Solved: Printer Redirection Not Working in Windows Server 2012

Admins in remote desktop environments often rely on redirecting printers in Windows Server 2012 to deliver local printers to their end users. But printer redirection isn’t always the most dependable or hassle-free method to get those printers out. There are a couple of problems that can crop up, resulting in failed deployments, software crashes or an inability to print.

First off, let’s take a look at how printer redirection works.

When redirecting printers in Windows Server 2012—and, in fact, all versions since Server 2000—a list of local printers that are installed on the remote client is relayed to the server, which then creates the print queue within the remote session. Before printing, the remote client queries the server for suitable drivers, and if the server does indeed have those drivers, the printer is then redirected.

As this multi-step process makes clear, there are many opportunities for things to go wrong between the time a user logs into a session and tries to print out a document. Printer redirection is also challenging from a printer management standpoint, because it can complicate deployments. Some of the telltale signs that printer redirection is not working are:

  • A redirected printer is not showing up: Despite the printer having been installed correctly, it remains invisible to the remote client (or a group of clients) in the list of available printers.
  • Vanishing print jobs: All the waypoints in the print chain between client and printer seem to be functioning properly, yet print jobs mysteriously drop from the queue.
  • Delayed printing: Even though print jobs appear to be executing successfully, it takes an unusually long time for them to do so.
  • Crashes and errors: If there is a driver conflict or remote clients are being instructed to search for or fallback to drivers that do not exist, this can cause spooler crashes and hard-to-pinpoint software errors.

Another issue that can occur if you’re redirecting printers in Windows Server 2012 is when applications handle print jobs differently. This can result in a frustrating scenario where a print job completes successfully in one application but fails to execute in another.

Because printer redirection problems are so varied and difficult to isolate, traditional print environments don’t offer a single surefire solution. Most of the time admins are stuck sifting through driver repositories looking for duplicates and problematic versions, or poring over server logs in the hope of finding the cause of the possible error. In some cases when a redirected printer is not showing up consistently in the list of available devices, they’ll have to manually uninstall the printer and redeploy or replace it. And with printer management being so cumbersome in traditional print environments, that process can eat up a lot of time.

The one-stop solution to these printer management issues is PrinterLogic. Our next-generation print management software integrates seamlessly with all remote desktop environments, not to mention Citrix and VMware, and gives you the choice between printer redirection or session printers for greater flexibility. Because PrinterLogic leverages proven direct IP printing to create one-to-one connections between clients and local printers, either method ends up being far more reliable and easier to manage from our unique centralized administration console.

PrinterLogic’s advanced, streamlined approach to printer management allows you to deploy printers without GPOs or scripts and lift some of the burden from your IT team through our acclaimed self-service installation portal, which empowers end users with the ability to identify and install nearby printers with a single click. Many organizations have even used PrinterLogic to eliminate print servers altogether. Not only do you end up solving your printer redirection problems, you get a whole lot more besides.

Make Enterprise Cloud Printing Easy with PrinterLogic

Posted by Jordan Pusey

Now that mobile and BYOD printing have made such rapid inroads into the enterprise, various cloud printing services and cloud printing solutions have rushed in to address this relatively new and still-evolving need. That’s understandable. However, many of the features that they claim will provide cloud print functionality are simply stopgaps, limited in their usability. For example, two of the more common cloud printing solutions including Google Cloud Print, are better geared toward consumer-level needs and only work with select mobile and print devices.

PrinterLogic’s Mobile Printing is an enterprise-grade cloud printing solution that delivers true cloud print functionality to any mobile device, regardless of manufacturer or software platform, enabling these devices to send print jobs to any printer without the need for any additional software to be installed. All mobile users have to do to cloud print natively from their devices is print natively from an Android device or use the email-to-print features. No additional app or client installation is necessary. And it even works with legacy printers; they don’t need to have built-in cloud printing capabilities.

Furthermore, Mobile Printing from PrinterLogic does more than provide a solid cloud printing service for company-sanctioned mobile devices. It also endows BYOD users, contractors and guests with cloud print functionality. Under most circumstances, these “outside” users are prevented from printing at all using their preferred devices within the enterprise because of the protracted process of network authorization and printer installation, not to mention broader security concerns.

