JP2008102838A - Information processing method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the frequency in display of a warning dialog which is displayed in a protection mode, when a printer driver called from a process operating in the protection mode starts a status monitor for displaying a status of a printer. <P>SOLUTION: A status monitor starting part determines whether a process is in the protection mode or not. In the case that the process is determined to be in the protection mode, it is determined whether a status monitor starting program exists or not, and the status monitor is started with low authority when the status monitor starting program doesn't exist, and the status monitor is started by using the status monitor starting program when this program exists. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control method and program having a function of monitoring the status of a printer when printing is performed by, for example, a printer.

  In the printing process by the printer, there are many situations in which printing is started but printing stops halfway due to a paper jam or nothing is printed in the output result due to running out of ink. In such a case, it is difficult for the user to identify the cause of the print failure by looking at the printer that failed to print. Therefore, an abnormal printer state (hereinafter referred to as status) such as out of ink or paper jam has been informed to the user by blinking an LED or a buzzer.

  However, even if the printer has a function to notify the user of an abnormal state, what kind of status abnormality actually occurs unless the user remembers all the patterns or refers to the manual etc. I could not understand. In addition, since the statuses to be detected have increased along with the improvement of printer capabilities, it has become difficult to represent all statuses in a simple pattern.

  Therefore, a status monitor using two-way communication between a printer and a computer has been developed as a tool for presenting various printer statuses graphically and in real time at hand.

  There are several ways to display various printer statuses by the status monitor. For example, there is a status monitor that performs bi-directional communication with a printer and performs based on information returned from the printer. In addition, Windows (registered trademark), which is one of operating systems (hereinafter referred to as OS) of Microsoft (registered trademark), has a print support function for outputting print data after spooling. With this OS print support function, a module called a language monitor operates and communicates with a printing apparatus connected to a computer by bidirectional communication conforming to IEEE1284 or USB1.1. Accordingly, it is possible to know the completion of the discharge of each print job, error information generated in the printing apparatus, and the like. The status monitor can obtain the information returned from the printer via the language monitor and display the status.

  Normally, the status monitor is realized as one of the modules constituting the printer driver.

  In order to display the status of the printer being printed, a status monitor is automatically activated by the printer driver, usually when the application executes printing. Some printer drivers have a user interface that allows the user to activate the status monitor. When the status monitor is automatically started when the application executes printing, the printer driver module that actually starts the status monitor is often the language monitor described above or a user interface driver that provides a user interface. .

  However, when the status monitor is automatically started, the focus of the application shifts or the status monitor dialog is suddenly displayed, so some users may not like the status monitor to start automatically. possible. As a countermeasure, a status monitor having a setting item for allowing the user to specify whether to activate the status monitor during printing is considered. For example, if the setting item “use status monitor at the time of printing” is set to OFF, the status monitor is not displayed at the start of printing.

  Here, the application executes printing, but has various functions other than printing. Usually, an application that performs printing creates a document for printing, or acquires a document from a computer or a storage device on a network and performs printing. Here, the document acquired by the application may be a document created by the user in the past or a document created by another person. If an application has a security flaw and a document created by another person has a malicious mechanism, the computer used by the user may be seriously damaged. In particular, an application that communicates with the Internet downloads unreliable content from an unknown source, and therefore has a higher risk of being abused than other programs. For this reason, ingenuity has been made to improve security and enhance safety in both the OS and the application.

  For example, some applications that operate in Windows (registered trademark) Vista (registered trademark), which is an OS of Microsoft (registered trademark), support operations in the protection mode. The protection mode process operates based on the OS security function called consistency level. The protection mode is an operation mode for protecting a user or a system from an attack from outside the process by executing the process with greatly restricted authority. Here, an attack from outside the process refers to an attack that may cause a disadvantage to the user, such as writing, changing, or destroying data on a computer or installing malicious execution code. Since the privilege of a process operating in protected mode is extremely low, even if an attack is performed from outside the process, the possibility that the data area of the system or the user will be destroyed or altered is greatly reduced. Will be protected.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram regarding the protection mode and the consistency level. The consistency level provided as a security function of the OS restricts access to the security object for each process. A security object refers to a rewritable logical resource, and specifically includes a file and a registry.

