| MetaFrame XP adds some killer features to aid you in building a stable print environment. Now that you have a list of support printers and have explained to the customer that any additional printers might need additional configuration, you are ready to setup your print environment. The first thing you will want to configure is how MetaFrame XP will deal with the automatic creation of client printers and the use of Native Drivers and the Universal Printer Driver (UPD). These options are broken down in to two sections; Printers and Drivers. Configuring Client Printer Connections: You can use the Auto-Create Client Printer Connections at Login option to allow client printers to be automatically created when users log on to ICA sessions. This option is selected by default. If you clear this option, no client printers are automatically created although users can set up connections to client printers manually. 
When Auto-Create Client Printer Connections at Login is selected, you can configure how the printers work using the following options: Update printer properties at each logon - Select this option to update client printers on the server using settings from printers on the clients. The client printers are updated when users log on. Do not select this option if you want to retain changes made during ICA sessions to client printers on the server. Inherit client printer's setting for keeping printed documents - Select this option to use the client printer setting, Keep printed documents, on auto created client printers. The setting determines if printed jobs are saved after users log off from ICA sessions. Saving printed jobs can take a lot of space. Delete pending print jobs at logout - Select this option to delete pending print jobs when a user logs off. Do not select this option if you want users to see print jobs from prior ICA sessions when they log on. Always create client network printers as client printers - Select this option if you want the client device to process printing requests, instead of the MetaFrame XP server. When you select this option, communication from MetaFrame XP servers to client devices is faster if they talk across a WAN. Data sent to the client is compressed, so less bandwidth is consumed as the data travels across the WAN. Additionally, if two network printers have the same name, the printer on the same network as the client is used. Do not select this option if you want print jobs to be sent directly from MetaFrame XP servers to network printers. Direct communication results in faster printing if the network printer and MetaFrame XP server are on the same LAN. The following options control which printers are auto-created. By default, Use connection settings for each server is selected. 
Default client printer only: This option specifies that only the printer specified as the default printer on each client device is auto-created. Local (non-network) client printers only: This option specifies that only printers that are directly connected to LPT, COM, on the client device and configured for the current user are auto-created. If you are deploying in a Microsoft Windows Server environment and in order to cut down on unnecessary printer bandwidth this is the option I recommend. All client printers: This option specifies that all client printers that are configured for the user are auto-created. Use connection settings for each server: This option specifies that client printers are auto-created according to the printer auto-creation option that is specified in the Citrix Connection Configuration Client Printers box for the ICA session. The following defines if the auto-created printer properties will be updated at each logon. 
Network printers assigned to users can be updated when the users log on. To update network printers with the printing preferences assigned to the printer through the console, select Update printer properties at each logon in Auto-Created Network Printers. Note: Do not select this option if you want to retain changes made by users to their network printer settings during ICA sessions.
Configuring Drivers: When client printers are auto-created, you can specify whether they use native printer drivers (which must be installed on the server) or the Universal Printer Driver feature by selecting from the following options: 
Native Drivers Only: This option disables the Universal Printer Driver feature. All client printers are auto-created if the native drivers are installed on MetaFrame XP servers. Universal Driver Only: This option enables the Universal Printer Driver feature and auto-creates client printers with the Citrix Universal Driver on the server. Select this option if you want all client printing to use the Citrix Universal Printer Driver feature. Universal Driver Only if Native Driver Unavailable: This is the default option. It specifies that client printers are auto-created with the native driver for each printer, if it is available. If the driver is not available on the server, the client printer is auto-created with the Citrix Universal Driver. This is the option I recommend in order to guarantee a client can print when all else fails. Both Universal and Native Drivers: This option specifies that two versions of each client printer are auto-created: one with the Citrix Universal Driver and the other with the printers native driver (if it is installed on the server). 
Automatically install native drivers for auto-created client and network printers - Select this option so that native printer drivers are automatically installed on MetaFrame XP servers where printers are auto-created. This option can greatly reduce printer administration. You can limit which drivers are installed by using the driver compatibility list. Clear this option if you want complete control over where printer drivers are installed. You can use Driver Replication to install specific printer drivers on specific servers. You may want to use more control if a large volume of printer drivers could potentially be installed and this could affect space and IMA performance.
The following defines the how I recommend configuring the farm wide Printer Management properties. 1. Open the Management Console for MetaFrame XP and right click on Printer Management Click Properties 
2. Click Drivers in the left hand pane and verify the Use Universal driver only if native driver is unavailable radio button and the Automatically install native drivers for auto-crated client and network printers checkbox are selected. 
3. Click Printers in the left hand pane. In the Auto-Create the client print devices section click to uncheck the Inherit client printers setting for keeping printed documents checkbox and click to select Delete pending print jobs at logout checkbox. Click the Local (non-network) client printers only radio button. Note: If you require all printers to be auto-created, including network printers other than a Microsoft print server then you will be required to autocreate all client printers. Ive never been a huge fan of this selection for the point it can 1) take a long time to auto-create a large amount of client printers 2) Im a huge fan of simple structures and when you auto-create all printers then you greatly increase the administration needed an amount of printers required to be supported. Click OK when finished. 
You are now ready to configure any network printer you will want to use during a MetaFrame session.
