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Your First ScrewDrivers Essentials Deployment

Welcome to ScrewDrivers! This tutorial walks you through your very first deployment of ScrewDrivers Essentials. By the end, you'll have a working print management system routing print jobs in a virtual desktop or terminal services environment.

What You'll Learn​

By completing this tutorial, you'll have:

  • Installed ScrewDrivers Print Server on a Windows server
  • Deployed the ScrewDrivers client to a test workstation or session
  • Created your first printer mapping
  • Successfully printed a test page through ScrewDrivers
  • Gained foundational understanding of how ScrewDrivers routes print jobs

What You'll Need​

Before starting, make sure you have:

  • A Windows Server (2016 or later) with administrator access
  • A test workstation or virtual session (Windows 10/11, Citrix, VMware, or RDS)
  • At least one printer already installed and accessible from the server
  • Basic Windows administration skills (installing software, managing services)
  • About 60 minutes to complete the tutorial

Prerequisites​

This tutorial assumes you're familiar with:

  • Installing Windows applications
  • Basic Windows Server administration
  • How printing normally works in Windows environments

If you're evaluating ScrewDrivers, you can use a test environment with virtual machines.

Tutorial Overview​

We'll take this step by step, building your print management infrastructure piece by piece. Don't worry if you're not a ScrewDrivers expert yet—this tutorial is designed specifically for first-time users.

What We'll Build Together​

You'll set up a simple but complete print management system:

  1. Install the Print Server - The core routing engine that manages print jobs
  2. Configure Your First Printer - Teach ScrewDrivers about available printers
  3. Deploy the Client Application - What end users interact with
  4. Test Your Configuration - Print a real document and watch it work
  5. Understand What Just Happened - Learn how the components work together

By the end, you'll have a working system and understand the fundamentals that make ScrewDrivers powerful.

Step 1: Install ScrewDrivers Print Server​

The Print Server is the heart of ScrewDrivers. It runs as a Windows service and handles all print job routing.

Download the Installer​

  1. Log into the Tricerat Support Portal
  2. Navigate to Downloads → ScrewDrivers Essentials
  3. Download the latest Print Server installer (.msi file)
  4. Save it to your Windows Server

Run the Installation​

  1. Launch the installer by double-clicking the .msi file
  2. Accept the license agreement after reviewing it
  3. Choose installation location (default is usually fine: C:\Program Files\Tricerat\ScrewDrivers)
  4. Click Install and wait for the process to complete
  5. Click Finish when installation completes

The installer automatically:

  • Installs the Print Server service
  • Creates necessary registry entries
  • Configures Windows Firewall rules
  • Starts the service

Verify Installation​

Let's confirm everything installed correctly:

  1. Open Services (services.msc)
  2. Find "Tricerat ScrewDrivers Print Server" in the list
  3. Verify the status shows "Running"

If the service isn't running, right-click it and select Start.

Success checkpoint: The ScrewDrivers Print Server service is running on your Windows Server.

Step 2: Configure Your First Printer​

Now we'll tell ScrewDrivers about a printer it can use. We'll use the simplest approach for this first tutorial.

Locate an Available Printer​

  1. Open Devices and Printers on your Windows Server
  2. Note the name of a printer you want to use (e.g., "HP LaserJet Office")
  3. Verify it's working by printing a test page from Windows

For this tutorial, any working printer is fine. It can be:

  • A physical printer on the network
  • A virtual PDF printer
  • A locally-connected USB printer

Create a Printer Mapping​

With ScrewDrivers Essentials, printer configuration happens through configuration files. Don't worry—we'll make this easy.

  1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Tricerat\ScrewDrivers\Config\
  2. Open printers.ini in Notepad (as Administrator)
  3. Add a printer entry:
[Printer1]
Name=Office Printer
ServerPrinter=HP LaserJet Office
Enabled=True
Default=True

Replace "HP LaserJet Office" with your actual printer name from Windows.

What this means:

  • Name: What users will see in their print dialog
  • ServerPrinter: The actual Windows printer name on your server
  • Enabled: Makes this printer available
  • Default: Makes it the default printer for users
  1. Save the file
  2. Restart the ScrewDrivers Print Server service to load the new configuration

Verify Printer Configuration​

  1. Check the service log at C:\Program Files\Tricerat\ScrewDrivers\Logs\
  2. Look for an entry indicating your printer was loaded
  3. Verify there are no error messages

Success checkpoint: ScrewDrivers knows about your printer and it's enabled.

