JP2020004125A - Program, method, and information processor for installing printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

To make it possible to select only a shared printer that is compatible with a printer driver that a user wants to install when installing the printer driver.SOLUTION: In a printer installer, a list of all shared printers on a network 100 is acquired from an OS 303 (S1701). If a manufacturer, a PDL to be supported, a printer model, and a version are different between a printer driver to be installed and a printer driver of a shared printer (S1703, S1704, and S1706), the shared printer is not displayed as a shared printer that cannot be selected as a network port (S1708). Only when they are the same, the shared printer is displayed as a shared printer that can be selected as the network port (S1707).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 17

Description

  The present invention relates to a program, a method, and an information processing apparatus for installing a printer driver in an operating system.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, network printers that can print from a plurality of information processing apparatuses in the same network, mainly in offices, have become widespread. Generally, in order to use a network printer as a shared printer, it is necessary to make sharing settings in a printer driver of the network printer installed in the print server. In a printer driver to be installed on a client, a printer driver of a shared printer must be selected as a network port.

  In addition, it is necessary to maintain the same version of the printer driver installed in the print server and the client in order to surely and correctly perform printing with the shared printer. As a method for maintaining the same driver, a method has been proposed in which a control server is set up to monitor a client and a print server, and a printer driver of the same version as that of the other is installed in one of the client and the print server (Patent Document 1). 1).

  As another method that does not require a control server, there is a technique called enhanced point and print that makes a shared printer available with a V4 printer driver architecture implemented in an operating system (hereinafter, OS). In the enhanced point and print, model information and data area information are downloaded, and the enhanced point and print driver installed in advance in the OS of the client reads the information and operates. Therefore, in the enhanced point and print, the client does not need to install a dedicated printer driver for each shared printer. On the other hand, the print setting UI that can be used in enhanced point and print provides a very basic function related to printing, has low usability, and cannot use an advanced print setting function.

  Therefore, in order to use the sophisticated print setting UI, the user also needs to install a printer driver dedicated to each shared printer on the client.

JP 2010-157134 A

  However, with the conventional printer driver installer, when setting a shared printer as a network port, all shared printers on the network are displayed regardless of the printer driver to be installed. For this reason, there is a problem that a user easily specifies a shared printer that does not conform to a printer driver to be installed by mistake. If an incompatible shared printer is specified, another printer driver is installed by Enhanced Point and Print, and a simple print setting UI can be used, but a high-performance dedicated print setting UI cannot be used.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to enable a user to select only a shared printer that matches a printer driver to be installed by a user as a network port when installing a printer driver. And

  The present invention is a program for realizing a function of installing a printer driver in an information processing apparatus, the information processing apparatus comprising: a selection unit that selects a printer driver to be installed; and an operating system of the information processing apparatus. An acquisition unit for acquiring attribute information of a printer driver of a shared printer existing on a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected, and a printer driver that is compatible with the printer driver to be installed based on the attribute information is used. Display means for displaying only the shared printer to be used as a network port used for printing, and a printer driver for setting one of the shared printers displayed by the display means as the network port used for printing, and Install Is a program for causing to function as an installation unit that.

  According to the present invention, when a printer driver is installed, only a shared printer compatible with a printer driver to be installed by a user can be selected as a network port.

