Parallels For Mac Printing Issues

• Parallels For Mac Support
• Parallels For Mac Printing Issues List
• Parallels For Mac Printing Issues Windows 10
• Parallels Desktop 11 For Mac

In that case you may need to uninstall Office 2016 from your Mac and then reinstall it. See Troubleshoot Office 2016 for Mac issues by completely uninstalling before you reinstall. If it does not print successfully from other programs that suggests there may be a problem with the printer drivers or configuration. Download Parallels Client for macOS 10.11 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. ‎Parallels Client, when connected to Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS), provides secure access to business applications, virtual desktops, and data from your device.

Updated Many Mac users today found, to their surprise, they are unable to print to their HP Inc printers.

This is due to a code-signing snafu affecting macOS Catalina (version 10.15) and Mojave (10.14), specifically. HP's printer driver software is cryptographically signed with a certificate that macOS uses to determine whether the application is legit and can be trusted. However, that certificate was today revoked through an XProtect update, causing the software to be rejected by Macs.

XProtect is the mechanism Apple uses to inform Macs to no longer trust and run certain programs, and it does this by revoking their code-signing certificates. There is no central database of certs cancelled by XProtect, there's one for each OS version it seems, and Catalina and Mojave were selected in particular. Apple chose to revoke the HP driver cert, or perhaps was asked to do so by HP.

'No questions asked' Windows code cert slingers 'fuel trade' in digitally signed malware

In any case, HP's driver software no longer works on those two particular operating system flavors. Users are told when trying to print, for instance, that HP's application 'will damage your computer,' and are given the option to run it anyway or send it to the trash. Trying to continue just loops you back round to the error message, with no work done. Punters are also encouraged to report this 'malware' to Apple.

Unofficial workarounds for now include using AirPrint to an HP printer, or uninstalling the HP software and using a generic PostScript driver.

A Reg reader who tipped us off about the blunder told us he was able to jerry rig some IPP connectivity to get an older device to print: 'We had a handful of printers where macOS would print into the ether. Windows had no problem. I found some IPP trickery on macOS Catalina worked on an older HP4650.'

We had a handful of printers where macOS would print into the ether. Windows had no problem

Complaints from punters are building up on the Apple and HP support forums.

'Trying to open Printer Utility on MacOS 10.15.7 and I get a crash dump every time saying 'Code Signature Invalid' for the binary /Library/Printers/hp/Utilities/HP Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/HP Utility,' said one netizen.

'Yes, my Deskjet F4140 abruptly stopped working with both my Mac mini desktop AND my partner's AirBook,' complained another. 'The AirBook keeps insisting it's malware (it's not), while my desktop says the certificate has expired. Suddenly, HP and Apple are NOT playing well together! I've redownloaded and reinstalled the printer software TWICE now but nothing has changed, just the same message about HP Utility now missing. Our jobs depend on this printer, HP.'

Thomas Reed, director of Mac and mobile at Malwarebytes, tweeted to say his users were up in arms at the tech breakdown: 'We're seeing a significant influx of support cases where users are seeing macOS identify what appear to be legit processes as malware.'

Mac blogger Howard Oakley has some more background, here. 'You’re seeing that [error] message because macOS is checking the signature on your HP printer software, and being told that its signing certificate has been revoked,' he observed.

Amazon's Music desktop app is also, weirdly enough, no longer working, either, it's reported.

Spokespeople for HP and Amazon were not available for immediate comment. Apple declined to comment. ®

Updated to add

The Register understands from sources familiar with the matter that HP Inc asked Apple to revoke its printer driver code-signing certificates. It appears this request backfired as it left users unable to print. A HP Inc spokesperson told us on Friday night:

We unintentionally revoked credentials on some older versions of Mac drivers. This caused a temporary disruption for those customers and we are working with Apple to restore the drivers. In the meantime, we recommend users experiencing this problem to uninstall the HP driver and use the native AirPrint driver to print to their printer.

