Printing in Citrix / Terminal Services? Watch what you buy.

Incredible as it may seem, I occasionally screw up. Here’s a recent example. A client wanted to add a small, fast laser printer at her desk so she could print reports from her accounting system. This system is run on a Citrix server, which always makes printing more complicated. Now I knew that many printers, particularly multifunctions and consumer-oriented machines, had trouble running in a Citrix environment. But I assumed (stupidly) that any simple business-class HP LaserJet would do fine. I was wrong.

I wish I had known about Session Computing. They have a ton of information about Citrix and Terminal Server, including several documents from HP about printer compatibility. This particular document shows that the printer I chose — the LaserJet 1018 — is NOT supported in Citrix. Oops. Good thing this printer costs a couple hundred dollars and not a couple thousand.

I’ll know better next time, and I’ll be sure to check with HP before ordering any more printers for this client.

Update 9/6/07: I found a link to a Citrix support site that in turn has a link to the most recent version of the HP printer comptability list. I’ve updated the hyperlink above to point to the Citrix support site.