1 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration to which the present invention can be applied. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of a client. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of an auxiliary storage device in a client. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a printer driver installation program according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of a print server. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of an auxiliary storage device in a print server. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of a device. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a process of custom installation. FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically illustrating a printer selection screen for selecting a printer driver to be used; FIG. 7 is a diagram showing various setting processing steps of a printer driver to be installed. FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically illustrating an information setting screen of a printer driver. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a process of selecting a port to which the present invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the addition screen of the port to which this invention is applied in simulation. FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating a printer queue stored in a printer queue storage unit. FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically illustrating attribute information of a printer driver. (A) shows a conventional printer driver installer, (b) shows a printer driver installer according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and (c) shows a network port of a printer driver installer according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating a display screen of a shared printer in the setting of FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a process of selecting a shared printer in the printer driver installer according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an installation process of a printer driver to be installed. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a process of selecting a shared printer in a printer driver installer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration in which a printer driver installer according to the first embodiment of the present invention can be used. This system includes a client computer (hereinafter, client) 101 as an information processing apparatus, devices A102 to D105 as printing apparatuses, and a print server computer (hereinafter, print server) 106 in which a printer driver is installed. It also includes a network 100 connecting them. The printer driver installer of the present invention is a program for realizing a function of installing a printer driver in an information processing apparatus. Further, the printer driver installer of the present invention is supplied to a system or an apparatus via a network or a storage medium, and can be realized by a process in which one or more processors in a computer of the system or the apparatus read and execute a program.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of the client 101. The client 101 is connected to the network 100 via the communication line 211 from the network I / F unit 207. The client 101 includes a client control unit 201 that controls the operation of the client 101. The client control unit 201 includes a CPU 202, a ROM 203, a RAM 204, an input / output I / F unit 206, and a network I / F unit 207. These are connected to each other via a system bus 213.

  Further, a keyboard 208, a pointing device (not shown), a display 209, and an auxiliary storage device 210 are connected to the client control unit 201 via an input / output I / F unit 206.

  The CPU 202 controls the entire apparatus according to a program stored in the ROM 203, the RAM 204, or the auxiliary storage device 210. The RAM 204 is also used as a work area when the CPU 202 performs various processes. All the processes of each component in the present embodiment are read into the RAM 204 and operate.

  FIG. 3 shows a software configuration stored in the auxiliary storage device 210. The auxiliary storage device 210 stores programs 301-1 to 301-N, which are applications, an installation program 302 of a printer driver of the printing apparatus, and an OS 303.

  The OS 303 includes a driver storage unit 304 and a printer queue storage unit 307. The driver storage unit 304 stores drivers 305-1 to 305-N of various installed devices and a printer driver 306. The printer driver 306 can issue a print instruction to a device having a print function via the network I / F 207. A printer queue storage unit 307 manages information about documents waiting to be printed, such as a printing state and the number of pages to be printed, and holds setting information of the printer driver 306. To 308-N are stored.

  FIG. 4 shows the configuration of a printer driver installed in the client 101 by the printer driver installation program 302. The printer driver installation program 302 installs a printer driver including the following components on the client 101. The UI display unit 401 displays a UI for installing a printer driver. The driver installation unit 402 appropriately arranges the printer driver and registers the settings in the OS 303. The printer driver information 403 records all information of the printer driver to be installed. The network printer search unit 404 searches for a printer on the network. The printer driver selection unit 405 selects a printer driver to be installed. The port selection unit 406 selects a port used by a printer driver to be installed. The shared printer display unit 407 displays the shared printer according to the information from the OS 303 when the user selects the use of the network port in the port selection unit 406. The shared printer selection unit 408 selects a shared printer based on an input from the user via the UI display unit 401, and selects a shared printer as a network port.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of the print server 106 shown in FIG. The print server 106 is connected to the network 100 via a communication line 511. The print server includes a print server control unit 501 that controls the operation of the print server 106. The print server control unit 501 includes a CPU 502, a ROM 503, a RAM 504, an input / output I / F 506, and a network I / F 507. These are connected to each other via a system bus 513.

  A keyboard 508, a pointing device (not shown), a display 509, and an auxiliary storage device 510 are connected to the print server 106 via an input / output I / F 506.

  The CPU 502 controls the entire apparatus according to a program stored in the ROM 503, the RAM 504, or the auxiliary storage device 510. The RAM 504 is also used as a work area when the CPU 502 performs various processes. All processes of each component in the present embodiment are read into the RAM 504 and operate.

  FIG. 6 shows a software configuration stored in the auxiliary storage device 510. The auxiliary storage device 510 stores programs 601-1 to 601-N, which are applications, and an installation program 602 for a printer driver of the printing apparatus.

