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Set up Universal Print

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If you've gotten familiar with how Universal Print works and how it can help achieve your goals, it's time to get your hands on the product to see how it will fit into your organization.

There are two ways to start:

  1. Click through our interactive demo for a guided tour through Universal Print's features and tools.
  2. Watch a brief walkthrough of the above demo, with insights from the Universal Print product team.
  3. Set up a live proof of concept to try things out for yourself.

Set up a proof of concept

Step 1: Get access to Universal Print

  • Check if you already have access through your existing Windows and Microsoft 365 licenses. If not, purchase eligible licenses from your regular channel.
  • Assign eligible licenses to users and IT admins that need access. To print, users must be assigned an eligible Universal Print license.
  • Assign applicable administrator roles to users who need to manage Universal Print. See the supported roles, and the differences between them, here.

Step 2: Check prerequisities

To print, a user's environment must meet these prerequisites:

  • If printing from Windows, version 1903+ is required.
  • If printing from macOS, Ventura 13.3+ is required.
  • All endpoints (users' devices and printers) must be able to access the below list of endpoints:
Environment Endpoints
Commercial
GCC GCC uses Commercial endpoints as well as the following:
GCC High

Step 3: Determine how you'll connect printers

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.

  • Your Universal Print ready printers can be registered with Universal Print directly, without any additional software or infrastructure.
  • Your printers that are not Universal Print ready can be registered by using a connector. The next step describes how to set up a connector.

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.

Step 4: Install connector(s) if needed

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.

Step 5: Register printers

The process for registering printers depends on whether the printer is Universal Print ready.

  • If the printer is Universal Print ready, refer to the printer's manual for specific setup instructions.
  • If you're registering the printer using a connector, follow the steps to register a printer using the connector.

Step 6: Configure printer settings

After registering your printers, use Azure Portal to configure settings. In particular:

Step 7: Share printers with users

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.

Step 8: (Optional) Deploy printers to users using Intune

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.

Step 9: Send instructions to users

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.

Step 10: Monitor and troubleshoot the rollout

After rolling Universal Print out to users, you'll want to keep an eye on the usage and health of the rollout.

  • Keep an eye on usage by using the Usage and reports page in Azure Portal. Most organizations find that the print job quantity included with their licenses is sufficient, but if you need additional jobs, you'll need to purchase add-on packs.
  • Monitor printer health by using the Printer list in Azure Portal to keep an eye on printer health. If you encounter issues, follow the troubleshooting guide and look at the list of known issues to see if we're already aware of your issue and working on a fix for it.
  • Contact support if you can't fix your issue by using the documented troubleshooting steps, and we'll be happy to help solve the problem to get you up and running.

Next up

  • Follow best practices to plan your architecture
  • Scale up your deployment after validating a proof of concept

See also