Now that we have configured MetaFrame to auto-create only local printers we will need to configure MetaFrame to auto-create network printers. To make network printers available to ICA Client users, you will need to import network print servers in to the MetaFrame XP server farm. Doing this lets you specify, on a user / group basis, which printers are available to which users / groups. The following explains how to import a Microsoft Windows print server and assign a user to have a printer device auto-created. 1. Open the Management Cosole of MetaFrame XP and right click on Printer Management Click Import Network Print Server. 
2. You are now prompted to import a print server. In the server text box, enter the name of a Microsoft print server on your network. You are also prompted to enter a user account that has print administrator to access to the selected print server. Click OK 
3. Double click the Printers icon located in the contents tab. 
4. You are now prompted with the printers that have been imported in to the MetaFrame XP IMA database. 
5. Right click on the printer you want to assign to a user or group and click Auto-Creation. 
6. You are now prompted to select the user(s) and or group(s) that will have the select network printer auto-created during logon. Click OK. 
With the release of MetaFrame XP with Feature Release 2, Citrix added the ability to autocreate local client printers on a user and or group basis. This is the mechanism that I recommend you use. By default, automatic local printer mapping is enabled, so we will need to create a policy to disable it and then add all terminal services users to it. We will then create another policy to enable autocreation of client printers and we will add the appropriate user and group accounts that we would like to have access to their local printers. The following defines how to create a MetaFrame XP policy to disable autocreation of local client printers. 1. Create a specific user global group to Enable Clinet Printer Mapping. i.e., Enable Client Printer Mapping. 2. Open the Management Console for MetaFrame XP, right click on Policies and click Create Policy 3. Enter a name for the new policy. I recommend something like Disable Client Printer Mapping. Click OK when finish. 4. Right click on the newly created policy and click Properties. 5. Expand the Client Devices folder expand the Client Printers folder and select the Turn Off Client Printer Mapping policy. 6. Click to select the Rule Enabled radio button to turn off client printer mapping. Click OK when finished. 
7. Right click on the policy created in the above steps and click Assign Users. 8. Select theEveryone group and click OK when finished.
We are now ready to create a policy to enable autocreation of local printers and assign users to it. 9. Right click on Policies and click Create Policy 10. Enter a name for the policy to enable autocreation of local printers. I recommend something like Enable Client Printer Mapping. Click OK when finish. 11. Right click on the newly created policy and click Properties. 12. Expand the Client Devices folder expand the Client Printers folder and select the Turn Off Client Printer Mapping policy. 
13. Click to select the Rule Disabled radio button to turn on client printer mapping. Click OK when finished. 14. Right click on the policy created in the above and click Assign Users. 15. Select the group created in step 1 and click OK when finished. We have now created policies to enable autocreation of local printers through MetaFrame XP on a user / group basis. In order to add or remove users from this privilege all you need to do is add the user and or groups to the group create in step 1.
The following defines how to create a printer which is available by all users on the MetaFrame XP server running on Windows 2000 Server. 1. From the MetaFrame XP Server where you want to install the printer, click Start click Settings click Printers double-click the Add Printer icon. 
2. Click Next. 
3. Click the Local printer radio button and uncheck the Automattically detect and install my Plug and Play printer checkbox. Click Next. 
4. Click the Create a new port radio button and choose Local Port from the drop-down box.. Click Next. 
5. The Portal Name dialog box will pop up requesting the UNC name of the printer you want to create for all users. Enter the UNC name and click Next. 
6. You are now prompted to select the printer maufacture and printer type. Select the printer type and click Next. Note: I highly recommend sticking with the print drivers listed and only install third party drives in production if you have already tested them to be stable and funtional) 
7. Enter the friendly name of the printer and select whether or not you want it to be their default printer and click Next. 
8. Click the Do not share this printer radio button and click Next. 
9. You are now prompted whether or not you would like to print a test page.I recommend you select Yes and then attatch the test print to the finial delevable. This also guarentees to the customer that the printer was working at implementation time. Click the Yes Radio button and click Next. 
10. Verify the configuration data is accurate and and click Finish. 
The following defines how to create a printer which is available by all users on the MetaFrame XP server running on Windows Server 2003. 1. You will want to install the printer from the Servers console. Click Start click Printers and Faxes on the top left pane click the Add a printer link. 
2. Click Next. 
3. Click the Local printer radio button and uncheck the Automattically detect and install my Plug and Play printer checkbox. Click Next. 
4. Click the Create a new port radio button and choose Local Port from the drop-down box.. Click Next. 
5. The Portal Name dialog box will pop up requesting the UNC name of the printer you want to create for all users. Enter the UNC name,click OK and click Next. 
6. You are now prompted to select the printer maufacture and printer type. Select the printer type and click Next. Note: I highly recommend sticking with the print listed and only install third party drives in production if you have already tested them to be stable and funtional) 
7. Enter the friendly name of the printer and select whether or not you want it to be their default printer and click Next. 
8. Click the Do not share this printer radio button and click Next. 
9. You are now prompted whether or not you would like to print a test page.I recommend you select Yes and then attatch the test print to the finial delevable. This also guarentees to the customer that the printer was working at implementation time. Click the Yes Radio button and click Next. 
10. Verify the configuration data is accurate and and click Finish.
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