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I'm having an odd problem with our Remote Desktop Session Host that's running on Windows Server 2019 (version 1809, build 17763.805). I am connecting to this server from my PC (running Windows 10, version 1903, build 18362.418) using mstsc.exe (shell/control version 10.0.18362).

I have a bunch of printers on my computer, and I have selected in mstsc.exe to redirect all printers. This is a screenshot of the Devices and Printers control panel on my PC:

Devices and Printers on PC

However, when looking in the corresponding control panel on the Remote Desktop Session Host, I don't see my redirected printers:

Devices and Printers on Remote Desktop Session Host

They also don't show up in the new Settings app on the Remote Desktop Session Host:

Settings App on Remote Desktop Session Host

Even though the printers are not showing up in Devices and Printers or the Settings app, the printers are available to programs within the Remote Desktop Session Host, and do show up in Print Management.

Notepad print dialog on Remote Desktop Session Host

Print Management on Remote Desktop Session Host

This problem has occured for us with multiple Windows Server 2019 servers in different environments, and has occurred with multiple client operating systems as well. We've of course tried rebooting the affected machines, this has not cleared anything up.

The machine I'm connecting from also does not have a long hostname. There is an issue going around from research where machines that have 15 character long hostnames can have this issue, that is however not the case for my test machine. Neither the client or the host machine has a hostname longer than 9 characters.

Per von Zweigbergk
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4 Answers4

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AFAIK, redirected printers aren't listed in Settings or in Control panel. Only "locally" installed printers are.

If the printers are being redirected successfully, as they seem to be, what's the actual problem... other than their not being listed in Settings and Control Panel?

joeqwerty
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    They have been listed in Settings and Control Panel in earlier versions of Windows. The users need to be able to change printer settings and set default printers. – Per von Zweigbergk Oct 24 '19 at 08:47
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Check how long the local computer's name is. If it's 15+ characters long, you'll see this exact issue. Shorten it, and you should see the printers show up in control panel etc.

Phil
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This is not a fix for the problem, but a workaround. It appears that if you open the CLSID for Printers, the redirected printers are displayed.

Execute the following from the Start menu, or Start->Run dialog

explorer shell:::{863aa9fd-42df-457b-8e4d-0de1b8015c60}

or

explorer shell:::{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

I was able to create a shortcut that would open the Printers folder with all printers.

enter image description here

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25465552/open-devices-and-printers-window-in-batch

Also https://www.eightforums.com/threads/clsid-key-guid-shortcuts-list-for-windows-8.13591/

Chris Vesper
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We have the same error on our 2012R2 RDS Farm , have read a lot of blogs but none of the sugestions seem to be working , we still want to test the one where it advises that you need to shorten the hostname of the pc , a temoprary workaround that we want to implement is creating a registry entry to dispay printers on the desktop as per the below link.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/c430c930-286a-4e61-822f-a7e56d90fd8d/redirected-printers-not-showing-in-devices-and-printer-unable-to-change-defaults?forum=winserverTS

Michael Erasmus
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  • Hi, please add detail, as link only answer is not good, and Technet forums are getting migrated, as such the info can be lost with times. – yagmoth555 Nov 04 '19 at 12:40