Announcing Universal Print: a cloud-based print solution
Published Mar 02 2020 09:06 AM 209K Views
Microsoft

Commercial and educational customers moving to the cloud with Microsoft 365 have long needed a simple, easy print experience for their employees. Today we are happy to announce a private preview of Universal Print, a Microsoft cloud-based print infrastructure that will enable a simple, rich and secure print experience for users and help reduce time and effort for IT.

 

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Universal Print moves key Windows Server print functionality to the Microsoft 365 cloud, so organizations no longer need on-premises print servers and do not need to install printer drivers on devices. In addition, Universal Print adds key functionality like security groups for printer access, location-based printer discovery, and a rich administrator experience.

“As a school with limited IT resources, we were happy with how easy it was to install Universal Print and get it up and running.” said Brian Hoyt, Director of IT at French American School of Puget Sound. “Also, we did not have to modify end-user devices, which saved us a significant amount of time.”

IT organizations can deploy printers and register them with the Universal Print service without the need for a complex hybrid print setup. In addition, printers can be preconfigured and are easily discoverable from Windows devices that are Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) joined. Users can continue to print from their Windows devices or Office as they always have, with no learning curve.

 

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You will get the best cloud experience with printers that natively support Universal Print. We are working with our partner ecosystem to bring you the latest printers with native support, and are excited to be working with Canon Inc.  

"The way people work is changing as cloud computing and technology continue to expand and evolve, driving digital transformation. Canon Inc.'s imageRUNNER ADVANCE and Office Printers provide the flexibility and scalability to address diverse workplace needs. In partnership with Microsoft, we are committed to supporting Universal Print and support our customers in their journey to the digital workplace.” said Isamu Sato, Senior General Manager, Office Imaging Products Operations, Canon Inc.

For existing printers, you can simply use a Universal Print proxy application that connects printers to Universal Print.

If your organization or school wants to deploy the private preview of Universal Print, you must have Windows 10 Enterprise or Education, version 1903 or later and have an Azure Active Directory (any edition) tenant. Universal Print does not require Windows Server.

If you would like to participate in the private preview, complete this form, and join us in making this journey a success. You can also join the Universal Print community on Tech Community to get updates and provide feedback.

For more details on functionality and requirements, see our Universal Print documentation.

58 Comments
Iron Contributor

The only problem I see with this is if you either block internet access or loose internet access. Also, you loose more fine grain control over the print devices.Print servers on-prem are still worth it. 

Steel Contributor

Looking forward for O365 mobile apps support !

Microsoft

@ PaulGMVP

You can submit feature request her https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/feature-requests/idb-p/UniversalPrintFeatures So other can vote it up.

Brass Contributor

Is secure print available? Or on the roadmap?

Iron Contributor

Seems like a good start. A system such as Uniflow Online that has a locally installed client will have the edge during an internet outage, so hopefully you include that kind of functionality. Printing really shouldn't have to rely on an active internet link.

Brass Contributor

Nice

Copper Contributor

We're getting a bunch of queries at PaperCut HQ about whether Universal Print will work happily with PaperCut MF and NG.

 

Quick answer = YES. Oh yes indeed.

Slightly longer answer = this blog post: https://blog.papercut.com/microsoft-announces-universal-print-for-azure-cloud-platform/

 

Congratulations on reaching private preview, Microsoft. Exciting times ahead for Azure fans. 

Brass Contributor

Are Microsoft 365 Business customers qualifying for a preview? If not, will it be available for them when it goes GA? 

Brass Contributor

Interested to see how this will be priced. I'm hoping it's just bundled in with AAD P1 licensing. 

Brass Contributor

Integrate it with MFA and we will get a SafePrint! :stareyes:

Copper Contributor

Well, this is very interesting - I was at BETT last Year and someone from Microsoft came over to our stand asking about Print services and integration with O365 M365 as there was an issue with printing via Microsoft Teams with Third-party print management services.   

Brass Contributor

When ready, will this work with Window 10 Pro Azure Ad joined machines or only enterprise?

Silver Contributor

I'm looking forward to testing this and have signed up for the preview.  We use Printix and if this can be a good substitute, I'd move to it since we have M365 E5 licensing.

Copper Contributor

Agree with Charles surely this will be available on Win Pro also?

