Print from your remote server to a local printer over Remote Desktop

Your Windows server sits in a data centre, but your printer sits on your desk. Remote Desktop printer redirection bridges the two: the printers on your own computer appear inside the RDP session, and anything you print there comes out locally. This guide shows how to turn it on, how the Easy Print driver works, and what to check when a printer is missing.

Before you start

• A Windows VPS or Admin RDP server and its IP address, username and password from your VPS provider's control panel.
• A printer that already works from your local computer. Print a test page locally first. If it fails there, it will fail over RDP too.
• Remote Desktop Connection (mstsc) on Windows, or Windows App on a Mac. The steps below use mstsc, which has the most complete printer support.
• Administrator rights on the server if you need to change policy settings.

How printer redirection works

When you connect with printers enabled, the client sends a list of your local printers to the server. The server creates a temporary copy of each one for your session only. Its name ends in something like (redirected 2), where the number is your session ID. When you disconnect, those printers disappear again.

To render the job, modern Windows uses the Remote Desktop Easy Print driver. The server does not need the printer manufacturer's driver. It hands the job back to your local computer, and your local driver does the real printing. That is why redirection usually works without installing anything on the server.

Turn on printer redirection in the client

1. Press Win + R, type mstsc and press Enter.
2. Click Show Options and enter your server as 203.0.113.10:3389.
3. Open the Local Resources tab.
4. Under Local devices and resources, tick Printers.
5. Go back to the General tab and click Save so the setting sticks for this connection.
6. Click Connect.

If you keep connections in an .rdp file, the matching line is:

redirectprinters:i:1

Inside the session, open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners (or Control Panel → Devices and Printers on Windows Server) to see the redirected printers. Print a test page from Notepad to confirm.

Check the server policy settings

If the client setting is on but no printers appear, a policy on the server may block them. Open the Local Group Policy Editor on the server:

1. Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.
2. Go to Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Remote Desktop Services → Remote Desktop Session Host → Printer Redirection.
3. Check these settings:

• Do not allow client printer redirection: should be Not configured or Disabled.
• Use Remote Desktop Easy Print printer driver first: Not configured or Enabled gives the most reliable result.
• Do not set default client printer to be default printer in a session: leave Not configured unless you want a different default.

1. Also check Device and Resource Redirection in the same branch for anything that blocks devices.
2. Apply the change, then refresh policy:

gpupdate /force

Sign out of the RDP session completely and connect again. Disconnecting is not enough, because redirected printers are built at logon.

Make sure the Print Spooler is running

Redirected printers need the Print Spooler service on the server. Some hardening guides tell you to disable it. Check it in PowerShell as Administrator:

Get-Service Spooler

If it shows Stopped or the start type is disabled, turn it back on:

Set-Service Spooler -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service Spooler

Check it works

1. Connect with Printers ticked.
2. In PowerShell inside the session, list printers:

   Get-Printer | Format-Table Name, DriverName

You should see your local printers with redirected in the name and a driver such as Remote Desktop Easy Print.

1. Print one page from Notepad. It should come out of your local printer within a few seconds.

Print to PDF as a fallback

When redirection is blocked or a printer refuses to cooperate, print to a file instead:

1. In the print dialog on the server, choose Microsoft Print to PDF.
2. Save the PDF to a redirected drive such as \\tsclient\C\Users\you\Desktop, or to a server folder you later copy down.
3. Open and print the PDF on your local computer.

This also works from a Mac or a phone, where printer redirection is more limited. See Share local drives with your server over Remote Desktop to set up the redirected folder.

Troubleshooting

• No redirected printers at all: the Printers box was off, a server policy blocks redirection, or the Print Spooler is stopped. Check all three, then sign out and back in.
• Only some printers appear: some older or vendor-specific drivers do not work with Easy Print. Update the local driver, or print to PDF and print from your own computer.
• Jobs sit in the queue and never print: check the local printer is online and has no stuck jobs. Clear the local queue, then try again.
• Printing is very slow: large graphics-heavy jobs travel over your internet link. Print to PDF and print locally, or tune the link with Speed up Remote Desktop on a slow connection.
• Mac client shows no printers: Windows App printer support differs from mstsc. Use Print to PDF into a redirected folder.

Next steps

• Move files between your computer and the server: Share local drives over Remote Desktop.
• Copy text and files quickly: Copy and paste over RDP.