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Legacy Options Reference

ScrewDrivers maintains support for two legacy printer management approaches that predate the current ScrewDrivers Direct architecture: Local and Network printers, and PDF printers. While most new deployments should use ScrewDrivers Direct for its superior flexibility and management capabilities, these legacy options remain available for organizations with existing configurations or specific use cases that benefit from their simpler approach. This reference documents how to configure and manage these legacy printer types.

Overview​

Local and Network printers provide a lighter-weight alternative to ScrewDrivers Direct that focuses on simple native queue management. You'll typically use this approach when you need to reference Windows-shared printers—either local printers installed directly on an application server, or network printers that are shared over your network but not managed through a print server. The configuration process is straightforward: add the printer object to the ScrewDrivers database, configure its properties, and assign it to users.

PDF printers use the ScrewDrivers PDF driver to let users create and export PDF files from any application that supports printing. When you assign a PDF printer to a user, they can "print" from any application, and the output becomes a PDF file that can be saved to a specified location or physically printed. PDF printers offer additional configuration options for controlling how and where PDF files are saved.

Local Printers​

A local printer is one that's installed directly on your application server. In ScrewDrivers, you'll create a Local Printer object in the database that references this Windows-shared printer, then assign that object to the users who need access to it.

Creating Local Printer Objects​

Start in ScrewDrivers Administration with the Objects pane set to Printer objects. You might need to click the Printers icon on the icon bar to switch to this view. Before adding a new printer, you can expand the Local Printers folder to see what local printer objects already exist, or use the search function to find specific printers.

Click Add Printer in the Objects pane. The Add a New Printer dialog opens, displaying icons for each printer type you can create. Click the Local Printer icon—if you're unsure which icon represents which printer type, hold your mouse pointer over an icon to see a tooltip with its name.

The New Local Printer dialog opens. You'll need to provide two pieces of information:

  • Name: This is how the printer appears in the Objects pane in ScrewDrivers Administration. Choose something descriptive that helps you identify this printer when managing assignments.
  • Printer Name: This is what users will see when they access the printer. The name should include the full printer mapping to the server, like \\server1\HP2025.

Click Add to create the printer object. It appears immediately in the Local Printers folder. You might need to expand the folder to see it.

Configuring Local Printer Properties​

Select the newly created Local Printer object in the Objects pane. The Information pane displays the printer's configuration form, with the General tab open by default. The form organizes all printer settings into tabs.

On the General tab, you can configure these Printer Properties:

  • Printer Name: The UNC path users will see. You specified this during creation, but you can edit it here if needed.
  • Location: An optional free-text field for the printer's physical location, like "Corporate, 5th floor." This helps users identify which printer they're using.
  • Comment: Another optional free-text field for any additional information about the printer.
  • Shared As: This field lets you specify an alternate share name if needed.

The Driver tab lists all drivers available on your terminal server. Select the device driver that matches your printer hardware, then click Refresh Drivers if you need to update the list after installing new drivers.

The Printer Port tab shows available communication port types. The port must physically exist on the terminal server for the printer to be created successfully. You'll choose one of three port types:

  • Local Port: For printers connected directly to the server
  • ICA Port: For Citrix ICA sessions
  • RDP Port: For Microsoft RDP sessions

After selecting the port type, choose the specific port from the list that appears.

Printer Naming Conventions​

The Printer Naming tab controls how the printer appears to users in their sessions. By default, ScrewDrivers uses the format "Printer Name (MACHINE:SESSION)," but you can customize this to match your organization's naming standards.

You have three approaches to printer naming:

Use a Default Naming Scheme: Simply select one of the predefined naming formats from the dropdown. These cover the most common naming conventions.

Edit a Default Naming Scheme: Start with a predefined format, then customize it:

  1. Select the base naming scheme
  2. Optionally enable "Limit name component lengths" and set maximum character limits for Printer, Machine, and User components (default is 10 characters each)
  3. Optionally configure character replacement rules—for instance, if you select "Replace backslashes (\) in the printer name with _," every backslash becomes an underscore. You can change the replacement character to something else like an asterisk (*).

Create a Custom Naming Scheme: Build your own format from scratch:

  1. Select "Custom" from the scheme dropdown
  2. Construct your format using Session ID and one or more of these components: Printer, Machine Name, and User. You can use one component ("Machine Name"), two components ("Machine Name" and "Printer"), or all three.
  3. Important: Always include Session ID in your format. Users can log into multiple sessions simultaneously, and omitting Session ID can create naming conflicts.
  4. Optionally apply component length limits and character replacement rules just as you would with a default scheme.

Special characters other than exclamation points (!), backslashes (\), or periods (.) are allowed in custom naming schemes.

Once you've configured all properties, click Save to apply your changes.

Assigning Local Printers​

After configuring the printer, you'll assign it to users. In the Objects pane, select your newly created local printer and drag it to the appropriate owner in the Assignments pane. If the owner doesn't exist in your Active Directory yet, you can create it using the Network owners management function.

Network Printers​

Network printers in ScrewDrivers refer to printers that are shared over your network but not managed through a dedicated print server. The configuration process is nearly identical to local printers, with a few key differences in how you specify the printer location.

Creating Network Printer Objects​

With the Objects pane set to Printer objects, you can expand the Network Printers folder to see existing network printer objects or search for specific ones before adding new printers.

