Configure remote printer on Windows Terminal Server

When you logon to a terminal server, the server typically tries to recognize your local printers and it tries to automatically install them so that you can print to a local printer from the terminal server. But often, this doesn't work automatically. You will not see your printer in the list of printers on the Windows terminal server. In the Windows system event log on the terminal server, you get the following message with event id 1111:

"Driver HP LaserJet P1500 Series PCL 5e required for printer HP LaserJet P1500 Series PCL 5e is unknown. Contact the administrator to install the driver before you log in again."

One way to fix this is to edit the "ntprint.inf" file on the Windows Server so that it will recognize your local printer. This file is typically located in C:\WINDOWS\inf\ but if not do a search to find it.

1. Open this file in Notepad and find the "[Previous Names]" section. If you don't have a Previous Names section, just add it to the file at the end of the file.

2. Add an entry:

"HP LaserJet P1505n" = "HP LaserJet P1500 Series PCL 5e"

The "HP LaserJet P1505n should be the name of the driver on the Windows server that you want to use (this driver is a driver already installed on the Terminal Server).

The "HP LaserJet P1500 Series PCL5e should be the name of the printer on your local machine that you want to print to.

3. Log off the terminal server and then re-remote into the terminal server to see if it worked.