Brass Contributor

Congratulations @KristinCarr on the private review! This is an important milestone in bringing UP to the market. It's an exciting project that we are happy to be working with you on. To help spread the word and talk about how YSoft SafeQ interfaces with Micrososft Universal Print, we've let our community know on our blog post, https://www.ysoft.com/en/blog/2020/ysoft-safeq-meets-microsoft-universal-print-in-the.

Brass Contributor

Congratulations! We are using ipp print since 2012 (on-prem). It's a great way to handle print and save us work as we dont need to deploy printers to users, no need for login scripts etc. Nice. Does it make sense sending print services to the cloud being Print services local to begin with? I guess not always and when out there in the cloud there is always security you need to concern youself with. But anyway it's nice and we will consider this option in the future - when the service will come out of preview and most firmware manufakturens join it.  Just one question, what about scan? Have you considret adding scan to OneDrive? most print devices today support scan as well as print. We have a solution today which enable scan to OneDrive for our users. It is though not without its complications. Could have been nice if this will be available from the cloud as well : -)

Copper Contributor

Please bring this experience to mobile devices.

Brass Contributor

This looks good! My customer have printers in 1000 locations and most of them only have internet access. OnPremise printservers is not an option, so this comes as a great relief!

Copper Contributor

Printix congrats Adrian and the entire team @Pernille-Eskebo and appreciate the last 12 months engaging on this project, with more to come. :cool:

 

To our global community of Azure AD customers and partners, expect some more exciting news shortly, including how to leverage UP, whilst being able to also direct print, support OEM drivers / queues, provision confidential "follow Me" printing, mobile print and more.

 

https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/web-apps/printix.64182edf-4951-40d5-91c8-733e1c896b70?...

 

 

 

 

 

Copper Contributor
Congratulations @Microsoft and @Canon!! We from the uniFLOW Online-Team are proud to work together with you on exciting print and scan solutions. See more in our blog post: https://www.uniflowonline.com/en/news/
 
 
@IndiaYankee : With uniFLOW Online you will be able to use Microsoft Universal Print and also scan to Microsoft applications such as OneDrive and others.

 

 
Brass Contributor

Hey Guys, 

Do you support virtual printers as well? For e.g. we would like to print unattended PDF/XPS to some network location. 

Microsoft

@pradeeppm please join the Universal Print Tech Community and vote on the mobile idea if you have not done so already: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/universal-print/ct-p/UniversalPrint.  Thanks.

Copper Contributor

Please make this available for their Windows 10 Pro devices, SMB clients need this with cloud-only strategies on M365 Business licensing.

Copper Contributor

Hi all, how can I get enabled to the private preview of Azure Universal Print?
Would love to make my first steps on it...

Microsoft

Hi @Gintautas. Virutal printer like "print to PDF" is currently not supported.  Please feel free to add it to the Ideas section at the Universal Print Tech Community page: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/universal-print/ct-p/UniversalPrint.  Thanks. 

Microsoft

Hi @Drago Petrovic.  Thanks for your interest. Really appreciate it. Did you compete the form in the blog above?  We have A LOT of interest - overwhelming in a good way and super great to see.  It will take us time to go through the list. Thanks for your patience. 

Microsoft

@Charles Charles @MyronHel @Embers1  Universal Print will be part of Microsoft 365 subscriptions. The licensing requirements have not been finalized, please stay tuned. We do target this service at mid-market, enterprise and educational organizations.

 

Copper Contributor

Hopefully it works well, the on-premise printer server branch office does not work very well... and other services are complex to implement 

Microsoft

@vi_das feel free to register for the preview (complete this form) and please join the Universal Print Tech Community if you have not done so already: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/universal-print/ct-p/UniversalPrint

 

Hi, can Microsoft make it free and available to everyone with a Microsoft account (not necessarily requiring an Microsoft/Office 365 subscription) ?

just like Google print which is a free service to anyone having a Google account.

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/add-microsoft-s-universal-print-to-the-edge-brows...

 

Brass Contributor

can i confirm the minimum requirement is only Windows 10 Enterprise or Education, version 1903 or later ?

we are using m365 business so we only have windows 10 professional for business.

