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ScrewDrivers Endpoint Client

The ScrewDrivers Endpoint Client application provides the client-side interface for managing endpoint printing configurations. While the Session Agent dictates most settings, the client app lets you (and optionally your power users) configure printer priorities, rendering options, session notifications, and caching behavior. This reference details all functions available in the Endpoint Client app across its four main tabs: Printers, General Settings, Logging, and About.

Overview​

The ScrewDrivers Endpoint client installs on every workstation that users connect from to access remote sessions. You don't need to provide regular users access to this app—the Session Agent handles most configuration automatically. However, the app proves valuable for power users who connect to multiple environments and need to adjust settings for specific scenarios, and it's essential for administrators troubleshooting client-side printing issues.

You can automate client configuration by deploying registry settings that mirror the app's settings. Contact support@tricerat.com for assistance with registry-based deployment.

Opening the Endpoint Client App​

To access the application:

  1. Open the Start menu
  2. Navigate to Programs
  3. Click "ScrewDrivers Endpoint Client"

The app opens with the Printers tab active and the tab bar collapsed by default. You can hover over icons to see tooltips showing tab names, or click the hamburger icon to expand the tab bar and view full tab names.

Common Features​

All tabs except About share these characteristics:

Apply button: After making changes on any tab, click Apply in the upper right corner to save your modifications. The Apply action saves all current values across all tabs—you can't save changes on a per-tab basis.

Close button: Click the X in the upper right corner to exit the app after you've applied all needed changes.

Unsaved changes prompt: If you make changes without applying them, the app prompts you to save before switching tabs or exiting.

Printers Tab​

The Printers tab is the default view when you open the Endpoint Client app. It contains options for configuring client printers that will be available during remote sessions.

Printer List and Priority​

The main area displays all printers (locally attached and network) that are currently available and turned on for the client workstation. The list arranges printers in order of decreasing priority, where priority determines which printers get built on the server when printer creation limits are in effect.

To change a printer's priority, click and drag it to a different position in the list. Higher positions mean higher priority—printers at the top of the list get built first when the Session Agent enforces printer limits.

You can also enable or disable individual printers regardless of their priority. When a printer is enabled (turned on), it becomes available during remote sessions after login. When disabled, it won't be built even if it falls within the priority threshold.

Note: Your ScrewDrivers administrator controls printer priority limits through session settings. If an expected printer doesn't appear in your session (including your default printer), contact your system administrator—client-side priority doesn't override administrator-configured limits.

Extended Options - Print Job Settings​

These options control how print jobs are handled and what dialogs users see during printing:

Display Second Print Dialog: By default, the Client Print Spooler dialog doesn't display. When you turn this on, the dialog appears when print jobs begin spooling on the client, giving you access to advanced printing functions like stapling, booklet printing, and hole punching. The availability of these functions depends on your physical printer's capabilities.

Output Separator Page: When enabled, an additional banner page prints with each job containing information about the job (user name, document name, etc.). This helps identify print jobs in shared printer environments.

Extended Options - Print Job Rendering​

These options provide workarounds for printing issues related to fonts, scaling, and graphics. Session Agent settings can override these client options through Force or Deny policies—a client setting applies only if the Session Agent allows (Force or Suggest) it.

When enabled, ScrewDrivers Endpoint converts each page of the print job to BMP format. While this resolves many output issues (especially font-related problems), uncompressed printing uses significant bandwidth.

Caution: Don't automatically choose the default DPI. Each doubling of DPI results in four times the data transmitted. Select the lowest DPI that produces acceptable output—typically 300 DPI is sufficient for most documents.

Note: Although Print-As-Image can resolve output issues, the bandwidth impact makes it unsuitable for all jobs. Use it selectively for problematic documents.

Font Embedding​

When turned on, ScrewDrivers Endpoint embeds temporary font copies or font data in print jobs. Three modes control this behavior:

Embed All Fonts (default): When fonts used in the print job aren't available on the client, ScrewDrivers Endpoint sends temporary copies with the job. After printing completes, the system removes the temporary fonts from the client. This balances compatibility with minimal overhead.

Pre-Render Embedded: When fonts used in the print job aren't available on the client, ScrewDrivers Endpoint sends them as images and integrates the corresponding text back into the job file. This provides better compatibility than Embed All Fonts when font files themselves cause problems.

Pre-Render All: ScrewDrivers Endpoint sends all fonts as images to the client (regardless of whether the font is available) and integrates the corresponding text back into the job file.

Note: You'll typically select Pre-Render All only when Tricerat support directs you to do so. This option helps in situations where client fonts are unreliable, incomplete, or mismatched between the Session Agent and client, but it increases job size and processing overhead.

Max Color Quality​

When enabled, ScrewDrivers Endpoint renders images at the specified color depth. The default is High (TrueColor), which is 24-bit. You can select different values:

  • Medium (HighColor): 16-bit color
  • Low: 8-bit color
  • Monochrome: 1-bit (true black and white)

Note: Lowering color quality reduces document spool size, but output quality suffers. The difference between 24-bit and 16-bit is negligible to most users, but quality degradation becomes more pronounced as you move to lower bit depths. Test lower settings before deploying them widely.

Compress Images​

When turned on, ScrewDrivers Endpoint applies lossy compression to images in the document, providing additional spool size reduction at the expense of image quality. The quality impact varies by image type and content—photographs degrade more noticeably than simple graphics.

Minimize Spool​

Turned on by default. This option breaks large images into multiple smaller chunks, allowing data to stream to the printer faster. The printer can discard each chunk after rendering it, resulting in less memory usage at any given time. This prevents memory exhaustion on printers with limited RAM when processing large or complex documents.