  The consistency level is divided into three stages of “high”, “medium”, and “low”, and the privilege given to the process and the area where writing can be performed are different in each stage. This relationship is shown in FIG. Processes executed at a high consistency level are given administrator privileges and can write to important security object areas used for system management and the like. A process executed at an intermediate consistency level is given user authority and can write to a security object area dedicated to the user. A process executed at a low consistency level is given an unreliable authority and can only write to a security object area dedicated to a process with low consistency.

  Here, a process executed at a high consistency level can write to a security object area of an intermediate consistency level or a low consistency level. Similarly, a process executed at an intermediate consistency level can write to a security object area with a lower consistency level.

  FIG. 1B shows the relationship between the protection mode and the consistency level. A low consistency level is obtained for the process 100 operating in the protected mode. That is, since the process 100 in the protection mode operates with a low authority, the writing 110 can be performed only in the security object area having a low integrity level.

On the other hand, when the protection mode process 100 writes to an intermediate consistency level or a security object with a high consistency level, it mediates an external process called a broker process. When writing 112 to a user-dedicated area, access is made via the user broker 122 given an intermediate consistency level. At this time, since the process 100 has a low consistency level, user authority is required when entrusting access to the user broker 122. Similarly, when writing 114 to an important area such as system management, access is performed via the management broker 124 to which a high consistency level is given. At this time, since the process 100 has a low consistency level, an administrator authority is required when entrusting access to the management broker 124.
JP 2003-167718 A JP 2004-038659 A

  By the way, the conventional techniques as described above have the following problems to be solved.

  As described above, the status monitor is normally automatically activated by the user interface driver called from the application process when the application starts printing. Further, when the user interface driver has a user interface for starting the status monitor, the user can start the status monitor at an arbitrary timing. That is, the status monitor is created as a separate process from the process that called the printer driver.

  However, when the process that called the user interface driver is operating in the protection mode, a warning dialog may be displayed depending on the consistency level given to the process of the status monitor.

  When an application operating in the protection mode starts printing, the user interface driver is called via the OS print support function. The printer driver then activates the status monitor. For example, here, if the printer driver provides an intermediate consistency level to the status monitor process, a warning dialog is displayed before the status monitor is activated. This is because a process operating in protected mode is given a lower consistency level, but another process launched from this process has a higher consistency level and can access a wider security object. That is, the user interface driver called from the process operating in the protection mode needs the user's permission to start the status monitor with higher authority.

  FIG. 7A shows an example of a warning dialog. When the status monitor module activated by the printer driver is a directly executable file format, that is, an executable file whose file name extension is EXE, a warning dialog 700 is displayed. When the user presses the activation permission button 720 of the warning dialog 700, the status monitor is activated. If the check box 721 is ON when the activation permission button 720 is pressed, the warning dialog 700 will not be displayed when the status monitor is activated thereafter.

  FIG. 7B is also an example of a warning dialog. A shared library format in which the status monitor module activated by the printer driver cannot be directly executed, that is, an executable file whose file name extension is DLL is Rundll32. When starting with exe, a warning dialog 750 is displayed. When the user presses the activation permission button 770 of the warning dialog 750, the status monitor is activated.

  There is no warning dialog 750 corresponding to the check box 712 of the warning dialog 700. This is the standard DLL startup program Rundll32. This is because when the executable file in the DLL format is started using exe, the OS cannot guarantee the safety of the executable file in the DLL format.

  As described above, when the user interface driver called from the application operating in the protection mode via the print support function of the OS activates the status monitor, the warning dialog is displayed. As described above, since the status monitor is activated each time the application performs printing, the warning dialog illustrated in FIG. 7 is displayed each time printing is performed. Therefore, the printing process is not started until the activation permission button or the activation non-permission button in the warning dialog is pressed, and the printing process procedure becomes complicated.

  If the setting is made so that the status monitor is not used at the start of printing, the user may expect that the warning dialog will not be displayed. However, a problem arises when the status monitor itself activated by the user interface driver refers to a setting that does not use the status monitor during printing. Even if the user is set not to use the status monitor, there is a drawback that a warning dialog is displayed because the status monitor is activated at the start of printing.

  In view of the above-described conventional problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a printer driver having a status monitor in consideration of suppressing the appearance frequency of a warning dialog displayed by an application operating in the protection mode.

