A year ago, I wrote a blog post about leveraging Microsoft Universal Print to overcome obstacles on your journey to the cloud. Since then, the universal print service has evolved, accommodating even the printing needs of educational institutions with the increase to 100 print jobs per license per month from May 1st. Interestingly, it appears that macOS is popular among educational end users. To accommodate this, I’ll expand on my original post to include guidance on the new Microsoft Universal Print for macOS.
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Extend Universal Print For macOS
The Universal Print solution was configured and described in detail in my original post. Beginning May 1st, 2024, organizations with Microsoft 365 A3 and Microsoft 365 A5 licenses will also receive 100 print jobs per license per month. Since macOS is a popular operating system in educational institutions, I will expand on my previous blog post to extend the service to allow macOS users to utilize Microsoft Universal Print from their devices.
Configure Universal Print For macOS Support
As mentioned earlier, the user performing Universal Print admin tasks needs a Universal Print license. This is still the case, so ensure your admin account has this license assigned.
Navigate to the Universal Print service once signed in to the Microsoft Azure portal with the Printer Administrator role active.
Navigate to Settings and configure the macOS Support to Show all printers. Verify the setting is being applied.
The service should now be ready to support Universal Print for macOS.
Install The Universal Print For macOS App
The Universal Print App should be installed to enable the service on macOS endpoints. There are several different ways to do this.
Universal Print For macOS Through the App Store
The end user can find and install this app directly from the App Store on macOS.
This will require the user to be signed in to the App Store on macOS.
Universal Print For macOS Through Apple Business Manager
The app can also be distributed through Microsoft Intune. If you are using Apple Business Manager, you can purchase the app there and distribute it from Microsoft Intune.
The app will now be available as a volume purchase in Microsoft Intune as soon as Apple VPP has synced.
If you are in a hurry, you can sync Apple VPP Tokens manually, as seen in the screenshot above. This will speed up the sync of the Universal Print app for macOS, making it available for distribution through Microsoft Intune.
The app can now be assigned to a group for unattended installation at the managed MacBooks.
Configure the Universal Print for macOS Client
Before the users can utilize universal print for macOS, they need to sign in to the universal print client and add their printers.
Sign In To Universal Print For macOS
After installing the application, Universal Print must be started from the macOS Launchpad.
Now, you must allow Universal Print to add a System Settings pane.
The macOS Settings app will now open with the new Universal Print blade. Click the Sign In button in the upper right corner
The sign-in will utilize SSO if configured and connected.
Now, you are ready to add printers.
Add Printers To Universal Print For macOS
Click the Add Printer button in the lower right corner of the Universal Print blade.
Search for the printer you want, select it, and add it to your system.
The printer will now be listed in the Universal Print blade of the Settings app.
Be aware that this printer will now be listed in the print dialogue for all users on this device. If a user is not permitted to use the printer, their print job will fail.
Time To Print!
How magical can it be to print a paper from Word? Pretty standard experience using the built-in Print function of any application.
It’s pretty exciting, as I can now do this from my MacOS anywhere in the world, certain that the paper will come out on the printer back home at the office! The print jobs from macOS will also utilize universal print options like the Secure Job Release Option thoroughly described in my original post covering Microsoft Universal Print.
Final Thoughts
I appreciate that Microsoft now makes printing universally accessible, allowing macOS to utilize the same infrastructure as Windows devices. Though, I must say, distributing printers to Windows devices seemed smoother. Remember my earlier post about Microsoft Universal Print? Unlike what we’re dealing with on macOS, no user intervention is needed on Windows. Sure, we might be able to MacGyver our way around it with some scripts, but hey, the macOS Universal Print solution is still in preview mode. Let’s cross our fingers and hope this Universal Print For macOS gets a sleek makeover before GA. We could all use a bit more printing zen in our lives, am I right? 🖨️🙏
[…] highly attractive management solution for macOS. Previously, I’ve discussed new services like Universal Print for macOS, which is included in your Microsoft license and makes managing macOS as seamless as managing your […]