Step 3: Deploy the Client Application​

The client application runs on user workstations or sessions. It intercepts print jobs and routes them through ScrewDrivers.

Download the Client​

  1. Return to the Tricerat Support Portal
  2. Download the ScrewDrivers Essentials Client installer
  3. Copy it to your test workstation or session

Install the Client​

  1. Run the client installer on the test machine
  2. When prompted for server address, enter your Print Server's hostname or IP
  3. Complete the installation
  4. Restart the workstation/session if prompted

Verify Client Connection​

  1. Log into your test session
  2. Open Devices and Printers
  3. Look for your "Office Printer" (or whatever name you configured)

You should see the printer from ScrewDrivers appear, even though it's not locally installed on this machine. That's ScrewDrivers working!

Success checkpoint: The client is connected and shows printers from ScrewDrivers.

Step 4: Test Your First Print Job​

Let's print something and watch it work.

  1. Open Notepad on your test workstation
  2. Type a simple message: "This is my first ScrewDrivers print job!"
  3. Click File → Print
  4. Select "Office Printer" from the printer list
  5. Click Print

Watch What Happens​

The document should print to your configured printer. Here's what happened behind the scenes:

  1. Application sent print job to the ScrewDrivers virtual printer
  2. Client intercepted it and sent it to the Print Server
  3. Print Server received the job and looked up routing rules
  4. Print Server sent the job to the actual physical printer
  5. Printer produced your document

Troubleshooting if It Didn't Work​

Printer doesn't appear in the list?

  • Check that the client service is running
  • Verify the server address in client configuration
  • Check firewall rules between client and server

Print job doesn't print?

  • Verify the printer name matches exactly in printers.ini
  • Check that the printer is working from the server itself
  • Review logs at C:\Program Files\Tricerat\ScrewDrivers\Logs\

Success checkpoint: You've successfully printed through ScrewDrivers!

Step 5: Understanding What You Built​

Let's take a moment to understand how the pieces work together.

The Architecture​

You just created a simple but complete print management system:

User Workstation              Windows Server                Physical Printer
┌─────────────────┐          ┌─────────────────┐          ┌─────────────┐
│ Application     │          │                 │          │             │
│      ↓          │          │                 │          │             │
│ ScrewDrivers    │─────────→│  Print Server   │─────────→│  Printer    │
│ Client          │          │                 │          │             │
└─────────────────┘          └─────────────────┘          └─────────────┘

The client acts as a virtual printer driver. It captures print jobs and sends them to the Print Server. The Print Server then routes them to the appropriate physical printer.

Why This Matters​

In traditional environments, every session needs printer drivers installed. With ScrewDrivers:

  • No drivers needed on client machines or sessions
  • Centralized management of all printers
  • Consistent printing across all user sessions
  • Easy to add new printers without touching individual machines

This is especially powerful in:

  • Virtual desktop environments (Citrix, VMware, AVD)
  • Terminal Services / Remote Desktop Services
  • Environments with many printers or frequent changes

Next Steps​

Congratulations! You've successfully deployed ScrewDrivers Essentials and routed your first print job. You're ready to explore more features.

Continue Learning​

Next tutorial: Configuring Your First Printer - Learn about printer properties, preferences, and user-specific settings.

Related tutorials:

Expand Your Deployment​

Ready to move beyond the test environment?

  • Add more printers by adding entries to printers.ini
  • Deploy to additional clients by installing the client on more machines
  • Configure printer properties to control defaults and restrictions
  • Review logs to understand print job flow

Get Help​

If you run into issues:

Consider Upgrading​

If you need advanced features like:

  • Web-based admin console
  • SQL database for centralized management
  • Advanced printer assignment rules
  • Detailed reporting and analytics

Explore ScrewDrivers Pro or Enterprise editions. These tutorials helped you understand the fundamentals that apply across all editions.

What You Accomplished​

Take a moment to appreciate what you just built:

✅ Installed and configured a print management server ✅ Deployed client software to a test environment ✅ Created printer mappings and routing rules ✅ Successfully printed through ScrewDrivers ✅ Understood the basic architecture and data flow

You now have the foundation to manage print infrastructure efficiently. Welcome to the world of modern print management!