We have deployed a brand new Active Directory domain for a customer. ALL the servers without exception are Windows 2012 R2 and all clients are Windows 8.1 32bit VDI clients.
The issue that we have is around network printers.
We are deploying 4 printers from a Windows 2012 R2 Server via the print management/Deploy Printer and assigning that to a GPO. The printers are deployed to the Computers which should mean that the users get all 4 printers which they then should be allowed to set their default and personal settings for that printer.
Our printers are deployed like this:
1. Created security group
2. Assigned VDI computers to the security group
3. Created GPO to reflect security group
4. Modify GPO to do security filtering based on computer group membership
5. Deployed 4 x printers through Print Management to the GPO on a per machine basis
However, on the users Devices and Printers screen we are not seeing the 4 printers. For some users they see duplicates of all 4 printers so e.g they can have upwards of 8 or more. Other users have no printers
displayed whatsoever. The next time they log off or restart they then have a different amount of printers displayed.
If they try and set the default then it will set and the next time they check the default may have moved to another printer even without logging off or back on.
Now, where this gets strange is within an application such as MS Word 2013 or Notepad if they use the file and print menu the printers will be listed, even if the user has no printers displayed in Devices and Printers. If the users selects a printer then they can then print OK.
If we check HKCU\Printers||Connections then the CORRECT 4 printers are showing as to what is being deployed via the GPO so I know that the Windows 8.1 terminals are receiving the correct printers from the GPO.
To try and correct this over the course of the week we have deployed the printers via Group Policy Preferences to the user and then the PC to no avail. Currently we are using the Print management\Deployed Printers to deploy all 4 printers to the computer via the Computer GPO.
I believe that this issue is related to the display somehow in Devices and Printers rather than a GPO or print server issue as we can see via the registry the clients are receiving the 4 correct mentioned printers as shown in the registry.
FYI: We only have around 30 users and all users are getting this problem. All users are receiving the same GPO's and have the same few apps installed, Office 2013, Adobe Reader etc.
What we want is for the computers to receive all 4 printers. All users should be able to use all 4 printers but the user should be able to select their particular default, depending where they are located or what they are printing that particular day. Their particular default should persist after reboot. (We have 2 x Copiers and 2 x HP Laserjets) All users have redirected documents and desktop but the rest of the profile is on the VDI and persists after their reboot. The profile is not roaming as the user is assigned a particular VDI.
After a week of scratching our heads with this we are open to suggestions and any would be appreciated. We have tried following the issues on this thread to no avail either as they still return.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/71d06204-3735-4473-8bc9-20be9e19090e/problem-with-multiple-instances-of-shared-printers-being-installed-on-client-computers-when-the?forum=winserverprint
many thanks