The location-based printing feature maps printers that are physically near client systems to remote desktops, enabling users to print to their network printers from their remote desktops.
Location-based printing allows IT organizations to map remote desktops to the printer that is closest to the endpoint client device. For example, as a doctor moves from room to room in a hospital, each time the doctor prints a document, the print job is sent to the nearest printer.
The location-based printing feature is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile client devices. It is also available with browser-based clients.
Location-based printing is supported on the following remote desktops and applications:
- Desktops that are deployed on single-user machines, including Windows desktop and Windows server machines
- Published desktops and published applications that are deployed on RDS hosts, where the RDS hosts are virtual machines or physical machines
- Published applications that are launched from Horizon Client inside remote desktops
To use the location-based printing feature, you must install the Virtual Printing setup option with Horizon Agent and install the correct printer drivers on the desktop.
You set up location-based printing by configuring the Active Directory group policy setting AutoConnect Map Additional Printers for VMware View, which is located in the Microsoft Group Policy Object Editor in the Software Settings folder under Computer Configuration.
AutoConnect Map Additional Printers for VMware View is implemented as a name translation table. You use each row in the table to identify a specific printer and define a set of translation rules for that printer. The translation rules determine whether the printer is mapped to the remote desktop for a particular client system.
When a user connects to a remote desktop, Horizon 7 compares the client system to the translation rules associated with each printer in the table. If the client system meets all of the translation rules set for a printer, or if a printer has no associated translation rules, Horizon 7 maps the printer to the remote desktop during the user's session.
You can define translation rules based on the client system's IP address, name, and MAC address, and on the user's name and group. You can specify one translation rule, or a combination of several translation rules, for a specific printer.
The information used to map the printer to the remote desktop is stored in a registry entry on the remote desktop in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\thinprint\tpautoconnect.
Printer Settings for Location-Based Printing
Printer settings for location-based printers are retained after a user logs out or disconnects from the desktop. For example, a user might set a location-based printer to use black and white mode. After the user logs out and logs in to the desktop again, the location-based printer continues to use black and white mode.
To save printer settings across sessions in a published application, the user must select a location-based printer from the application's print dialog box, right-click the selected printer, and select Printing Preferences. Printer settings are not saved if the user selects a printer and clicks the Preferences button in the application's print dialog box.
Persistent settings for location-based printers are not supported if the settings are saved in the printer driver's private space and not in the DEVMODE extended part of the printer driver, as recommended by Microsoft. To support persistent settings, deploy printers that have the settings saved in the DEVMODE part of the printer driver.