  The OS 603 includes a driver storage unit 604 and a printer queue storage unit 607. The driver storage unit 604 stores drivers 605-1 to 605-N of various installed devices and a printer driver 606. The printer driver 606 can issue a print instruction to a device having a print function via the network I / F 511. The printer queue storage unit 607 manages information about a document waiting to be printed, such as a printing state and the number of pages to be printed, and holds a setting information of the printer driver 606. -1 to 608-N are stored. The printer driver installation program 602 has basically the same configuration as the printer driver installation program 302 shown in FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the device A102. Note that the configuration described as the device A102 is a configuration common to the devices B103 to D105.

  The device A102 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a color laser multifunction peripheral connected to the network 100 via a communication line 701.

  The device A102 includes a device control unit 702 that controls the operation of the device A120. The device control unit 702 includes a network I / F unit 703, an input / output buffer 704, a program ROM 705, an NVRAM 706, a RAM 707, and a CPU 710. Further, the device control unit 702 includes a panel I / F unit 708, a memory I / F unit 709, an engine I / F unit 711, and a scanner I / F unit 712. These are connected to each other via a system bus 717.

  The network I / F unit 703 connects to the network 100 via the connected communication line 701, and performs communication between the device control unit 702 and each terminal device such as an individual client terminal or server. The input / output buffer 704 is used to temporarily store data when transmitting and receiving various data including a control code and a print job for printing input from the network 100 and various data in the apparatus.

  The program ROM 705 contains a program describing the operation of the CPU 710 that controls the operation of the entire device control unit 702. A RAM 707 is used as a work memory for control codes, calculations required for interpreting and printing a print job, reading an image, and processing input / output image data. The nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) 706 stores data that needs to be retained even when the power of the apparatus is cut off. The program ROM 705 has destination information 720 of the multifunction machine for Japan and the United States.

  Further, there is a bitmap image developing unit (not shown) that develops a print job received from the client 101 or the like into a bitmap. The expanded bitmap data is sent to the printer device 715 via the engine I / F unit 711 and printed. When an image is scanned using the reader device 716, a bitmap image or the like read by the reader device 716 is read into the device control unit 702 through the scanner I / F unit 712, and processed by the program ROM 705.

  The operation panel unit 713 is connected to the device control unit 702 via the panel I / F unit 708, and performs operations of the entire device and displays an error, an operation guide, and the like. The external memory 714 is connected to the device control unit 702 via the memory I / F unit 709, and is used for storing a print job, image data input from the outside, various information of the printing apparatus, and the like.

  Next, the operation of the printer driver installation program 302 of the printer driver to which the present invention is applied will be described. The printer driver installation program 302 recorded in the auxiliary storage device 210 is loaded into the RAM 204 of the client 101 and executed by the CPU 202.

  Generally, there are two types of printer driver installation programs: one for performing network search installation and one for performing custom installation. In the network search installation, the installer searches the network to find a device, and the installer narrows down installable installable candidates and presents them to the user. On the other hand, in the custom installation, a user selects a model, sets a printer name and a port to be used, and performs installation. Here, an installation program for performing a custom installation will be described.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a process of the custom installation. In FIG. 8, when the custom installation is started, a printer candidate list compatible with the printer driver installable by the installer is displayed (S801). For example, as shown in FIG. 9, a printer candidate list UI is created and displayed. Then, the process waits until the user of the printer to be used by the printer driver to be installed is selected or the "next" button is pressed (S802). Referring to FIG. 9, when the user selects a printer to be used with a printer driver to be installed, the user checks a check box 901 of the selected printer. In FIG. 9, MFP C2-CPDLB of Company C is selected. In the processing of S803, since the selection of the printer to be used by the printer driver to be installed has not yet been completed just by checking the check box, the process proceeds to NO in S803 and returns to the processing of S802. After selecting the printer to be used with the printer driver to be installed, if the user presses the “next” button 902 in the processing of S802, the process advances to YES in S803, and performs various setting processing of the printer driver to be installed in S804.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing various setting process steps of a printer driver to be installed. In FIG. 10, when various setting processes of a printer driver to be installed are started, the installer selects one printer driver to be set from one or more printer drivers to be installed selected in the processes of S802 to S803. I do. (S1001). When the user selects one printer, an information setting screen of a printer driver suitable for the selected printer is displayed, and input from the user is waited (S1003). For example, a screen as shown in FIG. 11 is displayed, and setting of a port to be used (1101) and setting of a printer name to be used by a printer driver (1102) can be performed. When the user inputs a printer name to be used in 1102, the process proceeds to NO in S1004, proceeds to YES in S1005, and sets the printer name in S1006. If the user presses the “add port” button in step 1101, the process advances to YES in step S1004, and a port selection process is performed in step S1008.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a process of selecting a port. In FIG. 12, when the port selection process is started, first, the types of selectable ports are displayed (S1201). For example, a screen as shown in FIG. 13 is displayed, in which options of a local port, a TCP / IP port, and a network port are shown. If the user selects a type of port and presses an “OK” button, the process advances to step S1203. That is, when the user selects the TCP / IP port (S1202), the process proceeds to NO in S1203, proceeds to YES in S1204, sets the TCP / IP port in S1206, and ends the port selection process. When the user selects a local port (S1202), the process advances to NO in S1203, NO in S1204, and YES in S1205, to set a local port (S1207), and end the port selection process. If the user selects a network (S1202), the process advances to YES in S1203, and a shared printer selection process is performed in S1208.

