Secure Global Desktop Administration Guide > Printing > Printing from a Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 application server

Printing from a Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 application server

To let users print from a Windows 2000/2003 application server using the Microsoft RDP Windows protocol, you do not need to configure the application server. This is because the printers are automatically defined when users start or resume an application.

In the application server's Printers folder, users see all their client device printers. The names of the client device printers are:

in a Windows 2000 session, "printer_name/Tarantella/Session number", for example:

HP LaserJet 8000 Series PS/Tarantella/Session 1
in a Windows 2003 session, "printer_name (from Tarantella) in session number", for example:

HP LaserJet 8000 Series PS (from Tarantella) in session 1

To be able to generate a print job, the Windows 2000/2003 application server needs to know the name of the Windows 2000/2003 printer driver for the client device's printer. How the printer driver is obtained depends on the client device and is described below.

Printing from Windows clients

For Windows clients, the printer driver name is detected automatically. However, if your users are using any client printer drivers which are not installed on your Windows 2000/2003 application server (for example because they are using an older version of Windows), you must map the user's printer driver name to a Windows 2000/2003 driver name. You do this by editing the [Previous Names] section of the /opt/tarantella/etc/data/default.printerinfo.txt file.

For example, if the file contains the following entry:

[Previous Names]
"HP LaserJet 5" = "my HP driver", "my other HP driver"

This means that if you have any client printers that use either the "my HP driver" or "my other HP driver" printer driver, Secure Global Desktop will use the "HP LaserJet 5" Windows 2000/2003 driver when creating the printer.

You can also use wild-card characters (* and ?) on the right hand side of the = sign. Use * to mean any string of characters including an empty string and ? to mean any single character. This is useful, for example, to create generic printer mappings where you have a wide variety of client devices.

For example, if the file contains the following entry:

[Previous Names]
"HP LaserJet 5" = "hp*laserjet 5*"

All printer driver names like "HP LaserJet 5", "HP LaserJet 5M", and "HP Color LaserJet 5" would be mapped to the Windows 2000/2003 printer driver "HP LaserJet 5".

The default.printerinfo.txt file contains more detailed instructions on how to create the mappings.

As an alternative to mapping printer driver names, you can use Secure Global Desktop PDF printing.

Printing from UNIX clients

To be able to associate the printer driver name with a print job from a UNIX client device, you need to edit the [UNIX] section of the /opt/tarantella/etc/data/default.printerinfo.txt file or the $HOME/.tarantella/printerinfo.txt file. See Configuring printing for UNIX clients for details on how to edit this file.

Next steps in configuring Secure Global Desktop printing

Configure another application server:
Configure the Secure Global Desktop server to accept remote print requests.
Configure printing if you use the Common UNIX Printing System™ (CUPS).
Configure printing for UNIX clients.
Configure Secure Global Desktop PDF printing.
Configure Secure Global Desktop print job conversion.
Test that printing works. If you have trouble printing, follow the steps in the printing troubleshooter.

Related topics
Introducing Secure Global Desktop printing The tarantella print command