How can I use Printers shared in Remote Desktop in CR11?

[Former Member]

Hi.  I have Crystal Reports 11.  I am using the VCL for Delphi 7.  There is something happening in my app that I do not understand, nor do I know how to debug what is happening.

Here's the scenario I'm experiencing:

I have a Windows 7 computer.  I have printer drivers installed for two different printers.  One printer is, of course, the default.  I use Remote Desktop to logon to a 2012R2 server.  In the options of remote desktop, I check the box that I want to use my local printers.  On this server, I do not have the printer drivers installed for either printer.  In Windows' Devices and Printers, I see my two printers, with the words "(redirected 2)" in the name displayed.  My application was compiled on a virtual XPMode in Delphi.  The application is installed on the 2012R2 server, including all the runtime libraries required for Crystal.

If I am in notepad, I can print to either printer without trouble. I'm trying to print to the non-default printer in my application with a CR report. My Crystal report appears to "go thru the motions of printing", without displaying an error, but absolutely nothing prints out.  I have access to the ucrpe32.pas file and put in some trace statements in the Execute method.  It seems to go into and come out of the PEStartPrintJob.  In my trace debug statements, I'm displaying the name of the printer and it seems to be correct before the PEStartPrintJob is called.  It says "Myprinter (redirected 2)" and that appears to be my chosen printer.  PEStartPrintJob appears to be inside a dll and I don't know how to debug it further than this.

So, two questions.  If someone happens to know what is going on behind the scenes, can you please shed some light for me?  Or, maybe, tell me how to debug into the crystal dll, with the hopes of figuring this out?

Thanks for reading!

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Hi Debbie

I don't think this will ever work. CR X (v.11.0) I is not supported on WIN 7 or WIN 2012.

CR XI R2 SP 6 (v. 11.5.x) did support WIN 7 (in some rudimentary way anyhow), but 2012 is way beyond even CR XI R2.

Now, I am not sure if when you say you are using CR XI, it is v. 11.0, or v. 11.5 (most people use XI interchangeably which is not accurate so I have to ask).

If you are using CR XI, you can upgrade to CR XI R2 SP 6, see

You would also then have to update your VCL to 11.5 as described here:

Updating the Visual Component Library in Crysta... | SCN

If you do the above, will that resolve your issues? I have no idea as you really are in an untested and unsupported environment.

There is also a series of printing docs available starting with:

The docs are not specific to the VCL, they are actually targeted more for the designer and the CR SDK for .NET. Nevertheless, the information in those docs may come in handy.

My advice would be to move on and use VS .NET and the CR SDK for .NET.

- Ludek

Senior Support Engineer AGS Product Support, Global Support Center Canada

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[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Morning Ludek.  Thanks for the reply.  I'll start by answering your questions, then forge ahead with my own.

I think we're using Crystal 11.0.  The date stamp on crpe32.dll is 9/27/2005 at 12:41am.

We've been using Crystal on Windows 7 and Server 2012 for years.  It works fine, when the printer driver is installed on the local computer you are using.  In fact, I have the Crystal 11.0 designer on my Windows 7 and have used that for years, too.  But all bets are off if you remote into a computer that does not have any printer drivers installed and you try to print from it to a local printer.

We might be able to upgrade to 11.5.  That is not my decision and I will have to get info from you to pass onto my supervisor.

1.  Where do I get the 11.5 upgrade and what is the cost? I doubt we're in a maintenance agreement anymore.

2.  We have two applications that use this version of Crystal.  One is written in .net, the second is written in Delphi.  If we upgrade Crystal to 11.5, what happens to the app written in C#?  Will we have to re-release it too?  What I mean is, the function signatures may vary between version 11.0 and 11.5.  If a customer of ours uses both apps on the same computer, will the .net app crash if we don't update it?

3.  We have hundreds of Crystal reports, some written in 2003 and they have never been opened in the 11.0 designer.  Will those continue to function with version 11.5?

For now, I can't think of any other questions.  Thanks in advance for your answers.  Meanwhile, I'll look at the links you included.

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Hi Debbie

1.  Where do I get the 11.5 upgrade and what is the cost? I doubt we're in a maintenance agreement anymore.

- No cost.

- Re. where to get the upgrade - I had this in my original response:

If you are using CR XI, you can upgrade to CR XI R2 SP 6, see Where did all the Crystal Reports XI R1 and R2 fixes go?

2.  We have two applications that use this version of Crystal.  One is written in .net, the second is written in Delphi.  If we upgrade Crystal to 11.5, what happens to the app written in C#?  Will we have to re-release it too?  What I mean is, the function signatures may vary between version 11.0 and 11.5.  If a customer of ours uses both apps on the same computer, will the .net app crash if we don't update it?

-As long as the .NET app does not use version 11.0 references, all's good. Only CR 11.0 and 11.5 are not side by side compatible. All other versions of CR are side by side compatible.

3.  We have hundreds of Crystal reports, some written in 2003 and they have never been opened in the 11.0 designer.  Will those continue to function with version 11.5?

- Yes they will - as long as you do not upgrade the database to something more current. E.g.; say your database was MS SQL 2008 and you were using SQL Native 10 driver. Now you upgrade to MS SQL 2013, you will have to use SQL Native 11 driver and that will not be supported by CR XI R2...

The takeaway in all of this is that you are kinda playing with fire here. E.g.; using old retired software. This could break at any time with just a simple OS update, database update, etc,. etc. The powers that be should really allow you to do a proper update / upgrade. Just sayn...

- Ludek

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Hi Debbie,

There is a known issue with Windows Remote Desktop Connector. One of our OEM Partners ran into a huge delay when printing using the ( Redirect 2 ) service, 5 seconds to print locally and 5 minutes to use the redirect, MS calls it "Easy Print". Last word I heard was MS is still working on the problem, case has been open for almost 2 years now.

Only option you have is to install ALL of the printers on the Application Server and DO NOT use the Redirect 2 when selecting the printer to use. Must use install the printers locally and set them as a network printer and at the same time install all of the printers on the PC you are remoting into.

PS - Citrix Remote Desktop Server does not have this problem...

Here's the KBA on this subject:

2048559 - Printing through Easy Print ( Redirected x ) is slow using Remote Desktop Connection

Don

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

It looks like Don is onto something.  When I had both a default and non-default driver installed on the remote desktop, I could print to the non-default printer.

In the knowledge base article, it mentions that the printing is slow.  I don't see anything about not printing at all.  Do you know if there's one that also covers that?

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

My last reply, I updated it to include the KBA article I created.

Don