  The printer driver installer acquires the setting information of the printer driver installed in the print server 106 from the printer queue storage 607. FIG. 14 illustrates an example in which six printer queues 1401 to 1406 are stored in the printer queue storage unit 607 on the print server 106. In this case, it means that six printer drivers are installed in the print server 106. Here, among the six printer drivers, five printer drivers are set as shared printers. The printer names of the shared printers are Company C MFP1-CPDLA, Company C SFP1-CPDLA, Company A MFPα-APDL, Company C MFP2-CPDLB, and Company C MFP3-CPDLB, respectively. Then, the printer driver whose printer name is Company C MFP4-CPDLB is not set as a shared printer.

  The printer driver setting information of the shared printer included in the printer queues 1401 to 1405 has attribute information indicating a supported manufacturer, model, PDL, and version of the printer driver as shown in FIG. In general, the printer name and the driver name are a combination of a printer manufacturer, a model, and a name of a supported PDL. Company C MFP1-CPDLA is manufacturer C, the printer model is MFP1, the PDL is CPDLA, and the printer driver version is 5.0.0.0. Similarly, Company C SFP1-CPDLA is Company C, SFP1, CPDLA, 5.0.0.0, and Company A MFPα-APDL is Company A, MFPα, APDL, 3.0.0.0. . Company C MFP2-CPDLB is Company C, MFP2, CPDLB, 5.1.0.0, and Company C MFP3-CPDLB is Company C, MFP3, CPDLB, 5.0.0.0.

  In the conventional printer driver installer, at the time of shared printer selection processing, printer driver setting information of all shared printers is acquired from the OS, and all shared printers provided by each server are displayed. For example, consider a case where there are shared printers (1608 to 1612) under a hierarchy of a network computer (1601), a print service (1602), a group of computers (1603, 1604), and a server (1605 to 1607). In FIG. 16A, all the shared printers (1608 to 1612) provided by the server 1 (1605) are displayed. As described above, in the conventional printer driver installer, what is displayed as the shared printer on the display screen of the shared printer may be a shared network printer, and the manufacturer, model, PDL, and version of the printer driver are irrelevant. Was.

  On the other hand, FIG. 16B shows a display example when the present invention is applied. In FIG. 16B, only the shared printer company MFP2-CPDLB (1611) compatible with the printer driver to be installed is displayed. This installer displays only the shared printer C MFP2-CPDLB (1611) controlled by a printer driver whose manufacturer, model, PDL, and version all match the printer driver to be installed. Therefore, the user cannot select a shared printer other than a shared printer controlled by a printer driver compatible with the printer driver to be installed, so that the user can surely select a shared printer that does not cause a problem.

  Hereinafter, the process of selecting a shared printer in the printer driver installer of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a process of selecting a shared printer in the printer driver installer according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 17, when the process of selecting a shared printer is started, a list of all shared printers on the network 100 is acquired from the OS 303 (S1701). This process is performed using the shared printer search function of the OS. For example, when the installer makes an inquiry about the shared printer to the OS 303, the OS 303 acquires setting information and the like included in the printer queue stored in the printer queue storage unit 607 of the print server 106. Then, the OS 303 provides the installer with information related to the printer driver of the shared printer from the acquired setting information and the like.

