Today, Microsoft announced Universal Print and its private preview, and the service does exactly what it sounds like. It"s meant to eliminate the need for on-premises print servers, and even the need to install printer drivers on your PC.
Put simply, it takes Windows Server print functionality and moves it to the cloud. Admins can view all of the Universal Print printers through a dashboard on Azure, and they can manage the printers accordingly. From a user perspective, the change is seamless, allowing them to print as they always have.
Microsoft says that you"ll get the best experience from a printer that supports Universal Print, although those don"t exist yet since the service is only in private preview. It says that it"s working with Canon Inc though. In the meantime, you"ll need to use a Universal Print proxy application, which will connect your printers to the service.
In order to use the private preview of Universal Print, you"ll need to be running Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows 10 Education, and you"ll need to be on version 1903 or later. You"ll also need to have an Azure AD tenant.