PrinterLogic leverages proven email-to-print capabilities to provide this traditionally hard-to-support group of users with an easy cloud printing solution – even if they happen to be off-network. For these users to cloud print, they just have to acquire the dedicated email address for a particular printer and then email the desired files to that address using their smartphone, tablet or laptop. That’s it. Once again, unlike other cloud printing services, Mobile Printing places no restrictions on the types of devices that can cloud print or the printers that can handle such jobs.

PrinterLogic’s ease of use as a cloud printing solution for both IT and end users also means less time spent on support, cloud print configuration and service desk calls. And because it can integrate seamlessly with your existing PrinterLogic environment, the deployment process is as fast as you want it to be.

With all that in mind, it’s clear that few, if any, enterprise cloud printing services can accomplish as much—and as quickly and easily—as PrinterLogic.

Manufacturing Company Reduces Print-related Service Desk Calls by More Than 90 Percent with PrinterLogic

Posted by Andrew Miller

Every time the independent research firm TechValidate releases a new case study on a PrinterLogic customer, we get a little excited. I mean, why wouldn’t we? Each TechValidate case study is like bringing home a new report card filled with straight As, and that’s not something you grow tired of very quickly.

One of the latest case studies (TVID:

675-214-58B

) to come to our attention was conducted with a large industrial manufacturing company that supplies advanced building materials to the commercial construction field. The company’s print environment is unique. Although it has more than six sites, it has fewer than 49 network printers. At the same time, this small pool of printers was governed by as many as five print servers prior to installing PrinterLogic.

Naturally, the company wanted to eliminate the hassle and expense of those print servers while increasing the cohesion of its distributed print environment. So the organization chose to implement PrinterLogic in the hopes that it would do some or all of the following:

  • Streamline mobile/BYOD and guest printing throughout the enterprise
  • Provide high availability for enterprise print services
  • Centralize print queue management
  • Enable the efficient management of direct IP printing as well as printer drivers
  • Allow printers to be deployed without requiring complex scripting and group policy objects (GPOs)
  • Simplify printer installation for end users

And did it work? “PrinterLogic simplified the management of printer installs, enabling our end users to manage what printers they need, even when they go to a new location,” a senior IT architect at the large manufacturing company.

Even in the company’s distributed environment, the IT team fully installed PrinterLogic within one day. Thanks to such incredible ease of deployment, the company was able to eliminate its print servers and immediately began recouping return on investment (ROI). Within three months PrinterLogic had entirely paid for itself. The cumulative ROI since implementing PrinterLogic has been more than 400%—and this certainly isn’t the first verified PrinterLogic customer to report ROI along those lines.

One look at the hard data and you’ll see exactly how it happened. Once PrinterLogic was up and running, the time the company was spending on print management dropped by 90%. The number of calls to the service desk on printing issues plummeted by 90% too. And what about remote server infrastructure? That saw a stunning 90% reduction as well. Simply by installing PrinterLogic, the company shrank every print-related drain on time and resources down to one-tenth of its former size.

With efficiency gains like those in mind, the company’s qualitative ratings of PrinterLogic might not come as a surprise. Compared to competing print management solutions, the company rated PrinterLogic as “far superior” in every one of the following categories:

  • Eliminating print servers
  • Centralized management
  • Managing printer drivers
  • Printer deployment
  • Citrix/VMware/VDI printing

What these TechValidate case studies have shown us is that this customer isn’t alone in its praise for PrinterLogic or its results. And if it’s proven to work so well for them, just imagine what our print management solution could do for your organization.


TechValidate Case Study: Industrial Manufacturing Company

Fortune 500 Energy Company Eliminates Dozens of Print Servers Across More than 100 Locations with PrinterLogic

Posted by Andrew Miller

As regular visitors to this blog will know, the independent research firm TechValidate has been busy comparing PrinterLogic’s stated benefits with customers’ real-world experiences.