Universal Printing in Remote Application Server

As you know, Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is an integrated solution to virtualize applications and desktops. We’ve already discussed some features and differences between versions 14 and 15 of Parallels RAS in the past, but I think it can be useful to go through select features of Parallels RAS and showcase some troubleshooting steps for a more detailed understanding of Parallels RAS and its features.

Let’s start with one of the most important features that can be set up from both the administrator and user sides: universal printing.

Managing Universal Printing Servers

The main goal of printer redirection is to enable users who are connected to a remote desktop or accessing a published application to print on their local printer, whether that printer is physically connected to the user’s computer or is connected via an IP address.

Universal printing simplifies the printing process and solves most printer driver issues simply by not requiring the server to have a printer driver for the user’s locally installed device. Therefore, a user can always print regardless of the type and brand of printer installed on the machine, and the administrator doesn’t have to install printer drivers for each different printer on the network.

To access the universal printing configuration, select the Universal Printing category in Parallels RAS:

By default, the Universal Printing driver is automatically installed with the Terminal Server, VDI Guest, and Remote PC agents. Therefore, when a server is added to the farm, universal printing is installed. (Note, however, that the system administrator always has the option to control the list of client-side printer drivers that are allowed or forbidden.) The Universal Printing driver is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Now let’s walk through universal printing filtering. Using this feature helps prevent server resource overload due to unnecessary printers and also avoids server instability with certain printers.

You can set up the printer filtering by following these steps:

1. In the Parallels RAS Console, navigate to Universal Printing / Printer Drivers.
2. In the Mode drop-down list, select which printers should be redirected from the following options:
   1. Allow redirection of printers using any driver
   2. Allow redirection of printers using one of the following drivers
   3. Allow redirection of printers which do not use the following drivers
3. Once you’ve made any changes, don’t forget to click “Apply” to save them.

Now that we’ve covered universal printing maintenance, let’s move on to some other issues

If You Are a User and Use the Parallels Client

Imagine that you start the Parallels Client, work with it, and then remember that you need to print something. You open the document and then click “Print.”

But instead of a printed page, you get this error:

Parallels For Mac Support

To resolve this error, follow these steps:

Open the Parallels Client window and click on the “Tools” tab, then choose “Option.”

In the opened window, choose the “Advanced settings” tab.

Parallels For Mac Printing Issues List

In the “Advanced settings” tab, uncheck the following options:

Parallels For Mac Printing Issues Windows 10

1. Cache Printers Hardware Information
2. Cache 2X Universal Printing Embedded Fonts

Then, reconnect to the server and check the issue.

If You Are an Administrator

If you are an administrator, you may see this issue: “Printers are not redirected after upgrade with error code Failed to add printer: for by 2X for user with error = 0x80004005”.

Since redirection is the most important thing for universal printing, it’s crucial to know how to fix it, so let’s go through it together right now:

• I’d like to suggest that you don’t forget to inform your users about any maintenance.
  • (The steps required for issue resolution should be performed when no users are using the system; otherwise, it could be problematic to clean up files for logged on users.)
• Once the users have been informed, start with the Command Prompt:
  • run CMD with administrative permissions and navigate to the Parallels installation directory (by default, C:Program Files (x86)Parallels) -> “ApplicationServer” -> UniversalDevices -> x32 or x64 based on your installed OS).
• Then run this command:
  • 2XInst.exe /rp

You should now be able to redirect printers again.

One more issue you may see as an administrator involves printing performance. If printing takes about five minutes from the time the user clicks print until the document is printed, follow these two steps:

Parallels Desktop 11 For Mac

Click on the Universal Printing tab, then choose the Fonts Management tab and uncheck “Embed Fonts.”

If that doesn’t help, switch to the RDP and clean the cache.

Go to the Options tab -> Advanced Settings -> Cache RAS Universal Printing embedded fonts.

See the screenshot below:

Then check the performance again and make sure that everything is working perfectly.

Now that we’ve checked the printer from the client and administrator sides and covered some important steps to resolve redirection and performance issues, you should be able to install, manage, and tune universal printing in Parallels RAS.