Windows – Remote Desktop Printing With Color

colorprintingremote desktopwindows

Our ACCPACC administration software runs on an off-site dedicated hosted computer, running Windows 2003 Server with a completely different NT DOMAIN.

We have many users connecting to that computer remotely to perform administrative tasks such as printing cheques, printing invoices, printing POs, packing slips and so on. Basically the setup is that we are all connecting using Remote Desktop Protocol (local computers are Mac OS.X, XP SP3, Vista and Windows 7).

At our office we have a DOCUCOLOR 242 printer. When printing from the ACCPACC software, it prints to the local printer in our office. This is because we are using RDP features to connect printer ressources to the remote computer.

This almost works now. I had to install the printer driver software on the remote 2003 Server for the printer sharing to work. Now, everyone is able to print black and white but color is out.

NOTES:

  • Normal users on that Windows 2003 server are running as part of a Group Policy Object to restrict what can be done.
  • I took one of these normal users and gave him all domain administrator rights, no effect still B&W only.
  • I took this account and moved it OUT of GPO policies, as a normal account instead, no effect still B&W only.
  • It seems only MY account (which is domain administrator AND a normal account not part of the GPO objects) can actually print with color. This is the account that was used for installing the printer driver software.

How can I manage to get everyone to print in color?

Any suggestions as to what to try next?

Best Answer

Did you install the PCL6 or PCL5c driver? The 'c' in PCL5c stands for colour. You may also be interested in the Xerox Global Driver (it's for network deployments), and make sure that the print drivers installed locally match up to the print drivers installed remotely.

Check the event logs for print driver mismatches: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239088

Someone has already suggested Server 2008 but if you don't want to spend $$$$$$$ (just $$) you might be better off using thinprint.

EDIT: Are you sure the print properties on the remote server are correct? I've seen a few printers where you have a dropdown hidden in the printer properties that contains "Auto" and "Black and White", "Auto" being colour.

Related Topic