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>>Now all that said I would highly consider NOT building desktop applications. If your apps are line of business applications consider building Web based applications and running them locally or on a local network instead. The apps become immediately distributable, tend to be easier to maintain and grow and you're not directly stuck with Microsoft's Jeckyll and Hyde's identity crisis when it comes to UI.
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>>This is the path I've taken for the last few years and I'm not regretting it. All internal stuff now runs in the browser and it's simply easier to maintain, expand and intermix Web based UIs. Plus you can access them from anywhere, and when I travel I can get by with a tablet often where I needed a PC before.
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>Sounds like a great strategy to me, but I am wondering, how do you solve printing of documents in applications where printing activity is still intense? Am I right in assuming that the pc's have fixed ip's and it is the server that initiates the printing jobs?

Yes printing is a weak point for sure, but most printing can be handled via PDF output these days. You generate reports on the server and feed the PDF to the browser for viewing or download and user can print from there.

I realize that doesn't work for everything but it's often enough for most applications.

+++ Rick ---