JP2009099027A - Installation method, program and computer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a driver installation method for installing a plurality of different types of printer drivers for one printer in association with the same print port, and enabling the different printer drivers, such as a first printer driver as a main printer driver and a second printer driver as a sub-printer driver. <P>SOLUTION: When installing a second printer driver as a sub-printer driver in a computer in which a first printer driver as a main printer driver has been installed, a port associated with the first printer driver and in which printing is enabled is detected by PnP installation, and when installing the second printer driver, it is associated with the same print port as for the first printer driver. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for installing a printer driver in a computer.

  It is impossible to install a plurality of printer drivers for one printer device by plug and play (hereinafter referred to as PnP) as the specifications of the current Windows (registered trademark) operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS). For this reason, in order to use two printer drivers having different functions in combination with each other depending on the application, after the PnP installation of the first printer driver, the second printer driver is selected by manual port selection. After installing the first printer driver by assigning it to the same print port as the driver or by assigning the first printer driver to the print port that is not intended to be used by manual port selection, install the second printer driver by PnP, It was necessary to reassign the print port assigned to the printer driver to the same port as that of the second printer driver, which required a complicated installation operation.

Also, as a technology for co-installing two different printer drivers, the installation order of the first printer driver that is already installed and the second printer driver that is newly installed is judged, and the installation order is correct Installs the second printer driver, and if the installation order is not correct, uninstalls the first printer driver, installs the second printer driver, and then installs the first printer driver again. Thus, a method for installing a plurality of printer drivers in the same computer is disclosed. (See Patent Document 1)
JP-A-10-124435

  In the installation by manual port selection provided as standard in the OS, for example, the first printer driver can be installed by file output by manual port selection, and then the second printer driver can also be installed in association with the file output. is there. If PnP is subsequently generated by USB connection or the like, which of the second printer driver and the first printer driver is associated with the PnP port depends on the description of each driver information file and the judgment of the OS based on the description. Resulting in. In some cases, a PnP port such as a USB hits the second printer driver that is the sub, and a more complicated situation occurs in which printing from the first printer driver that should be the main cannot be performed.

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is to enable the coexistence of different types of printer drivers while maintaining an order in which the first printer driver is main and the second printer driver is sub, with a simple installation operation. It is.

In order to solve the above problems, the installation method of the present invention provides:
An installation method for installing a plurality of types of printer drivers for a printer on a computer,
After installing the first printer driver by plug and play, it has an installation process for installing the second printer driver,
The installation process for installing the second printer driver is as follows:
A detection step of detecting a printable port associated with the first printer driver in plug and play;
An association step of associating the second printer driver with a printable port associated with the first printer driver.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily install printer drivers of different types while associating them with the same print port while maintaining the order that the first printer driver is main and the second printer driver is sub. .

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a flowchart of processing executed by a driver installer program according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  On the computer on which the first printer driver (for example, GDI driver) is PnP-installed and ready for printing, in step S11, an installer for the second printer driver (for example, XPS driver) is activated in response to a user instruction. The

  In step S12, the installer generates the name of the second driver.

  In step S13, a list of printer icon names and print ports of the first driver is created.

  Next, in step S14, it is determined whether a set of printer icon names and print ports exist in the list created in step S13. If there is no set, a message dialog informing that the first driver is not correctly installed is displayed in step S1A, and the installation of the second printer driver is stopped. This cancellation process can prevent only the second driver from being installed in a situation where the first driver is not installed.

  If only one set exists in step S14, the print port is determined in step S17.

  If there are a plurality of ports in step S14, a print port selection screen is displayed in step S16, and the user selects a port to be used.

  Next, in step S17, the print port is determined.

  In step S18, a driver information file is set up.

  Next, in step S19, the second driver is installed in association with the print port determined in step S17.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the target of the port associated with the second driver is a printable port associated with the first driver by PnP installation. The reason is that the first driver is main and the second driver is sub, while allowing the first driver and the second driver to coexist.

  That is, if it is not a requirement that the first driver is installed with PnP, for example, the first driver is installed with the file output by manual port selection, and then the second driver is associated with the file output and installed. It becomes possible to do.

  When PnP is subsequently generated by USB connection or the like, which of the first driver and the second driver is associated with the PnP port depends on the description of each inf file. Therefore, in some cases, the PnP port such as USB hits the second driver, and printing from the first driver, which should be the main, cannot be performed.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the details of the processing in step S13 in FIG.

  In step S21, a list of print ports registered in the computer by PnP installation is acquired.

