You are logged into a server through Remote Desktop, the document is on the server, but the printer is sitting next to your own desk. This guide connects the two - first with the printer redirection built into Windows, and then with TSPrint, the method shown in the video for the setups where the built-in way refuses to work.
This is exactly the problem shown in the video. The Printers option is ticked in Remote Desktop Connection, the printer is connected to the client PC and set as default - yet inside the session, pressing Ctrl+P shows only Save as PDF. The local printer never arrives. It happens because redirection has three separate gates, and all three must be open. Work through this guide in order: local test, client setting, server behaviour, Easy Print - and if your setup still refuses, the TSPrint route from the video, which exists precisely for this situation.
Printer
Save as PDF (only entry in the list)
Your local printer is missing - even though Printers was ticked in Remote Desktop Connection before connecting.
When you connect with Remote Desktop, your client PC can offer its printers to the session. Windows then creates a temporary copy of your printer inside the session, named like HP LaserJet (redirected 2) - the number is your session number, so it changes on every login. A print job inside the session travels back through the RDP connection to your PC, and your PC sends it to the real printer. Three things must agree for this to happen: the client must offer the printer, the server must accept redirection, and the printer must exist as a normal working printer on the client first.
Redirection can never fix a printer that is broken on the client itself. Before touching any RDP setting:
In the video the printer is a printer-scanner combo connected to the client and set as its default - that is the correct starting point.
This is the client-side gate, and it must be set before you connect, because redirection is decided at login time:
mstsc and press EnterIf you save your connection as an .rdp file, this setting is stored in it as redirectprinters:i:1. A saved file with the value 0 will silently block redirection every single time.
After logging in, open Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners inside the session (or Devices and Printers on older Windows). Your printer should appear with (redirected 2) after its name. Print a test page from there before testing from any application. If the application you use - Tally, a browser, an office suite - does not list it while the test page works, the problem is inside that application, not in redirection. If the printer is not listed at all, a server policy is the next suspect; that has its own detailed guide linked in the FAQ below.
You may notice the redirected printer works even though you never installed its driver on the server. That is Remote Desktop Easy Print: the server uses one built-in driver for almost every redirected printer and lets the client's own driver do the final rendering. This is why redirection usually needs no driver work at all. Its honest limits: advanced printer features - stapling, special trays, some label and dot-matrix behaviours - may not appear, and very large graphics-heavy jobs can be slow because the rendered data crosses the RDP connection. When Easy Print is not enough, the fallback is installing the exact same driver on the server so the printer maps to its native driver instead - a separate guide below covers doing that safely.
In the video, every built-in gate looks correct and the printer still never appears - so the solution used is TSPrint by TerminalWorks, a tool built only for this job. It does not depend on Windows redirection at all:
Being honest about the trade-off: TSPrint is a commercial product with a free trial, not a free Windows feature - check the vendor's current pricing before planning a rollout. What you get for it is a stable printer name that does not change every session, and printing that keeps working for the odd printer models and old drivers where Easy Print gives up.
services.mscNine times out of ten the answer is sitting in these five lines. If all five pass and it still fails, that is the TSPrint case from Step 5 - not a reason to keep reinstalling drivers.
The video shows the failed built-in redirection first, then the complete TSPrint installation and a live print from the server to the client printer.
▶️ Watch Full VideoBecause ticking the box is only one of three gates. The printer must print locally on the client, the setting must be in place before you log in (redirection is decided at logon, so reconnect after changing it), and the server must not be blocking redirection through policy. If all three are fine and it still fails, that is the situation TSPrint was made for.
No. TSPrint is a commercial product from TerminalWorks with a free trial period, so you can test it in your own setup before paying. Check the vendor's website for current pricing and licensing, which is per server.
Normally no. Remote Desktop Easy Print handles redirected printers with one built-in driver, and TSPrint needs no server-side printer driver at all. Installing the exact matching driver on the server is only the fallback for printers whose special features Easy Print cannot expose.