  Next, one is selected from the acquired list of shared printers, and a driver name registered in association with the printer driver of the shared printer is acquired (S1702). Since the driver name includes the printer manufacturer, model, and supported PDL, it is checked based on the driver name whether the printer driver manufacturer of the shared printer is the same as the printer driver to be installed (S1703). If the manufacturer is different, the process advances to NO in S1703, and the shared printer is not displayed as a shared printer that cannot be selected as a network port (S1708).

  If the manufacturer of the printer driver is the same, the process advances to YES in S1703, and it is confirmed from the driver name whether the PDL supported by the printer driver of the shared printer and the printer model are the same as the printer driver to be installed (S1704). If they are different, the process proceeds to NO in S1704, and the shared printer is not displayed as a shared printer that cannot be selected as a network port (S1708).

  If the supported PDL and the model of the printer are the same, the process proceeds to YES in S1704, and the printer driver version of the shared printer is acquired from the OS 303 (S1705). If the version is different from the printer driver to be installed, the process advances to NO in S1706, and is displayed as a shared printer that cannot be selected as a network port (S1708). If the versions are the same, the process advances to YES in S1706, and the shared printer is displayed as a shared printer that can be selected through a network port (S1707). In the present embodiment, as an example, it is determined whether a printer driver to be installed matches a printer driver registered in association with the shared printer based on the driver name associated with the shared printer. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to inquire of the shared printer about PDL information, version information, a model name, and the like to be supported, and to determine whether or not the shared printer matches the printer driver to be installed.

  Then, it is confirmed whether or not the selection of all the shared printers has been completed. If there is any unselected shared printer, the process proceeds to NO in S1709 and returns to the process of S1702. If all shared printers have been selected, the process advances to YES in S1709, and waits until the user selects one of the displayed shared printers and presses the “OK” button (S1710). Is completed.

  Then, returning to FIG. 12, the process advances to step S1209 to set a shared printer, and ends the port selection processing. Further, when the port selection processing shown in FIG. 12 is completed, the process returns to FIG. 10 and returns to S1003 to wait for input of a printer name and pressing of a “next” button. When the user presses the “next” button, the process advances to NO in S1004 and to NO in S1005, and determines whether all printer driver settings have been completed (S1007). If all printer driver settings have not been completed, the process advances to NO in S1007, and the processing from S1001 is repeated. In step S1001, a printer driver that has been selected by the user and has not been installed is selected, and the various processes from step S1002 are repeated. On the other hand, if the setting of all the printer drivers has been completed, the process advances to YES in S1007, and the various setting processes of the printer driver to be installed are ended. Returning to FIG. 8, a list of printer drivers suitable for the printer to be installed, which is to be installed, is created from the check box selected in S802 (S805), and the printer driver in the list is installed (S806).

  Here, the installation process of the printer driver to be installed will be described in detail. FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an installation process of a printer driver to be installed. When the installation process of the printer driver to be installed is started, first, the printer driver stored in the installer is stored in the driver storage unit 304 of the OS 303 of the client 101 (S1801). Next, it is checked whether an unprocessed printer driver remains in the installation target list (S1802). If it remains, the process advances to YES in S1802 to take out one print driver from the installation target list and determine that it is an installation target. (S1803). Then, it is confirmed whether to create a port for the shared printer in accordance with the port obtained by the port selection process of the printer driver selected by the user in FIG. If a shared printer port is to be created, the process advances to YES in step S1804 to create a port for outputting a print job from the printer driver to the shared printer, create a printer queue for the printer driver, and link the printer queue to a network port. A request is made to the OS (S1807). If a port of the shared printer is not created, the process advances to NO in S1804, and a TCP / IP port or a local port is created (S1805). Then, the OS requests the OS to create a printer queue of the printer driver and to associate the printer queue with the TCP / IP port or the local port (S1806). Then, the installation of one printer driver is completed, and the process returns to S1802. If the processing of the printer driver to be installed on the list has been completed and there is no unprocessed printer driver remaining, the process advances to NO in S1802 to end the printer driver installation processing.

