Install VMware Virtual Printer

To allow a supported virtual machine to print to any printer available to the host machine, install the VMware Virtual Printer application on the virtual machine.

The VMware Virtual Printer application is packaged as an image that you can mount in the CD/DVD drive of the guest operating system for installation.

The following guest operating systems support VMware Virtual Printer.

• Windows 7 and later
• Debian-based and RPM-based Linux distributions

Prerequisites

To install VMware Virtual Printer application in the guest operating system, perform the following prerequisites.

• Upgrade to or install VMware Tools 10.3.x or later, if not already installed. See Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools

• On Windows host machines, enable virtual printing globally, if not already enabled. This prerequisite does not apply to Linux hosts, on which VMware Virtual Printer is always enabled. See Configuring Virtual Printers on Windows Hosts.
• Add a virtual printer device to the virtual machine, if one is not present already. See Add a Virtual Printer to a Virtual Machine.
• Add a CD/DVD drive to the virtual machine, if one is not present already installed. See Add a DVD or CD-ROM Drive to a Virtual Machine

Procedure

1. Power on the virtual machine.
2. To mount the VMware Virtual Printer application in the CD/DVD drive of the guest, select VM > Install Virtual Printer.
3. Install VMware Virtual Printer using the method appropriate for the guest.
   • Windows Guest
     • Double-click the Virtual-Printer-version-build.exe file and complete the VMware Virtual Printer Setup Wizard as guided.
   • Linux Guest

     On Linux guests, install VMware Virtual Printer on the virtual machine using a .deb or .rpm installer package.

     The .deb packages are for Debian-based Linux distributions, such as Debian and Ubuntu, and are in the top directory in the CD/DVD drive.

     The .rpm packages are for RPM-based Linux distributions, such as Red Hat, SUSE, and Fedora, and are divided into folders on the CD/DVD drive. Each folder is specific to a Linux-distribution type and bitness combination. The .x86_64.rpm package is for 64-bit Linux guests. The .i386.rpm package is for 32-bit Linux guests.

     1. Open a terminal window and change directories to the CD/DVD drive for a .deb package or continue to a specific folder for a .rpm package.
     2. Run the appropriate command for the guest.

        DEB package command for 64-bit guests	sudo dpkg -i thinprint_version-revision_amd64.deb
        DEB package command for 32-bit guests	sudo dpkg -i thinprint_version-revision_i386.deb
        RPM package command for 64-bit guests	Rpm -ivh thinprint_version-revision.x86_64.rpm
        RPM package command for 32-bit guests	Rpm -ivh thinprint_version-revision.i386.rpm

     3. To verify that VMware Virtual Printer installed successfully, run the appropriate commands. If the Thinprint service is listed as active, VMware Virtual Printer is installed and running.

        DEB package commands for 32-bit and 64-bit guests	Command to check the status of VMware Virtual Printer. service thinprint status Command to list the installed package. dpkg -l thinprint
        RPM package commands for 32-bit and 64-bit guests	Command to check the status of VMware Virtual Printer. service thinprint status Command for information about the installed package. rpm -q --info thinprint

Results

The host printers appear on the printer list in the guest.

What to do next

• In the guest, print a test page to a printer you just configured to confirm that VMware Virtual Printer works as expected.
• When you upgrade Workstation Pro in the future, to ensure that a guest has the latest version of VMware Virtual Printer, uninstall and reinstall VMware Virtual Printer. See Uninstall VMware Virtual Printer