That effort has left us with plenty to feel confident about. Because in survey after survey, TechValidate has found that PrinterLogic brought proven and consistent results to a wide variety of companies across an equally wide variety of industries. And a recent case study with a Fortune 500 energy and utilities company (TVID:

69D-BC1-93B

) has demonstrated more of the same.

This particular company currently has over 1,000 network printers distributed across more than 100 physical locations. Prior to installing PrinterLogic, the company had 26+ print servers. That’s a large and complex print environment by any standards, and with traditional print management methods in place there were a number of issues:

  • Print-related WAN traffic was far too high
  • End-user printer installation was too complicated
  • Printers and drivers could not be managed efficiently enterprise-wide
  • Routine deployment of printers required finicky scripts and group policy objects (GPOs)
  • Admins had limited visibility into the status of physical printers
  • Single points of failure resulted in interruptions to the enterprise print services

This Fortune 500 energy and utilities company chose to migrate to PrinterLogic as a single comprehensive solution that would address all these problems. In just one month, the company rolled out PrinterLogic across its entire organization. By the six-month mark, the return on investment (ROI) was so significant that PrinterLogic had already paid for the cost of its installation. Since that point the ROI of implementing PrinterLogic has exceeded 100%.

That ROI took the form of massive hardware and efficiency savings:

  • Print-related calls to the service desk were reduced by an incredible 70%.
  • The amount of remote server infrastructure also saw an amazing 70% reduction.
  • The time the company was spending on print management dropped by 50%.
  • Printer downtime across the organization was cut by half, providing a huge boost to productivity.

“PrinterLogic reduced help desk calls and standardized our printer organization,” said a company representative. That representative went on to rate PrinterLogic “amazing” in terms of:

  • Ease of deployment
  • Speed of deployment
  • Ease of use

PrinterLogic’s effortless printer driver management earned a “great,” and its printing security got a rating of “excellent.” With results and recommendations like that, just imagine what PrinterLogic could do for your organization!


TechValidate Case Study: Fortune 500 Energy & Utilities Company

91% of PrinterLogic Healthcare Customers Report More than 100% ROI According to TechValidate Survey

Posted by Andrew Miller

You might have read the blog post on a large-enterprise healthcare company that

described PrinterLogic as “amazing”

after its remote server infrastructure shrank by 70% and its printer downtime was slashed by 30%.

You might also have read the post about a group of healthcare companies that

saw a 70% drop

in the amount of time spent on print management after installing PrinterLogic.

And before that, maybe you read the post about an S&P 500 healthcare company that enthusiastically praised PrinterLogic’s centralized management after

experiencing a 70% reduction in print-related calls

to the service desk.

Well, the independent research firm TechValidate is back with even more outstanding results from the healthcare industry. And it ought to make anyone think twice before buying another print server in the hopes that it will solve their enterprise print management woes.

Based on a recent study of 45 verified PrinterLogic customers, TechValidate found that the return on investment (ROI) after implementing PrinterLogic was more than 100% for 91% of the healthcare organizations surveyed (TVID:

974-51E-75E

). That means 41 of these companies recouped their investment in PrinterLogic entirely, with many going on to see even greater ROI. The S&P 500 healthcare company mentioned above, for example, saw ROI of more than 200%, which isn’t uncommon among PrinterLogic customers from all industries, including government, manufacturing, construction and financial services.

In a similar study—this time of 46 verified PrinterLogic customers in the healthcare industry—TechValidate discovered that 78% of the organizations reduced time spent on print management by 50% or more after implementing PrinterLogic (TVID:

107-074-3F0

). In other words, for every two hours they were spending on print management prior to deploying PrinterLogic enterprise-wide, more than three-quarters of these healthcare organizations now only have to spend one—or even less. That might not sound like a lot when you’re talking single digits, but in the aggregate over weeks, months and years, those hours add up to considerable cost savings that help explain the amazing ROI results above.

We think real-world results like these are a fantastic way to showcase the benefits of PrinterLogic. Sure, we could (and do) talk about PrinterLogic’s incredibly easy but powerful centralized management, its ability to empower end users through an intuitive self-service portal that puts printer installation within everyone’s reach, or its auditing and

mobile/BYOD printing capabilities

that bring increased oversight along with next-generation flexibility—but those words mean so much more when they’re backed up with numbers. And to get honest numbers like these, it takes a robust, innovative print management solution that lives up to its claims. Contact us today for a

free trial or demo

and see how PrinterLogic can help your company achieve these same results.

