Multiple of the Same Printers in Devices and Printers on RDSH servers

Arnold Mishaev 71 Reputation points
2021-07-12T21:38:01.867+00:00

Hello everybody,

We're in the middle of RDS farm migration from 2012 R2 to 2019, We have 4 RDSH servers in our new RDS farm, all works great except couple printers issue.
We're adding printers via network share, we don't using GPO for deploy printers.

The issue is:
Once new user connecting (with new roaming\local profile) to new RDS farm there appeared to be two issues

1) user find in "device and printers" printers which doesn't relate to him and he doesn't install them and he even can't set them as default.
2) user find in "device and printers" only server local installed printers which it's ok, then he adding his needed printers and after couple log off and log in each RDSH server , the printer which he added looks like installed 4 times.

If somebody know how to resolve the issue, i would be grateful for sharing the solution with us

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A Microsoft app that connects remotely to computers and to virtual apps and desktops.
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Windows Server Printing
Windows Server Printing
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Printing: Printer centralized deployment and management, scan and fax resources management, and document services
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  1. Leila Kong 3,691 Reputation points
    2021-07-13T02:57:57.437+00:00

    Hello @Arnold Mishaev ,

    Thanks for your query.

    1.How did you migrate RDS farm from 2012 R2 to 2019? What's our RDS environment?
    2.Please try to add the following registry value and check if the duplicated printers would disappear:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider\RemovePrintersAtLogoff = 1 (DWORD)

    Phantom printers on Windows: https://serverfault.com/questions/796147/phantom-printers-on-windows
    RDS - W2019 - Default Printer lost on session disconnect or logout/login: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/194877/rds-w2019-default-printer-lost-on-session-disconne.html

    Best regards,
    Leila

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  2. Leila Kong 3,691 Reputation points
    2021-07-16T06:51:18.77+00:00

    Hello @Arnold Mishaev ,

    1.For the second issue: 2) user find in "device and printers" only server local installed printers which it's ok, then he adding his needed printers and after couple log off and log in each RDSH server , the printer which he added looks like installed 4 times.
    Please operate the following steps on one of the problematic 2019 server and back up the registry key first:
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-back-up-and-restore-the-registry-in-windows-855140ad-e318-2a13-2829-d428a2ab0692
    (1) First, manually remove all printers from the control panel.
    (2) Download PSExec and run the following script in PowerShell as administrator to remove existing obsolete entries:
    PsExec v2.34
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec
    (place pstools in this path: C: \ temp \ PSTools \ Psexec.exe)

    Start-Process -FilePath cmd.exe -Verb Runas -ArgumentList '/k C:\temp\PSTools\Psexec.exe -I -s powershell.exe'
    Remove-Item -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\PRINTENUM*" -Recurse
    Remove-Item -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses*" -Recurse
    Remove-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider*" -Recurse

    (3) Configure the registry key and restart the terminal server 2019, finally we can check the result.
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider\RemovePrintersAtLogoff
    Value = 1
    4)Some Window Server 2019 Terminal Servers need to install the latest update to fix this issue.

    If not resolved, please try to change the RemovePrintersAtLogoff Value = 0 and check the result.

    2.For the first issue: 1) user find in "device and printers" printers which doesn't relate to him and he doesn't install them and he even can't set them as default.
    (1) How did you configure roaming profile?
    (2) Are these unrelated printers from other session hosts or servers that the user logged in before? When the user logs off the server, the profile of the user will save this information including printers; and when the user logs into new server, roaming profile will load the setting information of previous server.
    (3) Will the new local user have the same issue after log in the session host 2019?

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  3. Ari Akaberi 0 Reputation points
    2023-04-28T17:35:31.7533333+00:00

    I have been having a strange issue with ghost printers for years and just recently made a huge discovery. It seems that even after deleting ghost printers they would come back randomly. My environment is a RDS Farm. What I found was that on all the servers that had ghost printers, they had PrintService Operational logs disable in Event Viewer. Why does this matter? I think the data had nowhere to go. The deletion of the printer was never recorded because the log was disabled. After enabling PrintService Operational logs and deleting the printers they never came back again and login and logoff times improved.

    Basically log into each of your RD servers, go to Event Viewer, go to (Actions and Services Logs -> Microsoft -> Windows -> PrintService -> Operational logs) and enable Operational logs. That should now record all the printers being added and deleted and fix your issue!

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