  In order to achieve the above object, the printer driver of the present invention has the following configuration.

A printer driver that supplies an application drawing command to a printer as a print command,
The printer driver is at least
A status monitor to display the status of the printer;
A user interface driver called through the OS print support function according to the print request of the application,
When the user interface driver creates the status monitor process,
Determining whether the process that invoked the user interface driver is in protected mode;
Determine whether there is a startup program for creating the status monitor process,
If the startup program exists, create the status monitor process using the startup program,
When the process that called the user interface driver is in the protection mode and the activation program does not exist, the status monitor process is created so as to operate with low authority.

  In addition, the user interface driver operates when the warning dialog is displayed by a process operating in a protection mode in which the user interface driver is called before the status monitor process is created using the activation program. To the user.

  In addition, the user interface driver determines whether to activate the status monitor when the application starts printing.

  With the above configuration, the following effects can be obtained according to the present invention.

  (1) When creating a status monitor process that operates outside the protection mode from a user interface driver called from a process that operates in the protection mode, the warning dialog displayed by the protection mode process is suppressed. This makes it possible to provide a comfortable printing environment to the user.

  (2) When the warning dialog is displayed by the process of the protection mode, the user can be guided so that the warning dialog is not displayed by guiding the user to the operation method of the warning dialog in advance. A printing environment can be provided to the user.

  (3) By determining whether to use the status monitor at the time of printing before the user interface driver activates the status monitor, it is possible to minimize the activation of the status monitor at the start of printing, The frequency with which the warning dialog is displayed can be suppressed.

[Example 1]
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

<Printer driver operation>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the printing system centered on the printing support function of the OS and the printer driver in order to describe the embodiment of the printer driver in the present invention.

  In FIG. 2, a module that is particularly important in the printer driver according to the present invention is a module shaded in gray. These are a user interface driver 205, a status monitor 207, and a status monitor activation program 233.

  The module of the status monitor 207 in this embodiment assumes a shared library format that cannot be directly executed, that is, an executable file in the DLL format. Since an executable file in the DLL format cannot be directly executed, a DLL activation program for calling the executable file in the DLL format is required in order to execute it as an independent process. When the OS is Windows (registered trademark), Rundll32. A program called exe is provided and is indicated by reference numeral 231 in FIG. The status monitor activation program 233 is also used to call an executable file in the DLL format, but is a DLL activation program dedicated to the status monitor.

  In FIG. 2, modules provided as a printer driver are a user interface driver 205, a status monitor 207, a print data editing processing unit 213, an image generation processing unit 215, and a language monitor 219. Here, the status monitor activation program 233 may be included in the printer driver, or may be installed as software different from the printer driver and not added to the printer driver, and added to the printer driver. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the software is not included in the printer driver but is installed as software different from the printer driver.

  The status monitor 207 has a function of presenting various printer statuses at the user's hand, graphically and in real time. An example of the presentation function of the status monitor 207 will be described later with reference to FIG. As described above, since the status monitor 207 is an executable file in the DLL format, the Rundll32. It is activated by the user interface driver 205 via exe and the status monitor activation program 233. After being activated, the status monitor 207 communicates with a language monitor 219 (to be described later) to acquire the printer status and present the status to the user.

  The user interface driver 205 generally provides a function for setting a paper size, a printing direction, and other attributes used for printing. These attributes and setting values are returned to the application as print setting information. At the same time, the user interface driver 205 in the present invention has a function for starting the status monitor. Then, a user interface is provided for starting the status monitor when printing the application, or enabling the user to start the status monitor at an arbitrary timing. An example of a user interface provided by the user interface driver 205 will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The print data of each page of the document created by the application 201 is temporarily stored in the spool file 209 through the OS print support function 203. Then, the module group of the printer driver develops this into image data (that is, bitmap data), converts it into a print command interpretable by the printer, supplies it to the printer 218, and prints it.

  The application 201 prints an arbitrary document created. Usually, print setting information is created via the user interface of the user interface driver 205 in order to obtain a print result desired by the user. Then, the application 201 requests the OS print support function 203 to start and end printing, and start and end drawing of each page of the document. Here, the print support function 203 of the OS notifies the user interface driver 205 of a print event every time the application 201 makes a request for the printing.