 

Fortune 500 Computer Services Company Reduces Remote Server Infrastructure by 90% with PrinterLogic

Posted by Andrew Miller

A Fortune 500 computer services company ought to know a thing or two about IT. And knowing what works is just as important as knowing what doesn’t—but sometimes that knowledge is hard won through experience.

The independent research firm TechValidate caught up with a computer services company that had switched to PrinterLogic when the company came to the conclusion that its old enterprise print management solution no longer fit the bill. Its server infrastructure was too fragmented. End-user printer installation was near impossible. Its enterprise print services weren’t rock-solidly reliable. Queue, printer, and driver management was a nightmare, as was getting insight into physical printer status. Printer deployment required group policy objects (GPOs) and scripts. Auditing printer and consumables usage was a pipe dream. Mobile and BYOD printing was too complex and posed a security risk.

Now, this was no small operation. This was a Fortune 500 computer services company with anywhere between 1,000 and 2,500 network printers. It had as many as 100 print servers and more than 100 physical locations.

So TechValidate surveyed this company (TVID:

1ED-9B8-F9D

) to see if installing PrinterLogic had solved these issues.

It most certainly did, the company said. On every single count. But that wasn’t all.

This Fortune 500 computer services company added that it had PrinterLogic fully installed within five days. Thousands of printers. Dozens of print servers. Distributed across hundreds of sites. And just five days for complete installation.

Within one year PrinterLogic had paid for itself. The company said it then went on to enjoy a return on investment (ROI) of more than 300%, thanks to:

  • A breathtaking 90% reduction of its remote server infrastructure
  • A massive 70% cut in the time its IT staff was spending on print management
  • An incredible 70% plunge in print consumables (e.g., toner, paper) enterprise-wide
  • Printer downtime being cut by half
  • A 30% drop in print-related calls to the service desk

TechValidate then asked this Fortune 500 computer services company how it choose to rate PrinterLogic in light of its performance. It rated our solution as “excellent” in every one of the following areas:

  • Printer driver management
  • Ease of deployment
  • Speed of deployment
  • Ease of use

And PrinterLogic scored a “great” when it came to another one of the company’s priorities: printing security.

When a Fortune 500 computer services company reports such fantastic ratings and results, that amounts to one huge ringing endorsement for PrinterLogic.


TechValidate Case Study: Fortune 500 Computer Services Company

Large Enterprise Chemicals Company Installs PrinterLogic Print Management Solution in Less than Five Days

Posted by Andrew Miller

You’re no doubt familiar with the slogan, “Better living through chemistry,” which was adopted by a large-enterprise chemicals company all the way back in 1935.

Well, after a different large-enterprise chemical company’s experience with our own print management solution, we might coin the tagline, “Better living through PrinterLogic.” That’s based on the findings of a case study (TVID:

086-195-D66

) conducted by the independent research firm TechValidate.

Prior to installing PrinterLogic, this particular large-enterprise chemical company had between 250-499 network printers, under five print servers, and between 2-5 physical locations. After fully installing PrinterLogic enterprise-wide—which, incidentally, took less than five days—the company experienced the following results:

  • The time the company’s IT staff spent on print management plummeted by 90%.
  • Printer downtime was slashed by 90%.
  • The number of print-related service desk calls also fell by 90%.
  • Remote server infrastructure shrank by 70%.
  • And usage of print consumables (e.g., toner, paper) dropped by 70%.

Along with those quantifiable outcomes, here’s what else PrinterLogic enabled the company to accomplish that its previous print management solution could not:

  • End-user printer installation has been simplified through PrinterLogic’s intuitive self-service portal.
  • Print-related WAN traffic has been reduced, thanks to PrinterLogic’s intelligent use of bandwidth.
  • Printers can be deployed without resorting to scripts or group policy objects (GPOs)
  • Queue, driver and printer management is centralized and more efficient.
  • Comprehensive auditing tools are now in place, along with a departmental chargeback policy.