 

looking at other link, it says windows 10 pro is supported.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/universal-print/fundamentals/universal-print-connector-installation

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/universal-print/fundamentals/universal-print-whatis

Microsoft

@jrng  Universal Print will be available via Microsoft 365 subscriptions. The licensing requirements have not been finalized, please stay tuned. We do target this service at mid-market, enterprise and educational organizations. Universal print will work with Windows 10 Pro, version 1903 or later.

Brass Contributor

Is there a list of compatible printers listed anywhere? If it's only Canon's, most of us will have the same number of print servers we did before, just swapping out a conventional print server for a "proxy device".

Copper Contributor

I have completed the form to participate in the private preview, but I have yet to receive a response. Would anyone be able to look into this?

Microsoft

@TJ Cornish  There are no 'compatible' printers in market today. Printers will need a new or updated firmware. We have however a small proxy app for Universal Print that can be installed on any Windows 10 device so existing printer models can connect to Universal Print. We are actively working with printer manufacturers to update existing printers.

Iron Contributor

Looking towards the office 365 based licenses, this will be very useful for use with the new Direct Print capability of Dynamics 365 Business Central. It would be great if someone who has the trial or Microsoft could post a video on Youtube or similar (and link it back here) with a demonstration of a print from Business Central using Universal Print and the document type dictating where the document is printed (shipping label printed on the Warehouse printer for e.g.)

Copper Contributor

Regarding the print job flow, if a user submits a 100Mb+ print job does this hand off directly between the client endpoint and the printer or does the job go out to Azure Cloud then back into the environment? 

Iron Contributor

Where is the Universal Print Connector supposed to be installed?

If I install it on own dedicated VM, then there are no printers (which is true, because there are no local printers)

Or is it supposed to go on the existing print server?

 

Seb

Copper Contributor

@Sebastian Cerazyi installed this at my "old" print Server, with this connector i can "Forward" the installed Printers to azure and make them Cloud print ready. i think this is usefull for Printers that do not Support the Microsoft universal print directly. but you Need still this Printer Server in your Network, if this Server is off, no printing to this Printers is possible. 
I also search for a direct Connection from print devices or print Management solution to the universal print.
BR

Phil

Microsoft

@Sebastian_Cerazy

 
 
The Connector must be on the same IP network the printers are on. However, the connector doesn’t auto-discover printers on the network. You could install the connector on the print server where printers are installed or you could use printbrm.exe to copy printers from the print server to the new connector machine. Connector is a transition technology. We are working with many printer manufacturer to bring new printers to market that support Universal Print or potentially provide updated firmware for certain printer model. The situation will be different for every manufacturer. We will have more announcement soon. Please join us in the 

Universal Print Community for your questions and our answers

 

 

Copper Contributor

@Alan_Meeus 
thanks for your fast Reply!
I know, we as a manufacturer are also working on an implementation with our devices and print Software solution. :)

 

I already Setup the universal print inside my "test" azure, it works fine. 

Copper Contributor

Hello

 

will the scan jobs fonctionality be supported ? Scan to OneDrive for exampe included  ?

That would be awesome!

Iron Contributor

Looks exciting, but in practice had to give up on this, as it was unreliable to the point of unusable

@Sebastian Cerazy How exactly? interested to know the details 

Silver Contributor

@KristinCarr and @DavidC06, having Scan to OneDrive on this would be great!

Microsoft

@Jeffrey Allen  @KristinCarr 

Jeffrey, thanks for your feedback and feature request. You are not the only one requesting similar functionality. Please head over to the Universal Print Hub and add your voice to the idea area: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/universal-print-feature-requests/idb-p/UniversalPrintFeatures

and upvote the existing request. Once again, thanks. 

Copper Contributor

You guys did god job , but add this points -> Mobile, Follow-me, Batch Printing, Any Hardware support,  Mobile Printing , OTP printing ,  I need XWC type of solution. 

Microsoft

Thanks for the kudo @iamprabirD . We just got started, so we will certainly be adding more feature in the future. I would love it if you could add your requests or upvote feature request in our Universal Print idea section, https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/universal-print-feature-requests/idb-p/UniversalPrintFeatures... where some of the features you are requesting are already listed. 

 

Copper Contributor

Sorry if this was covered and I missed it, but does this allow printers from other vendors such as HP and Ricoh etc to utilise this?

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