  When the user interface driver 205 receives a print event for starting printing, the user interface driver 205 activates the status monitor 207. As described above, since the status monitor 207 cannot be directly executed, if the status monitor activation program 233 exists, the status monitor 207 is activated using this program. If the status monitor activation program 233 does not exist, Rundll 32. The status monitor 207 is activated using exe. A detailed procedure for starting the status monitor 207 by the user interface driver 205 will be described later with reference to FIG.

  Data drawn for printing by the application 201 is temporarily spooled in the spool file 209 by the print support function of the OS. Then, the despool module group 211 of the printer driver is called by the OS print support function during despooling. The despool module group 211 has a function of converting drawing data stored in the spool file 209 into a print command interpretable by the printer 218 and supplying the print command to the printer 218.

  The printer driver despool module group 211 according to this embodiment includes a print data editing processing unit 213, an image generation processing unit 215, and a language monitor 219.

  The print data editing processing unit 213 reads the print data and print setting information of the document page to be printed from the spool file 209, changes the order of pages to be printed as in reverse order printing, or performs layout printing (N-up). It has an edit processing function for combining a plurality of document pages on a single print sheet. Then, the print data editing processing unit 213 supplies the print data after the editing process to the image generation processing unit 215.

  First, the image generation processing unit 215 develops image data based on the edited print data supplied from the print data editing processing unit 213. Subsequently, the image generation processing unit 215 converts the developed image data into a print command that can be interpreted by the printer 218, and supplies the converted print command to the language monitor 219.

  The language monitor 219 supplies the print command to the printer 218 while interpreting the print command supplied from the image generation processing unit 215. The printer 218 acquires the status of the printer 218, communicates with the status monitor 207, and transmits the status information of the printer 218.

  The printer 218 as an output device has a function of interpreting a supplied print command and forming a visible image 223 on the print paper 221.

<User interface>
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a utility screen for selecting a function for performing printer maintenance from the print setting dialog provided by the user interface driver according to the present embodiment. Here, as maintenance functions, functions such as head adjustment and cleaning, which maintain printer functions and adjust operation sounds during printing, and to start the status monitor to check the printer status It assumes the function of.

  The print setting dialog 301 includes display areas 302 to 311 and 340 to 348. Since there are a large number of items to be displayed in the print settings, it is common to use a tab sheet to divide the setting items according to the contents so that they are easy to see. Tabs are also used in this embodiment.

  In the basic setting tab 302, contents related to printing basics are displayed.

  A page setting tab 303 displays contents related to various page settings such as paper size, printing direction, and layout printing (N-up).

  The special effect tab 304 displays a selection screen of functions used when special effects such as various image corrections and sepia tones are given to the image.

  The favorites tab 305 displays a screen for selecting a frequently used print setting or the like and a recall function.

  The utility tab 306 displays a selection screen for selecting a function for starting the status monitor as described above and a function such as head adjustment and cleaning.

  Each of the buttons 340 to 347 is assigned a function for operating the printer. When the user presses each button, a predetermined print command is transmitted to the printer via the spool file, and each function represented by the button can be implemented. The cleaning button 340 is assumed to be pressed when fading, streaks, or the like are seen in the print result, and provides a function of cleaning the orifice that ejects ink. The powerful cleaning button 341 provides a function of cleaning the orifice more strongly than the cleaning button 340. The head position adjustment button 342 provides a function of adjusting the position of the printer head in order to adjust the accuracy when the ejected ink forms an image on the printing paper. The nozzle check pattern print button 343 provides a function of printing a pattern for confirming whether ink has adhered to the orifice and ejection failure has occurred. The power off button 344 provides a function for turning off the printer. The automatic power setting button 345 has a function of automatically turning on the power when a print command is transmitted even when the printer is turned off, or a function of automatically turning off the power when a print command is not transmitted for a certain period of time. I will provide a. The silent setting button 346 provides a function for setting to suppress the operation sound during the printing operation of the printer. The special setting button 347 provides a function for setting other operation modes of the printer. When the printer status confirmation button 348 is pressed, the user interface driver creates a status monitor process, and the status monitor screen is displayed so that the printer status can be confirmed. The status monitor screen will be described later with reference to FIG.

  When the OK button 308 or the cancel button 309 is pressed, the print setting dialog 301 is closed. The help button 311 can display an explanation regarding each maintenance item in the utility tab 306 in a separate window.

