In this video, I show how to configure Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to print via Microsoft Universal Print directly to a local printer on my network.
In this video, Erik walks through one of the exciting new features in Business Central version 18: the ability to print directly to local printers from the cloud using Microsoft’s Universal Print service. He demonstrates the entire setup process — from installing the connector and configuring printers in the Azure portal, to adding printers in Business Central and printing a report — all while candidly sharing the quirks and occasional hiccups he encountered along the way.
The Return of Direct Printing
If you’ve been in the NAV world for a while, you know that printing directly to a local printer was something NAV could do 30 years ago. But when you move to the cloud, you lose some abilities, and one of the big things we lost was the ability to print directly to a printer on our local network. With Business Central version 18, we’ve gained that functionality again through Universal Print.
What Is Universal Print?
Universal Print is a paid service from Microsoft that you add to your CSP subscription. It gives you the ability to send print jobs to the cloud, which then routes them to your local printer. The entire workflow is managed through the Azure portal and integrates natively with Business Central.
Setting Up Universal Print
Step 1: The Azure Portal and Connector
Starting from a fresh Business Central version 18 sandbox, if you navigate to Printer Management, you’ll find a new menu option called Universal Print. From there, you can go to the Universal Print portal, which takes you to the Azure portal.
In the Azure portal under Universal Print, you can:
- Manage printers
- Download the connector
- View reports
The first step is to download the connector. This takes you to the Microsoft documentation where you get an installer. You run this installer on a PC or server in your network — something in your environment that has access to printers and has the appropriate printer drivers installed.
After installation, you get the Universal Print Connector app, which will show you the printers available on your network. You simply select the printer you want and register it.
Erik notes that the registration process can sometimes be a bit finicky — registration might fail on the first attempt but then work when you try again.
Step 2: Enable PDF Printing
This is a critical step that’s easy to miss. By default, the connector will only print XPS content, but Business Central prints PDF. You need to run a small PowerShell command to enable PDF-to-XPS conversion:
Update-ConnectorConfigJson -FeatureConnectorName EnablePdfToXps -Value TrueStep 3: Set Printer Defaults in the Azure Portal
After running the PowerShell command, go back to the Azure portal, navigate to your printer, open Printer Properties, and then Printer Defaults. You’ll see the content type is set to application/oxps — you need to change this to PDF. If PDF doesn’t appear as an option, it means you forgot to run the PowerShell command from the previous step.
Step 4: Share the Printer
In the Azure portal, you’ll see two sections: Printers and Printer Shares. Initially, there’s nothing in Printer Shares. You need to select your printer, click Share, and select the users you want to share it with. Once shared, the printer will appear under Printer Shares and be ready for action.
Step 5: Add Printers in Business Central
Back in Business Central, go to Printer Management and click Add All Printers (or add a specific one). A setup wizard will appear. When you click Next, it adds all the printers shared with you through Universal Print into Business Central.
One thing to note: the screen between steps might look like it’s doing nothing, but if there’s an issue with your subscription, you’ll get a big red error on that page. If everything goes smoothly, the process completes quickly.
Printing a Report
With the printer now registered in Business Central, Erik demonstrates printing the Customer Top 10 List report. At the top of the report request page, there’s now a printer selection dropdown. Instead of only “Handled by the browser” (which was previously the only option), the newly registered printer now appears as a choice.
After selecting the printer and clicking Print, the report is sent for processing through Universal Print. It takes a moment, but the print job is processed, and the local printer starts printing — directly from Business Central in the cloud.
Printer Selections
Erik also covers the Printer Selections page, which has been a part of NAV since its early days but is worth revisiting since many people who started with the cloud may not be familiar with it.
Printer Selections allow you to configure default printers based on combinations of:
- User + Report: A specific user printing a specific report goes to a designated printer
- User + Any Report: All reports for a specific user go to a designated printer
- Any User + Specific Report: A specific report always goes to a designated printer regardless of who prints it
For example, you could configure it so that any user printing Report 1305 (Sales Order Confirmation) always prints to a specific printer, or that a specific user’s reports always route to their nearest printer.
A Word of Caution
Erik is refreshingly honest about the experience: this feature still carries a “preview” label for good reason. He mentions this was his fifth attempt at recording the video due to encountering various errors. The connector registration sometimes fails with internal server errors, and reliability can be inconsistent — one printer might work for a while and then stop, while another picks up.
That said, when it works, it works really well — it’s fast and reliable. Erik did a fair amount of printing during his testing and found it solid once everything was properly configured.
Summary
Universal Print in Business Central version 18 brings back a capability that’s been sorely missed since moving to the cloud: direct local printer access. While the setup involves several steps across the Azure portal, a PowerShell command, and Business Central configuration, the end result is a seamless printing experience. The overall cloud offering for Business Central is becoming more complete, and this was certainly one of the pieces that was missing. No code required — just configuration — but it’s an exciting step forward for the platform.
