Terminal Services printer redirection not signaled on change to server-side Device Settings tab in Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003

When you start a Terminal Services session with a local printer connected to your client computer, a redirected print queue is created in the Terminal Services session for your local printer. The print queue uses a set of default printer settings that are determined by Terminal Services. The local printer settings that you define or change offline are not used by Terminal Services.

In the Terminal Services session, you can modify the printer settings for your redirected printer if you have the required privileges (for example, you are a member of the Print Administrators group). The changes that you make in the Terminal Services session are persistent; the printer configuration changes are cached on the client computer for subsequent reconnections. When you reconnect, Terminal Services detects the printer configuration settings that are cached on the client computer and uses them.

Under some circumstances, changes that you make on the printer's Device Settings tab do not persist when you reconnect. The printer configuration information may seem to be lost.

The current printing model does not support detecting changes to the Device Settings tab for each redirected printer.

To work around this behavior:

1. When you are using a Terminal Services session, make the changes that you want on the printer's Device Settings tab for the redirected Terminal Services print queue, then make a change on another tab for the printer. By making the change on another tab, the server is notified that there has been a configuration change. This causes the server to rebuild all cached information, including information from the Device Settings tab.
2. After you make the configuration change, do not log out or disconnect from the Terminal Services session within the next 60 seconds. This allows Terminal Services to make the configuration change persistent.

This behavior is by design.

Note that you can also manage printers from the Terminal Services-based server.