Citrix has had a very busy year. After the release of XenApp and XenDesktop 7.16 in November of 2017, four new versions were released throughout 2018 – XA/XD 7.17, 7.18, and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1808, and 1811. Wow! From delegated control to the Workspace App, numerous HDX and ICA improvements, LHC, Config Logging, and the list goes on. Release after release brought new and improved features and functionalities, awesome! But what about printing..?
Printing needs to be taken more seriously if you ask me. Here I’m not talking about Citrix in particular but in general. It is still and will continue to be a critical service used by many of your employees/colleagues. Today, and for many more years to come. We all know how that paperless office idea worked out, right?
Let’s dig in a bit deeper and see where printing stands today when it comes to Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop, or Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, as they like to call it these days, starting with the 1808 release. I’ll begin with the last release of 2017 (7.16) and work my way down (or up) from there. I’ve looked beyond the release notes as well, but I’ll get to that in just a minute.
XenApp and XenDesktop 7.16 (November 2017)
- When you install a VDA, you can choose whether to install the Citrix Universal Print Server PDF driver. In the installer’s graphical interface, select or clear a check box on the Additional Component s page. In the command-line interface, use the /exclude “Citrix PDF Printer Driver” option to prevent the installation of that component.
- Plus various fixes on older/various print issues.
XenApp and XenDesktop 7.17 (February 2018)
- The VDA installers no longer offer options to control Universal Print Server PDF printer driver installation. The PDF printer driver is now always installed automatically. When you upgrade to the 7.17 VDA (or a later supported version), any previously installed Citrix PDF printer driver is automatically removed and replaced with the latest version – I see a trend here :)
- Plus various fixes of older/various print issues.
XenApp and XenDesktop 7.18 (June 2018)
- Nothing except for various fixes of older print issues.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1808 (August 2018)
- Printer support for PDFs has been added to users of the Citrix Workspace app for Windows (the Workspace app is part of the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1808 release).
- Nothing else except for various fixes of older print issues.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 1811 (December 2018)
- Nothing except for various fixes of older print issues.
Citrix Workspace app 1812 for Windows (December 2018)
As part of the 1812 release (not to be confused with the 1811 or 1808 releases mentioned above. Version 1811 of the Citrix Workspace app is packaged with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1811. It is not available separately for download) comes Support for PDF printing. To be enabled using Studio.
Nothing to see here, walk on…
If we look at previous years printing got a lot more attention – throughout 2016 and 2017 some relatively big changes/enhancements were made. What’s holding them back now? It’s not that all printing issues have been magically fixed, no, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Perhaps Citrix thinks printing isn’t important anymore? Also no, I’m pretty sure that’s not the case either. I guess that with the primary focus on Cloud developments, priorities have shifted and printing moved down the list a bit. However…
Wait, not so fast
If you do a search for printing on the CTX blogs page, for example, you’ll find at least 5 to 10 articles throughout 2016/2017 and beyond on how UniPrint partnered with Citrix on multiple occasions. Some of the main reasons/subjects include printing from complex enterprise Cloud environments, or overcoming the challenges that come with it, Cloud adoption (printing) strategies, serverless printing, specific healthcare solutions (Epic integration), and some more.
By the way, if you want detailed technical specifics on how (native) Citrix printing works, including some of the options you have to play with, etc. give this extensive cheat sheet a read. I think it will answer most of your questions.
From an architectural point of view, nothing has changed when it comes to (native) Citrix printing. Feature wise it has been rather quiet as well, with a few small exceptions – see below. The folks over at UniPrint however, have been pretty busy. Personally, I think it would be great to see similar functionality built into the Citrix products as well – or some of it anyway – but I guess that ship has sailed already.
Citrix Summit and Microsoft’s WVD
I’m also keen to find out what will be announced during Summit, which is going on right now (though we’ll probably have to wait until after the event, as it seems that they’re not sharing anything with the outside world, it being NDA and all. In contrast to earlier editions when they did share a ton of information, before, during, and after the event). It’s no secret that Citrix will work (in some form) with Microsoft on the upcoming release of the Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) – or has been doing so throughout the last couple of months.
Without going into detail on what they might do there, from a printing perspective it will be interesting to see what happens. Microsoft doesn’t have the best of reputations when it comes to printing (in that respect, Citrix is way ahead) so who knows which third-party (s) they might end up buying (MS, not CTX) or team up with. Of course, ThinPrint is mentioned as one of the WVD software partners, but people like options and UniPrint has been tightly coupled to Citrix throughout the last couple of years. And while we’re at it, Tricerat isn’t doing too bad either.
Attempts have been made by Microsoft in the form of Easy Print and the Hybrid Cloud Printer service, though both are limited in functionality, and far from straightforward to configure. Besides WVD, perhaps Summit will introduce other news on the printing front as well, time will tell.
What else did I find?
I did stumble upon a couple of other Citrix print related articles, which were dated February and June of 2018. By the way, if I missed one or two, do let me know.
- The first post I found (the Feb one) only included two CTX articles fixing certain (older) issues.
- The second one was published on June the 5th of 2018. It’s named ‘Enhanced printing experience with Citrix Receiver for HTML5’. The title pretty much speaks for itself, you can find it here.
- Perhaps less relevant, but the last major update shared by Citrix dates back to March the 30th of 2017. In this article, they explain how the printing subsystem has been enhanced to be much more scalable and stable.
- Citrix has put together a Printing Quick Start Guide (updated in 2018) to get you up and running as quickly a possible, it’s filed under CTX227534 and is published here. From there you’ll also find a couple of other links to supporting CTX documents that might be helpful. Like this one, for example, named: How to use Citrix Policy to Set a Default Session Printer.
- One thing Citrix also did throughout 2018 is updated their printing edocs page. The information on there is still the same with a few small exceptions here and there, but it’s ordered nicely and includes all documentation needed to set up and configure the various printing components available with the Virtual Apps and the Desktop Service products.
- George Spiers (Citrix CTP) has a section on his website called ‘Citrix Fixes’ where he has included a separate section on Citrix printing. I’m not sure how up to date it currently is, but it worth having a look. You’ll find it here. And if that doesn’t satisfy you, make sure to check out the rest of his website as well, he’s a very knowledgeable guy and has some amazing articles on there.
Concluding
While from a technical perspective not a whole lot has changed, they have a strong partner doing the heavy lifting where needed. The Citrix print portfolio that they’ve built throughout the last ten years or so isn’t bad, far from it. I’ve seen it in action multiple times, in various forms, and it works ok in general and great even in some cases. With all that’s (been) going on (Cloud, WVD) it will be interesting to see where this will lead us from a printing perspective – First stop, Citrix Summit (I won’t be here physically, in case you were wondering).
