FOREWORD / WARNING :

Printing from RDPDOS from Terminal Services in Windows 2000 does not work reliably and is not supported by RDP. To reliably print from RDPDOS, Citrix Software or Terminal Services on Windows 2003 is required.    It may be possible to get RDPDOS to print using the techniques below.  However, this is NOT SUPPORTED by RDP.

Automatic printer redirection :

The following is an excerpt from the help system for Terminal Services.  To access the help system:

1. Use the Windows 2000 Server where Terminal Services is installed
2. Select Start-Settings-Control Panel-Administrative tools
3. Select "Terminal Services Configuration" and then click the Help Icon (?)
   Search the Index for "printers-Redirecting Printers"
4. For 32-bit Windows 2000 Terminal Services clients, printer redirection is automatic when the local printer uses a driver that is installed on the Windows 2000 server.  When a client logs on to Terminal Services, local printers attached to LPT, COM, and USB ports that are installed on the client computer are automatically detected and a local queue is created on the server. The client computer printer settings for the default printer and some properties (such as printing on both sides of the page) are used by the server.

When a client disconnects or ends the session, the printer queue is deleted and any incomplete or pending print jobs are lost. Information about the client's local printers and settings are saved on the client computer. On subsequent logons, the printer queue is created using the information stored on the client computer.

If a printer driver is not found on the server, an event is logged and the client printer is not created. To make the printer available, the driver must be manually installed on the server.

All users of Windows 2000 or XP must be a member of local Administrator Group

Microsoft added significant local security to Windows 2000 and Windows XP. A user with minimal rights does not have access to write files to the "C" drive, or to re-direct printing to shared network printers, both of which are required for RDP software to function properly. 

To solve this problem each user of a Windows 2000 or XP workstation must be a member of the administrator group on the workstation, which gives the user complete access and all rights for the local workstation.   Please note that network security is not compromised, since the user must only be a member of the local administrator group on Windows 2000/XP workstations.  All RDP users should not be a member of the domain administrator group.  To add a user to the local administrator group:

From the Windows 2000 or XP workstation, log on as Administrator, or a user who is already a member of the Administrator group for that workstation.

1. Select Start-Settings-Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Computer Management
2. Select "Local users and Groups" from the left hand pane and then select the "Groups" option.  
3. Double Click the "Administrators" Icon from the right hand pane and select "Add"
4. From the drop down box, select the Domain name of your Windows 2000 Domain.  
5. Add the RDP group from the Windows 2000 Domain to the local Administrator group.  See Note below.
6. Repeat the process above for every Windows 2000 and Windows XP workstation.
7. NOTE:  Most RDP customers with Windows 2000 servers use Active Directory and have created an RDP Group at the Windows 2000 Domain level.  All RDP users should be added to the RDP group at the Domain level.  By then adding the domain RDP group to the local Administrators group on each Windows 2000 and Windows XP workstation, every RDP user in the RDP Group has administrative rights to the local machine.  This allows printing to function correctly, as well as writing files to the local "C" drive.

Novell Users:  For Novell customers, there is no "domain" available to add the RDP group.  Therefore, you must add every user name to the local administrator group for each Windows 2000 or XP workstation. This can be a very cumbersome process.  Please keep in mind that RDP suggests all customers using Novell migrate to Windows 2000.  See "RDP and Novell Netware"  for details.