“PrinterLogic has made it easier for end users to connect to a network printer. It has also provided the IT staff with a better and easier way to manage the queue,” said a company representative. The company’s enthusiasm for PrinterLogic is reflected in how it ranked its new print management solution on a graded scale. Printer driver management, ease of deployment, speed of deployment, ease of use, and printing security all earned a rating of “excellent.”

And in dollar terms? This large-enterprise chemicals company saw a complete return on its investment in PrinterLogic within 18 months. That means every efficiency since then—such as the staggering reduction in print consumables or the increase in printer uptime—has added to the return on investment (ROI).

These days, this large-enterprise chemicals company enjoys more streamlined printer management, huge cost savings, and incredible productivity gains. That’s better living through PrinterLogic!


TechValidate Case Study: Large Enterprise Chemicals Company

PrinterLogic Receives Excellent Rating from Small Business Banking Company for Printer Driver Management and Security

Posted by Andrew Miller

The independent research firm TechValidate has been surveying PrinterLogic customers with a view to capturing a range of experiences and opinions after installing our print management solution. A number of companies in the large enterprise and Fortune 500 categories have weighed in to share their results, which, if we’re honest, have been nothing short of remarkable.

But what about companies in the small business category? How do they fare when migrating to PrinterLogic?

TechValidate recently conducted a case study (TVID:

B89-77F-081

) on a small-business banking company to see what impact our print management solution had on its print environment. This company had a direct IP print environment prior to installing PrinterLogic, which meant that there were no print servers (and their related issues) to eliminate, but it did have more than 500 networked printers distributed across over 100 sites. That scale is on a par with some of our large-enterprise customers.

Within just ten days, this small-business banking company was able to fully deploy PrinterLogic across its entire organization. It immediately began to see sought-after results such as:

  • Streamlined, centralized, and more efficient management of drivers and direct IP printers
  • Simplified end-user printer installation owing to PrinterLogic’s easy-to-use self-service portal
  • Improved, seamless printing in Citrix/VMware environments
  • Reduced print-related WAN traffic, thanks to PrinterLogic’s intelligent bandwidth usage
  • Deployment of printers without scripting and group policy objects (GPOs)

TechValidate also asked this small-business banking company to put some numbers to its results. The company provided the following:

  • The number of print-related service desk calls dropped by half.
  • Printer downtime was slashed by 30%.
  • Usage of print consumables (e.g., toner, paper) across the organization was cut by 15%.

Those equated to significant dollar amounts. The company recouped its initial outlay on PrinterLogic within one year. Since that time the return on investment (ROI) of migrating to PrinterLogic has exceeded 100%.

When asked to rate PrinterLogic on a qualitative scale, this small-business banking company said our print management solution was “amazing” in terms of:

  • Ease of deployment
  • Speed of deployment
  • Ease of use

And it rated PrinterLogic as “excellent” in printer driver management and printing security.

So, clearly, whether you’re talking large enterprise or small business, PrinterLogic brings both measurable and subjective benefits to any print environment. Why not see what it can bring to yours?


TechValidate Case Study: Small Business Banking Company

New Study Shows Enterprise Clients See World-class Ease of Use and Flexibility from Server-less Print Management Solution

Posted by Andrew Miller

Some news is so good that you want to shout it from the rooftops.

In this case, it’s the news that the independent research organization TechValidate recently concluded a detailed and wide-ranging survey of more than 250 long- and medium-term verified PrinterLogic customers whose unbiased answers testified to the versatility, ease of use, and return on investment (ROI) they experienced through implementing our print management solution.

The full details are in a recent

press release

, but here are some of the most interesting statistics in a nutshell.

  • 96% of the respondents rated PrinterLogic’s printer driver management as “great” or better
  • 99% of the respondents rated PrinterLogic’s ease of use as “great” or better
  • 92% of the respondents rated the security of PrinterLogic as “great” or better

In each of these categories, a substantial majority of respondents—sometimes greater than 75%—actually rated PrinterLogic even higher (“excellent” or “amazing”). We think ratings like those are worth trumpeting. You can see a breakdown of these (and more) results for yourself at TVID:

66B-C59-ADA

.

