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Universal Print offers several benefits when compared to on-premises print solutions, but a successful migration requires some new knowledge, thoughtful planning, and careful execution.
Universal Print doesn't require print servers. Depending on which printers you have, your Universal Print infrastructure will look a bit different than what you have now.
Universal Print does not use drivers because they are difficult to maintain, cause problems for users, and can introduce security vulnerabilites. Instead, Universal Print connects to your printers by using the Mopria standard protocol which is supported by millions of printers.
To support differentiated and advanced print functionality on Windows, printer manufacturers can develop Print Support Apps (PSAs) that make custom functionality available to users in a more secure way, without the need for drivers.
Because all printing and management functionality works over the internet, users don't need to be within your network boundary or connected to a VPN to print.
Additionally, Universal Print does not make inbound connections into your network, so all that's required to enable Universal Print is allowing outbound connections to a small set of endpoints.
Everything related to your print environment is in the Microsoft cloud, so everything is easy to find.
All your users (and printers!) have identities within Microsoft Entra ID. Instead of sharing a printer and authorizing users in Windows Server, you'll use Azure Portal to share printers and assign user/group permissions.
You may be used to tracking print usage by the number of printers or queues in your environment, or the number of pages that are printed. With Universal Print's reporting feature, you can still track those volumes.
However, print jobs are the primary unit of accounting in Universal Print. The volume of print jobs your organization typically needs will inform both your licensing and architecture decisions.
Many prospective customers start by asking similar questions, to see if cloud computing is for them.
Firstly: Try Universal Print or click through the demo to learn about all the features.
Check if you already have access, and assign eligible licenses to the users and IT admins that need access. If not, purchase eligible licenses from your regular channel.
Global Administrator, Print Administrator, or Printer Technician. See the differences here.To print, a user's environment must meet these prerequisites:
Because Universal Print communicates with printers using the Mopria standard, many printers can connect directly to the service without any additional infrastructure. Mopria certified printers that have updated firmware with Universal Print support are called "Universal Print ready" printers.
Refer to the list of Universal Print ready printer models to see whether you need a connector. If a printer is Universal Print ready, you'll have the best performance and management experience by registering it directly with Universal Print instead of using the connector.
If any of your printers aren't Universal Print ready, you'll need a connector to register them. You can install the connector on a physical machine within your network boundary, or use an Azure VM to host it.
Follow the connector installation instructions to satisfy the prerequisites, install the connector service, and register it with Universal Print.
The process for registering printers depends on whether the printer is Universal Print ready.
After registering your printers, use Azure Portal to configure settings. In particular:
Universal Print has a familiar distinction between queues and shares if you've managed a Windows print server.
After registering a printer (creating a queue), it must be shared so users can access it. Sharing a printer controls who can use it and what name they see when discovering printers. You can share printers with all users, or with specific group(s) of users.
To share your registered printers with users, follow the instructions to share printers using Azure Portal or PowerShell.
To create a seamless experience for users, their most commonly used Universal Print printers can be automatically installed on Windows devices by using Intune. This is supported for devices with Windows 11 and Windows 10 21H2+.
Follow the Intune instructions to create a Universal Print policy.
Let some users try it out, or deploy it broadly. Educate users about what's different. You can start with these example instructions as a baseline.
After rolling Universal Print out to users, you'll want to keep an eye on the usage and health of the rollout.
Training
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Solution Architect: Design Microsoft Power Platform solutions - Training
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Microsoft 365 Certified: Endpoint Administrator Associate - Certifications
Plan and execute an endpoint deployment strategy, using essential elements of modern management, co-management approaches, and Microsoft Intune integration.