<Start status monitor when printing starts>
In this embodiment, the user interface driver starts the status monitor when the application starts printing. This procedure will be described with reference to the timing chart of FIG. FIG. 5 is an example of a timing chart in which the user interface driver activates the status monitor when printing of the application is started.

  When the application requests the OS print support function to start printing (501), the OS print support function notifies the user interface driver of a print start event (503). Upon receiving the print start event, the user interface driver activates the status monitor and returns control to the OS print support function (505). Subsequently, the printing support function of the OS performs actual printing start processing and returns control to the application (507). Thus, every time the application executes printing, the user interface driver activates the status monitor.

  As described above, the user interface driver can activate the status monitor by using the print event notified to the user interface driver by the OS print support function. Here, the user interface driver passes information related to the print job of the application as an argument when starting the status monitor. By doing so, it becomes possible to determine whether the status monitor is activated at the start of printing of the application or from the maintenance screen of the user interface.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the status monitor is an executable file in the DLL format. It is activated by the user interface driver via exe or a status monitor activation program. The procedure for starting the status monitor by the user interface driver will be described later with reference to FIG.

<Status monitor>
A screen displayed by the status monitor will be described with reference to FIG. The status monitor dialog 400 includes display areas 401 to 413.

  A menu 401 is a menu for switching status monitor settings and notation functions. Although not shown, it is possible to set whether to use the status monitor when printing the application from the option menu. When the menu is selected for ink, the product model number of the ink tank or ink cartridge used in the printer being displayed is graphically displayed in a separate window (not shown). When the help menu is selected, a help screen for the status monitor is displayed.

  The printer information tab 403 displays status regarding the printer. The display area 405 graphically displays the printer status, ink remaining amount, and the like. In the display area 407, the printer status, ink remaining amount, and the like are described in text. If there is a job being printed, the display area 409 displays the owner of the job, the name of the job, the number of pages currently being printed, and the total number of pages. When a print cancel button 411 is pressed, printing can be stopped if there is a job being printed. When a print wait list display button 413 is pressed, a queue window (not shown) provided as a standard function by the OS can be called.

  Note that it is possible to set whether or not to use the status monitor at the time of printing from the option menu because the user may hate to start the status monitor every time the application starts printing. Such a user may turn off the “use status monitor during printing” setting from the option menu of the status monitor. A status monitor processing procedure focusing on the setting of “use status monitor during printing” will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart of status monitor processing focusing on the “use status monitor during printing” setting. When the status monitor is activated, it is first determined in step S101 whether the application is activated at the start of printing based on an argument passed from the user interface driver at the time of activation. If the application is activated at the start of printing, the process proceeds to S103. If the application is not activated at the start of printing, the process proceeds to S105.

  In S103, the use flag at the time of printing is read from the common storage area, and it is determined whether or not the use flag at the time of printing is ON. If it is ON, the process proceeds to S105, and if it is not ON, the status monitor process is terminated. The use flag at the time of printing corresponds to the setting content of the “use status monitor at the time of printing” setting described above. Needless to say, the initial value of the printing use flag when the printer driver is installed is ON.

  From S105 to S115 is a status monitor processing loop. Here, only the processing relating to the “use status monitor at the time of printing” setting is shown. In S107, it is determined whether or not “use status monitor during printing” is set to OFF by the user. If it is set to OFF, the process proceeds to S109, and otherwise, the process proceeds to S111. In S109, the printing use flag is turned OFF.

  Subsequently, in S111, it is determined whether “use status monitor during printing” is set to ON. If it is set to ON, the process proceeds to S113, and otherwise, the process proceeds to S115. In S113, the printing use flag is set to ON.

  S115 is the end of the status monitor processing loop, and the end condition differs depending on the condition under which the status monitor is activated. When the status monitor is activated when printing of the application is started, the end condition is that the print processing of the print job specified by the argument by the user interface driver is completed. When activated from the maintenance screen of the user interface driver, the end condition is that the end of the status monitor is instructed explicitly by the user.

  In step S117, the printing use flag is stored in a common storage area such as a file or a registry.

