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ThinPrint Refocuses Desktop Printing on Microsoft RDP

ThinPrint is shipping its .print Remote Desktop Printing Engine for Microsoft Terminal Services 2003. The product is the newest in its line of printing solutions for Windows terminal services users.

One notable difference between ThinPrint’s .print Remote Desktop Printing Engine and previous remote printing solutions from the Berlin, Germany-based company is that the new product does not support Citrix Systems’ Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol used in Citrix’s MetaFrame – only Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

“By focusing on the RDP protocol, we can achieve a completely administration-free solution and at the same time offer customers a high performance spectrum,” Carsten Mickeleit, managing director of ThinPrint GmbH, said in a published statement.

With the Remote Desktop Printing Engine, the printer is installed on the remote user’s PC and print rendering is performed locally on the client, not on the server – thus saving significant server bandwidth. Additionally, ThinPrint’s “advanced adaptive compression” technology enables the print data stream sent to the client to be compressed by as much as 98 percent, dramatically lowering network bandwidth demands for remote printing operations.

The product’s support of ThinPrint’s “Driver Free Printing” technology enables printer drivers to be installed locally on users’ PCs, not on the server. The product also lets users install and use both USB printers as well as all-in-one, multifunction printing devices.

The .print Remote Desktop Printing Engine starts at around $900, according to Mickeleit’s statement, and runs on Windows Server 2003 and 2000 as well as Windows XP Professional. The client runs on all versions of desktop Windows from Windows 95 through Windows XP.

About the Author

Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.

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