Universal Print

Microsoft’s Universal Print is Microsoft’s SaaS cloud print service for O365 / M365 and Azure customers migrating away from local print servers.

The PaperCut connector component enables PaperCut MF or NG to manage Universal Print jobs and add the functionality of PaperCut to Universal Print environments. It also:

Registers your local Windows print queues with Universal Print
Pulls down print jobs from Universal Print, and sends them to your local queues
Monitors printer and job status and reports this back to Universal Print

It’s a complete replacement for the default Microsoft connector. This means no additional software applications or network hardware components are needed to use PaperCut with Universal Print.

This page covers the installation and setup process for using PaperCut MF or NG with Universal Print.

Requirements

A Windows installation of PaperCut MF or PaperCut NG, version 21.0 or newer.
An internet connection on the server that’s hosting the connector.
Credentials of a user in your Azure tenant with the Global Administrator role (to complete the setup).
Your PaperCut installation must be configured to sync with Azure Active Directory as a user identity source so the connector can pull user information from Azure. If you are retaining some on premise printing in conjunction with Universal Print or have multiple names for the same user, please review our user name matching guidelines.

It’s highly recommended you explore Microsoft’s Universal Print documentation to understand how Universal Print works.

Known limitations

Printer capabilities vary between manufacturers and versions of printer drivers. Universal Print has unified the many different printer features on the market into a common set. This means advanced printing options like stapling or hole punching might not be available for your model of printer yet.
Microsoft enforces a system-wide document size limit of 100 MB.
Changing the name of a registered print queue in Windows will cause the connector to stop functioning correctly.

Step 1: Enable the connector on the Application Server

When you install PaperCut MF or NG (version 21.0 or later), the PaperCut Universal Print Connector for Microsoft is installed (by default) as a separate service alongside PaperCut.

Once installed, this component automatically updates itself to make sure you’re always up to date with changes in Universal Print. Follow the steps below to enable Universal Print.

Enable Universal Print integration.

a. Log in to the PaperCut Admin web interface.

b. Navigate to Enable Printing > Mobile & BYOD.

c. Click the Enable Universal Print integration checkbox.

d. Click Apply at the bottom of the page. The Universal Print tab is added.
Click the Universal Print tab.

This page shows the connectors that are associated with your PaperCut installation. By default, you’ll only see the connector that is preinstalled on your primary server.

Step 2: (Optional) Install the connector on Secondary servers and Site servers

If you’re wanting to install the connector on any additional Secondary servers (Print providers) or Site Servers, the connector component will need to be downloaded from here and installed on the secondary / site servers.

The connector can support multiple “secondary” connectors. This allows you to centrally manage a collection of connectors installed on multiple servers. Please find the steps required for this below.

Ensure you are using PaperCut version 21 or later.
Install the PaperCut Universal Print Connector onto the secondary/ site server(s) which you would like to appear in Enable Printing → Universal Print.
Edit the connector configuration file as an admin, located at [app-path]\providers\universal-print\win\data\conf\pc-upconnector.conf on the main PaperCut server.
- Complete the Authorization property with a unique string greater than 12 characters. It is your choice for this value. It will be used on the secondary server(s) too.
- Example: “Authorization”: “thisisalongstring”
Edit the configuration file on the secondary server(s). Default location: C:\Program Files\PaperCut connector for Microsoft Universal Print\data\conf\pc-upconnector.conf.
- Complete the PrimaryIpAddr property with the IP address of the primary connector server.
- Complete the Authorization property with the same value as in step 3.
Restart the PaperCut Connector for Microsoft Universal Print service on the primary server, followed by the secondary servers.

Step 3: Register the printers

Printers must be registered with Universal Print before they can be shared and used.

Click Enable Printing > Universal Print to go to the Universal Print connector configuration page.
Click the connector running on the print server that has your printer(s) attached. A list of all printers associated with the connector is displayed.
Click Register on the printer you want to make available in Universal Print. The Register Printer dialog box is displayed.
Follow the instructions online to complete the registration.

During the registration process, you will be redirected to authenticate with Azure using an account with the Global Administrator role. You’ll then give consent to the connector service to register the printer.
Share the printer with the users in your organization. These steps are described in Microsoft’s Getting Started with Universal Print documentation.

Setup for legacy versions (18.0 to 20.1)

You will need to configure the connector before it can monitor Universal Print for print jobs. This configuration process allows you to choose which local queues to register and monitor.

Run Command Prompt as an Administrator
Change directory into the installation directory for the PaperCut Connector cd “C:\Program Files\PaperCut connector for Microsoft Universal Print”
Identify your connector version, which is inside the .version file. At the command prompt enter: type .version
Go to the version folder: cd v2020–07–17–1411
Run “configure.exe” by entering: configure.exe

The configuration utility will now guide you through the steps to register your printers.

Once you’ve completed the configuration, restart the PaperCut Connector for Microsoft Universal Print service for the changes to apply.

You can now share the printers you’ve registered with your users! These steps are described on Microsoft’s Getting Started with Universal Print documentation.