  As described above, the setting whether to use the status monitor at the time of printing is stored as the use flag at the time of printing, so that not only the status monitor but also the user interface driver can be referred to. Note that the status monitor of this embodiment determines whether to use the status monitor during printing in S101 and S103, but this process is not essential. This is because the user interface driver makes a determination before starting the status monitor in this embodiment, as will be described later with reference to FIG. However, in order to emphasize the process of the conventional status monitor, the determination process of S101 and S103 is also included in the flowchart of FIG.

<Status monitor start processing>
As described above, in this embodiment, the user interface driver activates the status monitor. If the process that called the user interface driver is operating in the protection mode, a warning dialog is displayed when the status monitor is activated as described above. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a procedure for starting the status monitor of the user interface driver for suppressing the frequency at which this warning dialog is displayed. However, FIG. 8 is a flowchart focused on when the application starts printing.

  First, in step S201, in order to check whether or not the setting to use the status monitor at the time of printing is made, it is determined whether or not the printing use flag is read from the common storage area. If the printing use flag is ON, the process proceeds to S203, and if not ON, the process ends.

  In S203, it is determined whether or not the status monitor activation program exists in the storage area of the printing system. If the status monitor activation program does not exist, the process proceeds to S205, and if present, the process proceeds to S231. In step S231, the process ends after a status monitor process is created via the status monitor activation program. User authority may be given to the status monitor process created in S231. If the process that called the user interface driver is operating in protected mode, the status monitor process that operates with user authority is not in protected mode (that is, low authority). A warning dialog exemplified in 7 (A) is displayed. Conversely, if the process that called the user interface driver is not operating in protected mode, the warning dialog is not displayed.

  In S205, it is determined whether the process that called the user interface driver is in the protection mode. If it is not the protection mode, the process proceeds to S207, and if it is the protection mode, the process proceeds to S221. In S221, the OS standard DLL startup program Rundll32. Through exe, a status monitor process is created with the same authority as the process that called the user interface driver. Here, since the process that called the user interface driver is not in the protection mode, the warning dialog is not displayed. After the status monitor is activated in S221, the status monitor activation process of the user interface driver is terminated.

  In S207, the above mentioned Rundll32. After the status monitor process is created with low authority via exe, the status monitor activation process of the user interface driver is terminated. Here, low privilege is equivalent to protection mode, so no warning dialog is displayed.

  As described above, when the user interface driver creates the status monitor process, it is determined whether the process that called the user interface driver is in the protection mode, and the existence of the status monitor activation program is determined. By launching the status monitor with appropriate authority, the warning dialog can be minimized. Even if the warning dialog illustrated in FIG. 7A is displayed in S231, the warning dialog is not displayed after the check box 712 is turned on and the permission button 720 is pressed as described above. .

  Here, even when the user presses the button in FIG. 3 to activate the status monitor, it is important to suppress the display frequency of the warning dialog by the protection mode process in order to provide the user with a comfortable printing environment. It is. In this case, the display frequency can be suppressed by starting the processing from S203 in FIG.

  Now, the status monitor created as a low-privileged process in S207 has a limited writable security object area, so that some of its operations may be limited. Specifically, since the OS standard queue window displayed by pressing the print waiting list display button 413 of the status monitor dialog illustrated in FIG. 4 also operates with low authority, an operation for canceling printing from the queue window is performed. There is a side effect that can not be. However, in this embodiment, if the print cancel button 411 on the status monitor screen is pressed, a print cancel request is notified from the status monitor to the language monitor, and the language monitor can cancel the print. Needless to say.

[Example 2]
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the embodiment shown in FIGS. The present embodiment is characterized in that the frequency of displaying the warning dialog is further reduced by displaying the explanation of the operation method of the warning dialog before the user interface driver starts the status monitor and guiding the user correctly. Since the drawings other than FIG. 8 are the same as those in the first embodiment, description thereof is omitted.

<Status monitor start processing>
FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of the status monitor activation process of the user interface driver in this embodiment. The difference between FIG. 8 and FIG. 9A of the first embodiment is only to guide the user to operate the warning dialog in S301 before creating the status monitor process in S231. The process of S301 will be described later with reference to FIG. The other description of FIG. 9A is the same as that of FIG.

