Hi guys, I have the following:

• several 2008 R2 RDS servers
• connecting to queues on a windows 2008 SP2 x64 print server
• print queues running the HP Universal Print Driver v 5.3

I'm trying to offload rendering to the beefy print server. To test this, I setup a test queue using the HP UPD and turned of the 'Render Print Jobs on Client Computer' setting on the queue. I paused the queue and did the following:

• connected to the test queue
• printed several jobs
• examined the spool file sitting in the paused queue

Now when I look at the properties of the job in the paused queue it says it is in RAW format which would indicate to me that CSR is still in place. If I use the Citrix Universal Printer the job is sent in EMF (as the CPUD cannot use CSR). I then tried to disable CSR using group policy on the RDS servers but the same results. Can anyone offer an explanation on this?

• Edited by shocko Monday, December 30, 2013 4:50 PM

The last information I have from HP is the UPD requires local print job rendering and never generates EMF formatted data.

I assume you have already contacted HP to confirm their software design.

Hi Alan,

I don't have a support contract with them but I have approached support. I wouldn't be to hopeful of response though. It would be a pretty bad design if it were the case that MS have a group policy that states it disables all client side rendering yet a driver manufacturer can smply choose to ignore it :(

I can also have a policy to write robust print drivers.  The vendor can choose to ignore this as well :(

Print Driver stuff is always Opt In.

Are there any of the shares you have that can use a driver other than HP's UPD?

At MS we never use the UPD driver (for a number of reasons).  But we also have some influence so they create model specific print drivers for our use.

Not MS bashing as I love what you guys do :)

I guess we could look at using device specific drivers for our HP MFPs but both the implementing vendor and HP recommended the HP UPD which we use exclusively accross all the HP MFPs we have and have no issue with printing which is great. In our old RDS/Citrix implementation we had 100+ drivers and they were a nightmare (mostly due to the fact our RDS Servers were 2003 with some kernel mode drivers and no print host isolation) so I'd hate to go back to that setup. Also, the device specific drivers might not opt in either meaning I'd be getting CSR anyways. We notice for some other vendors that disabling CSR returns a good chunk of CPU cycles to the RDS servers that can be used for the users apps whilst our beefy print servers handles the driver specific stuff. I'll try and chase up with HP but I cannot believe they would not document this 'design'  in the UPD guide. CSR great for single user PCs but not for multi-user RDS servers in my (albeit limited) experience.

You can BASH on kernel mode. 

We have the LJ and CLJ based MFPs 9040, 9050, 9500, 8600, 9500, 4730, 4540.

I never asked HP why they did not support EMF rendering in the UPD, I assumed it was due to the number of supported models.

I thought we are moving to the "Less Paper" office environment.  I want to trademark "Less Paper". The "paperless" office never materialized.

Thanks Alan,

Excuse my ignorance but does all printing in Windows not start out with a file in EMF format at some stage before being passed for further processing by the print processor/driver ?

PS: Lol on the paper less office! I wish :)

Hi Alan, apologies for digging this up again but it's been landed at my desk again :). Reading here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/02/10/ws2008-client-side-rendering.aspx It indicates that if the job properties on the job in the print queue indicate RAW then CSR is enabled. However, I have disabled CSR on a test queue using the HP UPD and also disabled all CSR on the W7 client via GPO. i print a test job and the job type on the queue is RAW but the event log on the W& cleint says CSR is not in use. Would the comment in the MS blog about the job type be true in your experience?

HP's UPD is rather special, it will never send EMF format to the server. It will only render on the client and produces PDL for the specific device.   I'd say as far as the spooler knows Microsoft's version of CSR is disabled. HP takes over within the driver and they can do pretty much whatever they want. 

Thanks Alan.