Force Grayscale​

When enabled, all images in the document convert to grayscale (8-bit gray), which reduces file size. Use this when color isn't needed, when printing to monochrome devices, or when you want to conserve bandwidth.

General Settings Tab​

The General Settings tab contains options for configuring remote session behavior and specifying the printer data cache method.

Session Options​

These options control how the client communicates printer changes to active sessions. All session options require Terminal Server (Session Agent) permission to function—if the Session Agent denies these capabilities, the client settings have no effect.

Notify active sessions when the local default printer changes: When turned on, the client sends notifications to the remote machine whenever any information about the default printer changes during a remote session. This includes situations where you set a different printer as default on the client workstation.

The remote session responds to these notifications according to the Session Agent's configuration, potentially updating the default printer in the session to match the client's new default.

Notify active sessions when a printer is added to the workstation: When enabled, the client notifies the remote machine whenever you add a new printer to the client workstation during an active remote session. The Session Agent can then build the new printer in the session automatically (if configured to do so), giving you immediate access without reconnecting.

Notify active sessions when a printer is removed from the workstation: When turned on, the client notifies the remote machine whenever you remove a printer from the client workstation during a remote session. The Session Agent can respond by removing the corresponding printer from the session, keeping your session printer list synchronized with your local configuration.

Force print jobs to print in order received: When enabled, the local print spool processes print jobs in the order received instead of printing spooled documents first (the default Windows behavior). This can help maintain expected print order in specific workflow scenarios, though it may reduce overall printer efficiency.

Force the remote session to see the selected printer as user's default printer: When turned on, a dropdown list displays all available printers for the client workstation. Select the printer that should serve as the default during remote sessions instead of the printer currently set as default on the client workstation.

This option supports scenarios where you need different default printers for local work versus remote sessions—for example, using a local printer for desktop work but defaulting to a network device during remote sessions.

Printer Data Cache Method​

These three mutually exclusive options control how the client stores and retrieves printer information:

Cache to registry: When selected, printer data is stored in the client workstation registry and sent to the remote machine after login. This provides fast printer creation with minimal overhead, but registry-cached data can become stale if printers change frequently.

Do not cache (recommended for double hop servers): Selected by default. Printer data isn't cached—instead, ScrewDrivers Endpoint queries printers at login. While this results in slower printer creation, it's recommended for double hop servers (where the client and Session Agent install on the same machine), such as when you create a remote session from the double hop server to another server.

The no-cache approach ensures printer information is always current, preventing issues with stale data at the cost of slightly slower session startup.

Query Printers button: Click this button to query all enabled printers and save their information to the registry. This lets you manually update the registry cache when you know printer configurations have changed, providing a middle ground between automatic caching and no caching.

Logging Tab​

The Logging tab provides options for diagnostic logging from a ScrewDrivers Endpoint client workstation. This logging information is used for debugging and problem tracking purposes.

Important: Because Tricerat support primarily uses this information, you shouldn't change any default values or use any commands on this tab unless Tricerat Support instructs you to do so. Incorrect logging settings can generate excessive log data, impacting client performance and consuming disk space.

The Logging tab typically includes controls for:

  • Log level (verbosity of logging)
  • Log file location
  • Log file size limits
  • Options to enable/disable specific logging categories
  • Buttons to clear logs or open the log directory

Support staff will guide you through enabling appropriate logging when troubleshooting specific issues. After resolving issues, remember to disable detailed logging to prevent performance impacts.

About Tab​

The About tab provides information about the ScrewDrivers Endpoint client installation and includes options for managing Citrix plugin registration.

Citrix Plugin Registration​

The tab contains an option for registering Tricerat's Citrix plugin, either for the currently logged-in user or for all users. If you must re-register the Citrix plugin, the "For all users" option is generally the better selection—typical end users don't have the correct permissions to execute this action, so user-level registration often fails.

Registration scenarios that might require using this function:

  • After Citrix Workspace updates that affect plugin registration
  • When users report that printing doesn't work in Citrix sessions
  • Following Citrix receiver/workspace reinstallation
  • When instructed by Tricerat support during troubleshooting

Component Information​

The tab displays all DLLs (dynamically linked libraries) installed for the ScrewDrivers Endpoint client, listed alphabetically by name. For each DLL, you'll see:

  • Component name
  • Version number
  • Full installation path (hover your mouse pointer over the name to display a tooltip showing the complete path)

This information helps support staff verify correct installation, identify version mismatches, and troubleshoot component-specific issues.

Help and Support​

The About tab also displays a Help link that provides access to documentation and support resources. Use this link to access:

  • Product documentation
  • Knowledge base articles
  • Support contact information
  • Community forums

Configuration Deployment​

While power users can configure the Endpoint Client app manually, you can automate configuration for your entire organization by deploying registry settings that replicate the app's configuration. This ensures consistent settings across your environment and removes the need for users to access the app at all.

Registry-based deployment supports:

  • Printer priority settings
  • Print job rendering options (Print-As-Image, font embedding, color quality, etc.)
  • Session options (printer change notifications, etc.)
  • Cache method selection
  • Extended options settings

Contact support@tricerat.com for assistance with registry-based deployment, including the specific registry keys and values that correspond to each app setting.

Relationship to Session Agent Settings​

It's crucial to understand that the Session Agent dictates most client behavior through session settings. Client settings apply only when the Session Agent allows them:

Force: The Session Agent requires the setting, overriding whatever the client specifies Deny: The Session Agent prevents the setting, ignoring whatever the client specifies Suggest: The Session Agent allows the client to choose, making client settings effective

This hierarchy ensures administrators maintain control over printing behavior while giving users flexibility where appropriate. When troubleshooting unexpected behavior, always check both the client settings and the session settings assigned to the affected owner to understand which takes precedence.