be the same as Port of ThinPrint Engine with a normal ThinPrint port
SendProperties	Enable sending properties	AutoConnect option for sending printer properties
UseWDefault	Inherit client’s default printer	Set to use local Windows default printer as current printer
WatchPrinters	—	Observes the printer folder and refreshes printers in ThinPrint Client immediately. Enabling/disabling depends on Enable sending properties.

Additional parameters/registry entries of ThinPrint Client Windows

The installer can also create the following registry entries parametrically in:
hkey_local_machine\software\ThinPrint\client

Parameter (= Reg-value)	Description
CertName	name of the imported certificate; section Alternative 1: Setup.exe
CertStore	0 = use the user’s certificate store 1 = use the computer’s certificate store Note: Permissions has to be assigned to the certificate (see the instruction Creating cer­tificates for printing with ThinPrint).
HKCU	1= ThinPrint Client configuration is user specific saved under: hkey_current_user\soft­ware\thinprint\client
NewID	specifies the starting value for printer ID assignment
PreviewPrinter	specifies whether a preview should be displayed on the client computer when using ThinPrint Output Gateway,
RmtConf	IP address of the administration machine from which the ThinPrint Client remote con­figuration is allowed (it is possible to enter more than one address)
SetIDList	specifies whether changes in the ThinPrint Client (new printers, classes, etc.) should be applied when client is restarted 1 = changes are applied (printer list is updated) 0 = changes are reset Note: The Reload printers function has a higher priority than these settings.
StartDelay	specifies whether and how long (in seconds) ThinPrint Client startup should be delayed after user login (applies only to ThinPrint Client Windows TCP/ IP)

MsiExec.exe
Extract of parameters for MsiExec.exe:

Parameter	Description
/i	installation
/qn	silent installation (q), no user interface (n)
/qb	silent installation (q), basic user interface (b)
/norestart	do not restart the system automatically after installation
/forcerestart	restart the system after installation is complete
/l, /log	detailed logging
/x, /uninstall	uninstallation

See also the Windows Installer Command-Line options at:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367988(VS.85).aspx
or
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759262%28v=WS.10%29.aspx

Rolling out the preconfigured client

The transformation tool has now created a Windows Installer transformation file (.mst file). The file is found in the same directory as the .msi file. To roll out the con­figured ThinPrint Clients, you will need both .msi file and .mst file – and a batch file, if desired.

Note! There are many possibilities for software distributing, for example from the command prompt, using a batch file, the Active Directory or a third-party solution.

When installing the .msi file via the command prompt you can also specify the .mst file:

<system directory>\msiexec /qb /i <path to .msi file> TRANS­FORMS=@<name .mst file>

Example:

c:\Windows\System32\msiexec /qb /i "c:\install\Thin­Print Client Windows 11.msi" TRANSFORMS=@"ThinPrint Client Windows 11.mst"

 

Uninstalling ThinPrint Client Windows

Attended uninstallation

• Select Control Panel→ Programs and Features, then select ThinPrint Client Windows and click Uninstall.

Unattended uninstallation

An unattended uninstallation can also be performed for the ThinPrint Client. Enter the following in the command line:

<system directory>\msiexec /qb /x <path to .msi file>

Example:

c:\Windows\System32\msiexec /qb /x "c:\install\Thin­Print Client Windows 11.msi"