Server 2008 R2 easy print printers show up but do not work

[guest]

History: New customer of mine with a Server 2008 R2 terminal server. They have only a single remote user and had been using the Remote Administration licensing model to allow this user to work on the server remotely. Unfortunately the user has some old printers including an Okidata dot matrix that needs to be able to print from MS Great Plains, and drivers are unavailable for Svr 2008 for these printers. After some research I discovered that Easy print is disabled in Remote Administration mode . So... long story short, since it's a very small network of less than 10 computers they've gone from a domain to a workgroup. The server has been demoted and had it's active directory roles removed. It's had the Remote Desktop roles removed and reinstalled after the demotion.

Current server status: Remote desktop session host and Remote Desktop licensing are installed, the licensing server is activated, and CALs are installed. When any user connects to the server via Remote Desktop, all of their printers show up successfully and are using MS Easy Print drivers. However, not a single printer functions. No errors recorded in the event log, print test pages, notepad print jobs, etc all vanish. Since the server is now stand-alone (workgroup), group policy options for adjusting printer behavior are unavailable. Local security policy option doesn't provide any options for this, nor does Remote Desktop session host configuration. .NET 3.5 is confirmed as installed on workstations in question.

There is live data on the server and it's a small network with only one server so of course reinstalling Svr 2008 from scratch to negate any leftover issues from domain controller demotion is not a preferred option, although I suspect that in the long run it may be recommended. Please advise if you have any alternative ideas.

[guest]

Cause: Besides having the role of Terminal Services in Application Mode installed, you also installed the role of a Domain Controller (DC)

When a DC is being configured as a TS server, there is a standard warning message which states:

“Installing Terminal Services on a Domain Controller is not recommended. Do you want to continue?”
Resolution1. Click Start, search for cmd.exe2. Right click on cmd.exe3....

1. Click Start, search for cmd.exe

2. Right click on cmd.exe

3. Click on 'Run as Administrator'

4. Type "C:\" w/o the quotation marks and then Press Enter.

5. Type CD\Windows\System32\Spool and then Press Enter.

6. Type Cacls.exe PRINTERS /e /g users:C and then Press Enter.

7. Restart the computer