  As described above, only a printer that normally operates as a network port is displayed as a shared printer, thereby preventing an erroneous shared printer from being selected. Then, it is possible to prevent the print setting UI of the shared printer using the printer driver supporting the PDL different from the PDL supported by the printer driver to be installed from becoming the standard UI by the enhanced point and print. Then, only a dedicated printer driver suitable for the printer selected by the user can be installed, and it is possible to prevent a printer driver different from the printer driver to be installed from being installed.

  Further, it is possible to prevent the installed printer driver version and the printer driver version of the shared printer from becoming inconsistent and causing a problem during printing. In addition, the present invention can provide a mechanism capable of appropriately associating a shared printer compatible with a printer driver to be installed with the printer driver to be installed when the printer driver is installed. Further, it is possible to provide a mechanism in which, when a printer driver is installed, only a shared printer compatible with the printer driver to be installed is selectively displayed.

Embodiment 2

  In the first embodiment, only the printer driver to be installed and the printer driver of the shared printer on the print server having the same manufacturer, model, supported PDL, and version are displayed on the network port selection screen. However, even if the attributes of these printer drivers do not completely match, they may be compatible. For example, different versions may differ only in whether minor bugs are fixed or not. Basically, all functions may be used without any influence. In addition, some features may not be available, but many other features may work without problems. As described above, compatibility may be maintained between printer drivers having different versions, and in such a case, the shared printer may be used without any problem even if the versions of the printer drivers do not match.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 16C, an example is shown in which a shared printer whose attributes are not completely matched but whose compatibility is maintained between printer drivers is selected when a network port is selected. Show. A new check box (1620) for instructing display of compatible printers is provided, and if this is checked, in addition to the completely matched MFP C2-CPDLB (1611), the compatible MFP C3- CPDLB (1612) is also displayed.

  The configuration of the system and the flow of the main processing steps are the same as those in the first embodiment, except for the contents of the shared printer selection processing (S1208) in FIG. FIG. 19 shows a shared printer selection process in the second embodiment of the present invention. Steps S1901 to S1904 are the same as steps S1701 to S1704 in FIG.

  Here, it is confirmed whether the user has checked the check box (1620) for displaying compatibility (S1911). If the compatibility display check is ON, the process advances to YES in S1911 to check whether the printer driver to be installed is compatible with the printer driver of the shared printer on the network based on the version of the printer driver (S1912). If the printers are compatible, the process advances to YES in S1912 to display the printer as a shared printer that can be selected by a network port (S1907). If there is no compatibility, the process advances to NO in S1912, and the display is not displayed because the shared printer cannot be selected through the network port (S1908).

  If the compatibility display check is OFF, the process advances to NO in S1911 to confirm whether the versions are the same as in the process of FIG. 17 and continue the process. For example, in FIG. 15, it is assumed that the model “MFP3” is a model that is a minor change of “MFP2” and has compatibility. Also, in the present embodiment, when the compatibility is based on the model, the versions are 5.0.0.0 and 5.1.0.0, and the difference between the minor version of the second digit and the other versions is different. Let's consider the case where a case is defined as compatible. In other words, here, it is determined that there is compatibility based on the model name, and if the major versions are common, it is recognized that there is compatibility. It should be noted that the number of digits of the versions that need to match to allow compatibility is not limited to one digit as in the present embodiment, but may be any digit.

  In the present embodiment, as described above, only shared printers using compatible printer drivers are displayed. This allows the user to select a shared printer that uses a non-exact but compatible printer driver, and uses a compatible printer driver, such as various versions. It is possible to use a shared printer.

  In the first and second embodiments, the case where non-selectable shared printers are hidden in S1708 or S1908 has been exemplified, but the present invention is not limited to these. For example, a non-selectable shared printer may be displayed in grayed out. In this case, the program of the installer may perform control so as not to accept the operation of selecting an item displayed in grayout in S1710 or S1910 even if the operation is performed by the user. When accepting an operation of selecting an item displayed in gray out, an error message such as “The selected shared printer cannot be used” may be displayed. That is, when an unselectable shared printer is selected by the user, the user may be notified that the printer driver cannot be installed with the combination of the printer driver to be installed and the selected shared printer.

