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In VMware once you connect to your virtual machine, you can access the printers from your host machine. This is a very nice feature, you don't have to setup the printer for your virtual machine. I was wondering can I do the same thing in hyper-v? I have a hyper-v virtual machine setup, but it doesn't show the host printers on the virtual machine.

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  • Its possible if they are visible to the network and/or you share the printers to the network.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 11 '13 at 14:35
  • @Ramhound they are visible to the network. I just don't want to have to install each local printer driver for each and every user.
    – nate
    Jul 11 '13 at 15:03
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The official Microsoft method You can do this with Hyper-V with "Enhanced session mode" https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/learn-more/use-local-resources-on-hyper-v-virtual-machine-with-vmconnect

The quick and dirty method: You could connect to the Hyper-V guest VM via Remote desktop,enabling the "Remote Resource" Local device printers. This would forward your print jobs to your Hyper-V host.

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If you have a virtual machine setup you can modify the base image to include the printers and printer drivers, on deploy they will all be setup.

Another option would be to manage the machines with puppet, this would avoid having to modify the image every single time the configuration changes. It's then possible to update the machines dynamically.

Finally it's also possible to control printers with Group Policies, as shown here: How to use Group Policy settings to control printers in Active Directory

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    What is puppet, can you be a little more descriptive?
    – nate
    Jul 18 '13 at 15:18
  • My apologies, I've added the link to the answer. Puppet helps system administrators automate every phase of their IT infrastructure’s lifecycle. Which means that you can control your infrastructure from a central platform.
    – Daniël W. Crompton
    Jul 19 '13 at 0:08
  • Puppet looks really good, however I am looking for a free way to solve my issue.
    – nate
    Jul 22 '13 at 14:40
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    The community edition is free, the enterprise edition can be used with up to 5 machines. The difference is a fancy user interface.
    – Daniël W. Crompton
    Jul 24 '13 at 13:27
  • @DaniëlW.Crompton, Nicer GUI... That's all?
    – Pacerier
    Feb 4 '15 at 21:32

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