This article includes useful information about communicating with USB devices connected to your local/physical PC from your virtual desktop (vDesktop).
The two types of connection discussed are RDP and PCoIP and the emphasis is mainly on Printers.
RDP
Windows XP
Due to the limited drivers recognized by Windows XP the following steps may be required before you can successfully connect to your local printer etc. from a virtual XP desktop :
If the HP installer does not recognize its own virtual USB driver, USB support will have to be disabled before running the install as follows (Thanks to Highlandery who put this on a Microsoft post.)
1) Run the HP installation package executable (e.g. OJP8500vA909_full_12_en.exe)
2) When asked to choose the extract directory, make a note of where it is installed. Easiest way would be to tell it to extract to a folder named HP on the Desktop.
3) Navigate to the extracted installation folder (using Desktop\HP in this example)
4) Go to the "Setup" subdirectory (Desktop\HP\Setup)
5) Move, delete or rename the Intel USB System Check utility (usbready.exe)
6) Double click the Setup executable in the main extraction folder (Desktop\HP\Setup.exe)
In my installer I don't get to choose the extract folder but found the file here and renamed before clicking the next steps in the installer:
C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Temp\7zS6287\setup
Once you have successfully installed a printer driver, you then have to get the printer drivers installed in the correct place in Windows is by installing a dummy local printer
(Thank to Ross Whitney) Source: Proposed Solution (http://s.tt/137Vk)
1. Firstly verify if you need to install the printer driver on the remote PC by checking that the printer driver is the problem as described in the symptoms section of this article.
The easiest way to get the printer drivers installed in the correct place in Windows is by installing a dummy local printer on the Remote PC.
2. Click Start > Printer & Faxes
3. Click Add Printer
4. Click Next > select Local Printer
5. Uncheck Automatically detect and install my plug and play printer > Click Next
6. Select a Printer Port: select Use the following port: FILE: (print to file) > Click Next
7. Click Have Disk
8. Browse to the location of the printer driver for the printer you are trying to use, select the INF file and click OK
You will probably have to download the printer driver from the manufacturers website to the remote PC and store them in a folder somewhere convenient such as the desktop. Links to the major printer manufacturers driver download pages are available below.
9. Select the printer from the list and click Next
10.Give the printer a name select that it should not be the default printer > Click Next
11. Select Do Not Share This Printer > Click Next
12. Do not print a test page (it’s only a dummy printer!) > Click Next
13. Click Finish – Windows will now copy all the required drivers and complete the install.
14. Disconnect from your RDC session by clicking Start > Disconnect
15. Reconnect to the remote PC through RDC
Check the Printers list – you should have 2 printers installed now (in addition to any other printers on the remote PC of course); the dummy one and the real one.
You should be able to tell the real one from the dummy one because the dummy one will have a little picture of a disk beside the printer icon.
Windows 7
The standard RDP connections will work fine for most USB connected devices (especially Printers) when connecting to a Windows 7 vDesktop.
PCoIP
The standard PCoIP connections will work fine for most USB connected devices (especially Printers) when connecting to a Windows 7 vDesktop.
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