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AxmanNZ

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Cannot set Default Printer in Citrix session or via RDP - No black tick

I am running Windows 2003 with the latest updates as at 19/10/2005, with Presentation Server 4.0 with the latest hotfixes from Citrix as at 19/10/2005.
Today random users on random servers got the error "no default printer set" when launching published applications.
When publishing the printers folder and taking a look I do NOT see any BLACK TICK designating a default printer.
If I right click a printer in the list and choose the set a default option - nothing happens. No default printer is set. No black tick even after a refresh.
No error in the event log.
If I then log the user in to any other server the problem still persists.
If I log in using RDP the problem still persists.
and then all of a sudden after logging in and out a dozen or so times I am finally able to set the default printer.
This has only started happening in the last couple of days.
The only thing that has changed to my knowledge is the addition of 2 new Citrix servers with updated Windows and Citrix patch levels on them.
The problem happens on the new AND the old Citrix servers.

All advice welcome.

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chadd25

I have no idea what is causing this.  I assign default printers via logon scripts though...  
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ASKER

I also map printers via login script.
Script maps printers based on the users subnet, and hasn't had any problems in the past.
It does map the printers fine - they are all there in the printers folder.
Just the set default printer option seems unuseable.

The problem seems to have slowly subsided during the day and I have resolved a lot by doing the following.

1.) Delete the users roaming profile
2.) Exit all Citrix apps in their session
3.) Restrict the drivers that can be mapped by setting a list in the Presentation Server Console and enabling "Allow only drivers in the list". This gave me a message that there were some incompatible drivers being allowed in the Farm that would have to be removed. Possibly a pointer to the cause of the issue?
4.) Disallowing all printer drivers that were not allowed in our old Metaframe XP FR3 Farm that works fine. (Removed over 20 new drivers that could have been causing problems)
5.)Log the user back in and set their default printer. (This now seemed to work after the above steps)

However I am not confident this problem will not come back tomorrow.

Another symptom has been random server reboots during the day.
Error logs show a STOP error. (error code relates to driver crash)

I have disabled "Delete Cached copies of Roaming Profiles on Exit" policy as this remedies / masks a problem with slow logons on the PS4 servers at the "Applying Document Settings" section.

I have allowed the "Device - Allow users to install local Print Drivers" policy on the servers - thinking that this would assist in troubleshooting printer problems in the user profiles in the future.
The default for this setting is DISABLED.


After putting this down in typing I can see a lot of my problems are probably caused by setting a very loose printer driver policy on the farm.
Allowing any driver to install and expecting it to work.
I will be disabling the Allow users to install Drivers policy in the morning, along with updating the Citrix Policy via the PSC to prevent automatic driver installations.

Perhaps a corrupt driver has been installed, not allowing the Printer Mapping process to complete during logon - thus leaving the print engine in some kind of semi - active state, half way through a printer mapping.
I assume you would not be able to set a default printer until all mappings have completed?

Still looking for someone who has seen this issue.
I have found this exact issue using Google Searches for half a dozen different people so far.
But the closest thing I can get to a remedy is "Uninstall Windows 2003 SP1" which I am not prepared to do.



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Have disabled the "Start this application without waiting for printers to be created" on all my published apps.
(We run published apps not desktops here) but this does not seem to have resolved the issue.
Thanks for the heads up though.

The stop error is a 1000008e from memory.
I've logged another seperate question about the STOP errors under OS, with the MiniDump file attached.

Still getting random users with the problem today.
Deleting their roaming and cached copies of their roaming profiles on the servers then setting their default again seems to resolve it for them.
However I am not sure if the problem will come back again, as I am getting calls all throughout the day with NEW instances of this problem.
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ASKER

Found this post in Experts-Exchange:
Question Title: Not able to select a a printer and set it as a default in Windows 2003 Server with Citrix Presentation 3.0
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Mentions my exact problem and the fact that some users profiles were not getting the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WINDOWS key set in their registry.

Plus the problem has come back for some users I fixed a couple of days ago, so its not a one off profile corruption.

Something else I am considering is I introduced 2 DL360 G1 Compaq/HP servers into the Citrix Farm around the same time this started happening.
They were both upgraded from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003... These are the only 2 servers built this way.
They just hung when booting off the Windows 2003 CD so I tried inplace upgrades to get around the problem.

Im wondering if the users are getting profile corruption when logging in to these servers.

In fact NOW im certain there's an issue with these servers as the WINDOWS directory is changed to WINNT on the 2000 upgraded servers.
This cant be good, if the profile is expecting things in the WINDOWS directory.

Still looking for a viable cause and solution to this problem.
All ideas welcome.
This is becoming a real pain in the neck.
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Citrix released a new patch recently, so im applying this tonight as well.
Will keep you posted.
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ASKER

O.K.
Both 2000 upgraded servers removed.
Latest patch applied from Citrix.
All servers are at the same patch level.
Apps are waiting for all printers to be mapped.
I've cleared the Citrix Polices so nothing is affecting things there.

I STILL HAVE THE PROBLEM!

Anyone?
Help?


what happens if you create a policy for the printers and assign a session printer and set it to be the users default?
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ASKER

O.K.
I might have the answer.
We are running UPHCLEAN on our Citrix servers.
Seems to work fine on WIndows 2000... but
Our 2003 servers with SP1 don't seem to play well.
We've uninstalled it and are waiting to see if it fixes the problem.
UPHCLEAN cleans up Registry Hives when users profiles get unloaded on Terminal Servers / Citrix Servers.
Im thinking the new DSP stuff in SP1 might clash with this.
I'll keep you posted.
I encountered a similar problem where the default printer could not be set for any user.  After working on registry permissions and all the other items people have mentioned to fix it had no luck.  Decided to change the registry setting that we made to redirect the Documents and Settings folder and that fixed the problem.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
the ProfilesDirectory key changed from d:\documents and settings back to %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings