6 Appendix A: Product Behavior

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The information in this specification is applicable to the following Microsoft products or supplemental software. References to product versions include updates to those products.

  • Windows 2000 operating system

  • Windows XP operating system

  • Windows Server 2003 operating system

  • Windows Vista operating system

  • Windows Server 2008 operating system

  • Windows 7 operating system

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system

  • Windows 8 operating system

  • Windows Server 2012 operating system

  • Windows 8.1 operating system

  • Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system

  • Windows 10 operating system

  • Windows Server 2016 operating system

  • Windows Server operating system

  • Windows Server 2019 operating system

  • Windows Server 2022 operating system

  • Windows 11 operating system

  • Windows Server 2025 operating system

Exceptions, if any, are noted in this section. If an update version, service pack or Knowledge Base (KB) number appears with a product name, the behavior changed in that update. The new behavior also applies to subsequent updates unless otherwise specified. If a product edition appears with the product version, behavior is different in that product edition.

Unless otherwise specified, any statement of optional behavior in this specification that is prescribed using the terms "SHOULD" or "SHOULD NOT" implies product behavior in accordance with the SHOULD or SHOULD NOT prescription. Unless otherwise specified, the term "MAY" implies that the product does not follow the prescription.

<1> Section 2.2.2.1: Applicable Windows Server releases look at the driver name specified by the client and perform an exact string comparison to find the matching printer driver on the server. The matching printer driver might not be available on the server for various reasons. If the matching printer driver is not available, the server cannot reliably load an appropriate printer driver, and it fails to redirect the printer. This is an early design limitation, which was fixed for Windows Server 2008.

For printer redirection in applicable Windows Server releases (this is not supported in Windows Server 2003), XPS-based drivers are recommended. When a client supports the XPS format (that is, the RDPDR_PRINTER_ANNOUNCE_FLAG_XPSFORMAT flag is set in the Client Device List Announce Request (section 2.2.2.1) message), Windows implementations use the terminal server–specific XPS-capable printer driver and ignore the DriverName field.

<2> Section 3.1.1.2: XPS Mode is not supported for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

<3> Section 3.3.5.1.2: Windows has the option of using XPS format or not, based on group policy that instructs the implementation to use the XPS format or a matching printer driver.