Printing from a Virtual Desktop Session

This article applys to the following Citrix/Virtual Desktop clients:

Overview of Printing in Virtual Desktop

Printing is often the most challenging issue with using Virtual Desktop. This is because of the challenges presented by differing printer drivers and the differences in the way that each client is able to automatically configure printers in a Virtual Desktop session. If you are reading this page because you are not able to see your desired printer while in a Virtual Desktop session, skip down to the applicable section below that pertains to the Citrix client you are using.

If you are still not able to print after reading the information below pertaining to your Citrix client of choice, this might be a solution:

In the Virtual Desktop application, click File | Print.
Look for a button labelled "Find Printer" in the Print dialogue window. Please note: This does not appear for every application.
A window will appear where you can search for the network name of the desired printer as it appears in Active Directory. This will create a printer object in your Virtual Desktop session that you may use.

This solution will only work for printers that are "published" in Active Directory. (This means you can search for them.)

Printing when you are using the Citrix Web Client in Windows

When you connect to a Virtual Desktop session using the Citrix Web Client on a Windows machine, any printers that you have set up in your Windows OS will be automatically created in your Virtual Desktop session. There is nothing to configure.

However, there is one caveat: In order to access all of the features of the printer (duplexing, scaling, etc.), the printer driver for the make/model of your printer must exist on the Virtual Desktop server. If the print driver is not installed on the Virtual Desktop server, the Citrix Universal Print driver (UPD) is used instead. The UDP will likely work for most situations, as it supports simple printer settings like duplexing.

Printing when you are using the Citrix Client for Mac OS X

You may print to any printer in a Virtual Desktop session that you have configured locally on your Mac. The Citrix Client for Mac OS X automatically creates them when you connect to a Virtual Desktop session, just like with the Windows client. However, also like the Windows client, you may lose some printing functionality if the printer driver isn't installed on the Virtual Desktop server. See the second paragraph of the above section for the Citrix Web Client.

Printing when you are using the Citrix Client for Java

The Citrix Client for Java cannot automatically create printers when you are connecting from Mac OS X. (The Java client IS able to automatically create printers if you are running it from a PC.) If you need to print while using a Virtual Desktop application on a Mac, either you must use the Citrix Client for Mac OS X OR you must manually configure the printer.

Printing using the Java client when on Mac OS X is not very reliable and can sometimes be difficult to configure, depending on the type of printer and the availability of the necessary information about the printer's location on the network. If you are using a Mac and need to print, it is strongly recommended that you use the Citrix Client for Mac OS X instead. Alternately, you can try the solution in the above "Overview of Printing in Virtual Desktop" section.

To manually configure a printer when connecting with the Citrix Client for Java, follow the steps below.:

While connected to a Virtual Desktop application using the Java client, click the Settings button.
Click on the Printer Mapping tab.
Configure the properties of the printer as shown.

More Information

For more instructions on using Virtual Desktop, see the applicable section on the main Virtual Desktop Documentation page.

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Last Updated: 04/24/2008