  Further, in the first and second embodiments, the case where the compatibility between the printer driver to be installed and the printer driver of the shared printer is confirmed when displaying the search result of the network port is illustrated. Specifically, the processing of S1703, S1704, S1706 or the processing of S1903, S1904, S1906 and the like is that. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, all shared printers found by the search are displayed on the network port setting screen. Then, after receiving the instruction to select a shared printer, it is also possible to perform the conformity check shown in S1703 or S1903, S1704 or S1904, S1706 or S1906. In this case, as a result of the conformity check, if the installer program determines that the shared printer is a selectable shared printer, the program proceeds to a printer driver installation process. If it is determined that the shared printer is not a selectable shared printer as a result of the matching check, an error message may be displayed.

(Other Examples)
The present invention supplies a program for realizing one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in a computer of the system or the apparatus read and execute the program. It can also be realized by the following processing. Further, it can be realized by a circuit (for example, an ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

Claims (8)

A program for realizing a function of installing a printer driver in an information processing device, the information processing device comprising:
Selecting means for selecting a printer driver to be installed;
Acquiring means for acquiring attribute information of a printer driver of a shared printer existing on a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected, from an operating system of the information processing apparatus;
Display means for displaying only the shared printer using a printer driver whose compatibility with the printer driver to be installed is recognized based on the attribute information, as a network port used for printing;
Installation means for setting one of the shared printers displayed by the display means to the network port used for printing, and installing the printer driver to be installed;
A program characterized by functioning.   2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the display unit recognizes compatibility between the printer driver of the shared printer and the printer driver to be installed when the printer driver of the shared printer has the same manufacturer as the printer driver to be installed. The described program.   The display device according to claim 1, wherein when the printer driver of the shared printer supports the same PDL as the printer driver to be installed, the display unit recognizes compatibility between the printer driver of the shared printer and the printer driver to be installed. 3. The program according to 1 or 2.   If the version of the printer driver of the shared printer matches the version of the printer driver to be installed, the display unit recognizes compatibility between the printer driver of the shared printer and the printer driver to be installed. Item 4. The program according to any one of Items 1 to 3.   The display means, when a version of a printer driver of the shared printer matches one of a plurality of predetermined versions corresponding to a version of the printer driver to be installed, a printer driver of the shared printer and the printer driver to be installed. 4. The program according to claim 1, wherein compatibility of the program is recognized. A method of installing a printer driver in an information processing device, comprising:
Selecting a printer driver to install;
From the operating system of the information processing apparatus, acquiring attribute information of a printer driver of a shared printer existing on a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected;
Displaying only the shared printer using a printer driver whose compatibility with the printer driver to be installed is recognized based on the attribute information, as a network port used for printing;
Setting one of the displayed shared printers to the network port used for printing, and installing the printer driver to be installed;
A method comprising: An information processing device,
Selecting means for selecting a printer driver to be installed;
Search means for searching for a shared printer present on a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected;
Acquiring means for acquiring attribute information of a printer driver of the shared printer present on the network;
Display means for displaying only the shared printer using a printer driver whose compatibility with the printer driver to be installed is recognized based on the attribute information, as a network port used for printing;
Installation means for setting one of the shared printers displayed by the display means to the network port used for printing, and installing the printer driver to be installed;
An information processing apparatus comprising: A program for realizing a function of installing a printer driver in an information processing device, the information processing device comprising:
Selecting means for selecting a printer driver to be installed;
Acquiring means for acquiring attribute information on a shared printer existing on a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected, from an operating system of the information processing apparatus;
Based on the attribute information, a shared printer compatible with the printer driver to be installed is set as an output destination network port, the selected printer driver is controlled to be installed, and the installation is performed based on the attribute information. Control means for controlling a shared printer that is not compatible with the printer driver to be set as an output destination network port, so as to suppress installation of the selected printer driver,
A program characterized by functioning.

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