ITFixDB

Printer redirection does not work in a Remote Desktop / Terminal Server session

Printers (and drives) fail to redirect into a Remote Desktop / Terminal Services session when two specific registry values under the Terminal Server Wds\rdpwd key are both set to 0; setting them to 1 restores redirection.

RESEARCHED · Confidence 80/100

Microsoft / Windows / Remote Desktop Services

Symptoms

  • Client-side printers are not redirected into the Remote Desktop / Terminal Server session
  • Client-side hard drives are also not redirected, in the same session
  • Printer/drive redirection was enabled on the RDS host, and the client connected via mstsc.exe

Environment / applicability

Windows Server Remote Desktop Services / Terminal Services

Windows Server — lifecycle: current

Diagnosis

  1. Check the two registry values: On the RDS host, open Registry Editor and check the values of fEnablePrintRDR and fEnableRDR under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Wds\rdpwd.

    Expected: If both values are 0, this is the documented cause of the redirection failure.

    Warning: Always back up the registry before making changes.

Root cause

The issue is caused if the values of both registry entries HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Wds\rdpwd\fEnablePrintRDR and fEnableRDR are set to 0.

Resolution

  1. Set both registry values to 1: Set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Wds\rdpwd\fEnablePrintRDR and fEnableRDR to 1.

    Expected: Printer and drive redirection resume working for new Remote Desktop sessions.

    Warning: A new Remote Desktop session (or a restart of Remote Desktop Services) may be required for the change to take effect.

Verification

  1. Reconnect via mstsc.exe with printer/drive redirection enabled in the client's Local Resources settings, and confirm the client's printers and drives appear in the session.

Rollback

Setting the two values back to 0 reverses the change and disables redirection again; this only affects local Remote Desktop Services redirection behavior on the host.

  1. Set fEnablePrintRDR and fEnableRDR back to their original values if needed.

Risk

Risk level: Medium · Requires admin: Yes

References

Record metadata

ID
fx-rdp-0001
Created
2026-08-17T00:00:00Z
Updated
2026-08-17T00:00:00Z
Freshness
current