  FIG. 9B is a flowchart for guiding the operation method of the warning dialog to the user, and shows the process of S301 in FIG. 9A in detail. In step S311, it is determined whether the process that called the user interface driver is in the protection mode. If it is the protection mode, the process proceeds to S313, and if it is not the protection mode, the process ends. In step S313, it is checked whether the permission button 712 has been pressed in the past when the check box 712 of the warning dialog in FIG. The warning dialog is displayed by the process that called the user interface driver that operates in the protection mode, and whether the creation of the process is permitted with the check box ON is referred to by the user interface driver. As described above, once the user presses the allow button 720 with the check box turned on, the warning dialog will not be displayed again, so it is necessary to guide the user how to operate the warning dialog. No. Therefore, when it is determined in S313 that the check box 712 is ON and the permission button 720 is pressed, the operation guidance process is terminated, and it is not determined that the check box 712 is ON and the permission button 720 is pressed. If this is the case, the process proceeds to S314. In S314, after displaying the operation method in the warning dialog to be displayed, the operation guidance process is terminated.

  Specifically, the operation guidance in S314 displays a message that prompts the user to press the allow button while the “Always allow” check box 712 is turned on in the warning dialog displayed next. An example of this message is shown in the dialog of FIG. The operation guidance dialog 1000 has a message display area, and the operation method is described in text. When an OK button 1002 is pressed, the operation guidance dialog 1000 is closed. In the operation guidance dialog 1000, the operation is described in text. However, the schematic diagram of FIG. 7A can be graphically displayed to explain to the user more easily.

  When the user reads the message in the dialog of FIG. 10 and presses the OK button 1002, the process proceeds to S231, and the user interface driver attempts to start the status monitor. Before the status monitor is activated, the warning dialog of FIG. 7A is displayed, and the user can operate the warning dialog as described in FIG.

  As described above, in this embodiment, before the user interface driver activates the status monitor, an explanation of the operation method of the warning dialog is displayed, and the user is guided correctly to further reduce the frequency of the warning dialog being displayed. be able to.

  According to these embodiments described above, the following effects can be obtained when the printer driver called from the protection mode process activates the status monitor.

  (1) When creating a status monitor process that operates outside the protection mode from a user interface driver called from a process that operates in the protection mode, the warning dialog displayed by the protection mode process is suppressed. This makes it possible to provide a comfortable printing environment to the user.

  (2) When the warning dialog is displayed by the process of the protection mode, the user can be guided so that the warning dialog is not displayed by guiding the user to the operation method of the warning dialog in advance. A printing environment can be provided to the user.

  (3) By determining whether to use the status monitor at the time of printing before the user interface driver activates the status monitor, it is possible to minimize the activation of the status monitor at the start of printing, The frequency with which the warning dialog is displayed can be suppressed.

The conceptual diagram regarding a protection mode and an integrity level. 1 is a block diagram of a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows an example of a print setting dialog. The figure which shows an example of the dialog of a status monitor. Timing chart related to status monitor activation. The flowchart which shows an example of a process of a status monitor. The figure which shows an example of the warning dialog displayed by the process of protection mode. The flowchart which shows the status monitor starting procedure concerning embodiment of this invention. The flowchart which shows the status monitor starting procedure concerning embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the dialog which performs operation description concerning embodiment of this invention.

Claims (4)

A process creation method for creating a second process from a first process,
Determining whether the first process is operating in protected mode;
Determining whether or not there is an activation program for creating the second process,
If the startup program exists, create the second process using the startup program,
When the first process is in a protection mode and the activation program does not exist, the process creation method includes the step of creating the second process so as to operate with low authority. A printer driver that supplies an application drawing command to a printer as a print command,
The printer driver is at least
A status monitor to display the status of the printer;
A user interface driver called in accordance with a print request of the application,
When the user interface driver creates the status monitor process,
Determining whether the process that invoked the user interface driver is in protected mode;
Determine whether there is a startup program for creating the status monitor process,
If the startup program exists, create the status monitor process using the startup program,
A printer driver characterized by creating a status monitor process so as to operate with low authority when a process that calls the user interface driver is in a protection mode and the activation program does not exist. The user interface driver is
3. The printer driver according to claim 2, wherein an operation method is guided to a user before the status monitor process is created by using the startup program.   4. The printer driver according to claim 2, wherein the user interface driver determines whether to activate the status monitor when an application starts printing.

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