This article describes the new printing policies in XenApp 6.0 or later.

Background

Prior to XenApp 6.0, the following settings were configurable by altering the XenApp server’s registry or they were a farm-wide setting configured using the XenApp Advanced Configuration Console. XenApp 6.0 now makes it easier to apply these settings using policies. Some of these policies are brand new to support new features or enhancements to our printing subsystem.

New XenApp 6.0 Citrix User Policies and Brief Explanations

Printer auto-creation event log preference – (Default Setting – Errors and Warnings are logged.) In earlier versions of XenApp, this option was available using a registry setting and per-server. You can now turn off the logging of errors and/or warnings with this policy.

Default printer - (Default Setting – Set default printer to the client’s main printer) In earlier versions of XenApp, this setting was configurable using the Session Printer policy. The default printer option is now a separate policy setting that can be used to set the default printer for user sessions to match the default printer on their local machine, default to a session printer if defined, or you can use the do not adjust option which sets the default printer to a local one on the XenApp server or one managed through a script.

Wait for printers to be created (desktop) – (Default Setting – Does not delay desktop session) Like the option that is available for published applications Start this application without waiting for printers to be created, this new policy setting now allows you to control if the desktop session must appear before or after printers are created. It only applies to direct connections to desktops and not published desktops.

Retained and restored client printers - (Default Setting – client printers are auto-retained and auto-restored). In earlier versions of XenApp, this setting was configurable using a registry setting and per-server (refer to CTX117805 - How to Disable Autorestored and Autoretained Printers). You now have the option to disable auto-retained and auto-restored printers using a policy. Auto-retained and auto-restored printers are printers that were not initially auto-created and are manually added to a user’s session after the fact.

Printer driver mapping and compatibility - (Default Setting – (Blank) no mappings or compatibility lists set) In earlier versions of XenApp, this was configurable as a farm-wide setting and through registry settings per-server. You can now do printer mappings or block user printers using a policy.

The setting might be used to map a print driver being used by a user to a different driver installed on the server. This can also be used to block certain printers from auto-creating based on specific print drivers on the user machine.

Auto-create generic universal printer - (Default Setting – generic universal printers are not auto-created) In earlier versions of XenApp, this setting was configurable using a registry setting and per-server. This policy creates a generic printer object using the Citrix Universal Print Driver that is not directly tied to any printer on the user’s workstation.

Universal driver preference - (Default Setting – EMF) – In earlier versions of XenApp, this setting was configurable using a registry setting and per-server. This policy lets you adjust what default driver for Citrix Universal Printing will be used.

Universal printing preview preference - (Default Setting – print preview not used) – In earlier versions of XenApp, this setting was configurable using a registry key and per-server. This policy now lets you configure if the client side print preview must be used for printers autocreated with the EMF or XPS universal drivers, the generic universal printer, both, or no preview.

Printer Assignments – (Default Setting – Blank no assignments) – This new policy makes session printers and setting the default printer much easier for farms that had multiple polices for session printers which can in turn speed up logons since XenApp does not have to go through numerous printing policies. Contains one or more entries, each specifying a default printer value, or value of the session printer, or both, for one or more clients (See the policy for further details).

Universal printing EMF processing mode – (Default Setting – Spool directly to printer) This setting was previously configurable through a client side registry key to allow certain legacy printer drivers to use the old printing path to the spooler which is reprocessed by the client then sent to the spooler instead of the new faster way of injecting the file directly into the clients spool queue.

Universal printing image compression limit – (Default Setting – Best Quality (lossless compression) Defines the maximum quality and the minimum compression level available for images printed with the Universal Printer driver.

Universal printing optimization defaults – (Default Settings – Standard Quality, Heavyweight compression Not Checked, Allow caching of embedded images Checked, Allow caching of embedded fonts Checked) This policy allows some control of the quality of images in print jobs if you want higher quality images and do not mind it taking a bit longer then you can test using High or Best, if you are not concerned with quality and want a little more speed to your imaged filled printouts then lowering the quality might help performance.

Universal printing print quality limit – (Default Setting – No Limit) Specifies the DPI (dots per inch) quality of the image per printout. Lowering the DPI might help improve performance with poor quality of the image.

New XenApp 6.5 Citrix User Policies and Brief Explanations (Only apply when using the Universal Print Server optional component)

Universal Print Server print stream input bandwidth limit (kpbs) – (Default Setting – 0 Unlimited) Specifies a upper bound in kilobits-per-second for the transfer rate of print data delivered from a XenApp session to a Universal Print Server via the CGP protocol.

New XenApp 6.5 Citrix Computer Policies and Brief Explanations (Only apply when using the Universal Print Server optional component)

Universal Print Server Enabled – (Default Setting – Disabled) The Universal Print Server is an optional component that enables the use of Citrix’s universal print drivers for network printing scenarios.

Universal Print Server print data stream (CGP) port – (Default Setting – port 7229) Works with Universal Print Server Enabled policy, specifies TCP port number used by the Universal Print Servers data stream (CGP) listener.

Universal Print Server web service (HTTP/SOAP) port – (Default Setting – port 8080) Works with Universal Print Server Enabled policy, specifies the TCP port number used by the Universal Print Servers web service (HTTP/SOAP) listener.

Additional Resources

These new settings can only be applied to XenApp 6.0 or later. If you do not see some of the newer policies ensure you are running the latest console and XenApp rollup packs and updates.

For further details on the policies mentioned refer to the policy itself in the Citrix App Center or Delivery Services Console.

Universal Print Server - Citrix eDocs

CTX129571 - How to Force the Old Print Path For a Specific Print Driver