I've been struggling with a printing problem for nearly a year now, and I'd appreciate any insights. Our setup includes a Windows Server 2025 running Print Management, hosted in Azure, with clients using Windows 11 25H2. All devices are Azure AD joined, and we handle printing using traditional SMB client-server connections. The issues began after upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The symptoms include a slow response when opening the print server and significant delays when printing documents, which can take up to 2 minutes to establish a connection. Some days it works well, but the inconsistency makes troubleshooting tough. Microsoft suggested switching to Universal Print, but that would raise our costs significantly due to our printing volume. Has anyone else experienced this in a cloud-only Azure AD environment? Any thoughts on what might be causing these delays?
2 Answers
What kind of connectivity do you have to Azure? Is it through a VPN or using an express gateway?
We've moved to a cloud print solution, which completely eliminated the need for a print server and VPN. The vendor we use also compresses print files, which helps reduce latency, even for cross-country printing. It’s been smooth for us!
What vendor are you using? We currently have one with 'Follow Me Printing', but it doesn't fit our needs since users typically prefer one printer per location. Direct printing still runs into the same issues.