Click Add Printer, then select the Network Printer icon from the Add a New Printer dialog. The New Network Printer dialog opens.

Provide these two fields:

  • Name: How the printer appears in the Objects pane for administrative purposes
  • UNC Path: The network path identifying the printer, like \\server2\HP1525

Click Add to create the printer object. It appears in the Network Printers folder—expand the folder if you need to see it.

Configuring Network Printer Properties​

Select your new Network Printer object. The Information pane shows the configuration form, which has only a General tab for network printers (they're simpler than local printers because the network already handles driver and port details).

You can configure:

  • UNC Printer Path: The network location you specified during creation. You can edit this if the printer moves or if you made a typo.
  • Map Printer Name to LPT1 at Login: Enable this checkbox to automatically map the network printer to the user's LPT1 port when they log into the terminal server. This is useful for legacy applications that expect printers on specific ports.

Click Save to apply your configuration, then assign the printer to users by dragging it from the Objects pane to the appropriate owner in the Assignments pane.

Printer Naming for Network Printers​

Network printers use the same Printer Naming tab configuration as local printers. Refer to the "Printer Naming Conventions" section under Local Printers for complete details on default, edited, and custom naming schemes.

PDF Printers​

PDF printers use the ScrewDrivers PDF driver to let users create Portable Document Format files from any application. PDFs are universally supported across operating systems including Windows, macOS, Linux, and UNIX, making them ideal for document exchange and archival.

When you create and assign a PDF printer to a user, they can "print" from any PDF-capable application. The output can be saved to the Session Agent's file system, potentially with administrator-controlled defaults for save location and file-handling behavior, or it can be sent to a physical printer.

Creating PDF Printer Objects​

Start with the Objects pane set to Printer objects. Expand the PDF Printers folder to see existing PDF printer objects if you want to check what's already configured.

Click Add Printer, then select the PDF Printer icon from the Add a New Printer dialog. The New PDF Printer dialog opens.

Enter a descriptive name for the PDF Printer object—users will see this name in their printer lists—then click Add. The printer object is created and appears in the PDF Printers folder.

Configuring PDF Export Options​

Select your new PDF Printer object to open its configuration form in the Information pane. The General tab contains export configuration options that control how PDF files are handled when users print to this printer.

If users will physically print PDFs from this printer without saving intermediate files, you can skip the export configuration and proceed directly to printer naming. However, if you want PDFs saved to the Session Agent before printing (or instead of printing), you'll configure the Export PDF file to server options.

PDF export options use a three-level permission model:

  • Deny: Users can't enable the option or change its settings. Use this to completely prevent certain behaviors.
  • Force: The option is enabled and configured by you, and users can't change it. Use this to mandate specific settings.
  • Suggest: You define default settings, but users can override them at print time. Use this to provide sensible defaults while allowing flexibility.

When you select Force or Suggest, you must also provide the default value for that option.

Save Mode Options​

Save Mode determines how users specify where the PDF file should be saved:

  • Display Save Dialog: Users see a standard file save dialog and choose where to save each PDF. This gives them maximum flexibility but requires interaction for every print job.
  • Use Input Pathname: PDFs automatically save to a predefined location you specify in the Destination field. This is ideal for standardized workflows where all PDFs go to a specific folder.

Destination only applies when Save Mode is set to Use Input Pathname. Enter the full path where PDFs should be saved. You can use Windows variables in the path—click the Help button next to this field to see a complete list of supported variables, including user-specific and session-specific variables.

If File Exists controls what happens when a PDF is being saved to a location where a file with that name already exists. This option only applies when using Use Input Pathname. You have four choices:

  • Overwrite: The new PDF automatically replaces the existing file without prompting the user
  • Prompt: The user sees a dialog asking whether to overwrite, rename, or cancel the operation
  • Cancel: The save operation is canceled automatically, and the existing file remains unchanged
  • Append: The new PDF content is added to the end of the existing file, creating a single combined PDF

Choose the behavior that matches your workflow requirements. Overwrite is appropriate for temporary PDFs or when you always want the latest version. Prompt gives users control over conflict resolution. Cancel prevents accidental overwrites. Append is useful for creating cumulative PDF archives.

Printer Naming for PDF Printers​

PDF printers use the same Printer Naming tab configuration as local and network printers. The default format is "Printer Name (MACHINE:SESSION)," but you can customize it using any of the three approaches: default scheme, edited default scheme, or custom scheme. See the "Printer Naming Conventions" section under Local Printers for complete details.

After configuring all properties, click Save, then assign the PDF printer to users by dragging it from the Objects pane to the appropriate owner in the Assignments pane.

Migration Considerations​

If you're managing an existing ScrewDrivers deployment that uses Local, Network, or PDF printers, these configurations will continue to work indefinitely. However, when planning infrastructure upgrades or new printer deployments, consider migrating to ScrewDrivers Direct, which offers:

  • Centralized Driver Management: Import drivers once into the database instead of installing them on every server
  • Automated Printer Discovery: Network scanning automatically finds compatible printers
  • Printer Profiles: Enforce consistent default settings across all user sessions
  • Dynamic Assignments: More flexible rules for which users get which printers based on location, group membership, or other criteria

You don't need to migrate all at once—ScrewDrivers supports running legacy printer types and ScrewDrivers Direct simultaneously in the same environment, letting you transition gradually as resources and priorities allow.