What’s also interesting is the fact that these verified customers weren’t a homogeneous sample. They came from a whole range of backgrounds, sectors and sizes—every one with different print environments and printing demands.

About half of the respondents had fewer than 25 sites, whereas roughly 50 of them had deployed PrinterLogic in distributed print environments that consisted of more than 100 sites (TVID:

300-E26-C6D

). In terms of devices, about 60% reported implementing PrinterLogic in print environments with fewer than 500 printers; roughly 25 respondents said their organizations had 2,500 or more (TVID:

707-D4F-103

). Yet for all this disparity, the results they experienced were consistent across the entire sample. That stands as an incredible testament to PrinterLogic’s versatility.

What’s more, TechValidate calculated a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +66 for PrinterLogic. The NPS is a way of estimating customer satisfaction by measuring the loyalty of a company’s customer relationships. A score of +66—along with an average NPS rating of 8.9—is one of the highest values ever recorded by TechValidate. That level of customer satisfaction can only come from a product that delivers everything it promises.

And what exactly does PrinterLogic promise? To name just a few advantages:

  • Efficient centralized management of printers and drivers
  • Rapid printer deployment throughout the enterprise
  • High availability of enterprise print services
  • Seamless integration with any print environment
  • Empowered end users through easy self-service installation

Oh, and don’t forget freedom from the trouble and expense of print servers.

If that sounds like an impossible dream, or if you think your print environment is too unique to benefit from PrinterLogic, we encourage you to read those TechValidate results once again—or any number of

case studies

featured on our site. The overwhelming praise from our customers and the consistency of the results across the spectrum is proof that PrinterLogic is not only an effective print management solution, but a remarkably versatile one to boot.

Educational Institution No Longer Consumed with Printer Issues Thanks to PrinterLogic

Posted by Andrew Miller

Educational institutions have unique characteristics that are unlike any other industry. They share qualities with both government and private enterprise, yet they’re neither wholly one nor the other. That uniqueness extends to the needs of their print environment.

For that reason, the independent research firm TechValidate went out looking for some firsthand data on educational institutions’ experience with PrinterLogic. It reached out to several of them that had already implemented our print management solution. One case study (TVID:

D08-151-768

) is especially noteworthy—though it’s certainly not the only one with impressive, far-reaching results.

After installing PrinterLogic, the educational institution in this particular TechValidate case study saw an astounding 90% drop—yes, that’s 90%—in each of the following areas:

  • Time spent on print management
  • Print-related calls to the service desk
  • Printer downtime

As part of and in addition to those downright stunning time- and resource-saving efficiencies, the same institution also succeeded in consolidating its server infrastructure, simplifying routine printer installation for its end users, and centralizing the management of its print queues, network printers, and drivers.

The IT staff can also now deploy printers without the need for scripts and group policy objects (GPOs), and users have access to convenient, secure pull-printing features that weren’t previously available. That was in a mid-sized print environment with between 250-500 networked printers, fewer than five print servers, and more than six physical locations.

What’s more, this educational institution fully installed PrinterLogic in a single day, so there was no delay in enjoying the benefits of our revolutionary print management solution. Small wonder that when it came to return on investment (ROI), the organization totally recouped the initial cost of PrinterLogic within less than 90 days. The ROI has continued to accrue ever since, thanks to those massive reductions in resources and giant gains in productivity.

Needless to say, this educational institution is positively thrilled with PrinterLogic. It rated PrinterLogic “amazing” in three of five areas, including:

  • Ease of deployment
  • Speed of deployment
  • Ease of use

It awarded PrinterLogic a rating of “great” in the field of printer driver management, and “excellent” when asked about printing security.

“Prior to PrinterLogic, our weekly IT meetings were consistently focused on printing issues,” a representative for the institution said. “Now, we’re down to one or two issues per meeting, if at all.”

It doesn’t take an advanced degree to see that PrinterLogic’s benefits extend far beyond the educational sector.


TechValidate Case Study: Educational Institution