  In step S22, a list of printer devices registered in the computer is acquired.

  Next, in step S23, it is confirmed whether the device node of the printer to be installed exists on the computer. If it exists, it is confirmed in step S24 whether the hardware IDs match. If they match, it is confirmed in step S25 whether the driver of the target printer registered is valid. If it is valid, the print port name assigned to the target printer is acquired in step S26.

  Next, in step S27, it is confirmed whether the print port name acquired in step S26 exists in the print port list created in step S21. If it exists, it is added to the list of valid print ports in step S28.

  When the creation of the list of valid print ports is completed, a list of printers registered in the computer is acquired in step S29.

  Next, in step S2A, it is confirmed whether there is a driver to be installed in the printer list created in step S29. If it exists, it is confirmed in step S2B whether the printer icon is the first driver. If it is the printer icon of the first driver, it is confirmed in step S2C whether it is a valid print port, and if it is a valid print port, the valid print port detected is added to the list of printer icon names and print ports in step S2D. To do.

  FIG. 3 is an example of a print port selection screen displayed in step S16 of FIG.

  In the printer icon name display area F31 and the port name display area F32, the icon name and print port name of the first driver created in step S13 in FIG. 1 are displayed.

  FIG. 4 is an example of a message dialog displayed in step S1A of FIG. 1 and indicating that the first driver is not correctly installed.

  In the present embodiment, the first printer driver as the main (recommended) driver is the GDI driver, and the second printer driver as the sub driver is the XPS driver.

  However, the first printer driver can be an XPS driver as a main (recommended) driver, and the second printer driver can be a GDI driver as a sub driver.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing components of a system in an embodiment of a peripheral device control system including a printer driver, an information processing apparatus for storing an installer program, and a peripheral device of the present invention.

  In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a computer, which is a general personal computer equipped with an operating system.

  The PC 1 is configured by hardware as will be described later with reference to FIG. 6, and an operating system 2 is installed.

  Reference numeral 3 denotes a multifunction peripheral (MFP), which includes a color scanner and a color inkjet printer, and is an example of a printer in the present invention. The MFP 3 is configured by hardware as will be described later with reference to FIG. 7, and is connected to the PC 1 via the USB interface 9 and can perform bidirectional communication with each other.

  An application 30 is an installer for installing drivers such as a printer driver and a scanner driver.

  A printer driver 50 is a program for controlling the printer. Reference numeral 70 denotes a driver information file of the printer driver 50.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the computer 1. The computer has a hardware configuration as shown in FIG.

  The PC 1 includes a random access memory unit (RAM 1201), a hard disk drive unit (HDD 1202) as a storage unit, and a keyboard unit (KBD 1203) as an example of an input unit. Further, the PC 1 includes a CPU 1204 as a control unit, a display for display (LCD 1205) as an example of a display unit, a network board (NB 1207) as an example of a communication control unit, and a bus 1206 for connecting the above components of the PC 1 to each other. The

  The storage unit may be a storage medium such as a portable CD-ROM or an internally installed ROM.

  Each module (application 30 and printer driver 50) of the PC 1 shown in FIG. 5 is stored in the HDD 1202, read into the RAM 1201 as necessary, and executed by the CPU 1204. Thereby, the CPU 1204 realizes the functions of the modules shown in FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the MFP 3. The MFP 3 has a hardware configuration as shown in FIG.

  In the figure, reference numeral 15 denotes a CPU composed of a microprocessor or the like, which controls the RAM 17, the communication unit 18, the recording unit 19, and the reading unit 20 according to a program stored in the ROM 16 as a central processing unit of the MFP 3.

  The ROM 16 stores a program for the MFP 3 to perform recording (printing) processing and processing for transmitting the status to the PC 1 under the control of the printer driver 50.

  The RAM 17 is mainly sent from the PC 1, and print data to be printed by the recording unit 19 based on the RAM 17 is temporarily stored.

  The communication unit 18 includes a connection port for the USB interface 9 and controls USB communication.

  The recording unit 19 includes a recording unit composed of an ink jet recording head, each color ink, a carriage, a recording paper transport mechanism, and the like, and for generating a printing pulse by the recording head based on the printing data. It is comprised from the electric circuit comprised from ASIC etc.

  By the printing operation on the printable application, the display content (image data) of the file opened in the application is temporarily stored in the HDD 1202 of the PC 1 as an EMF format spool file. Then, it is converted into print data including an MFP 3 control command via the printer driver 50, and then sent to the MFP 3 via the USB interface 9.

  The print data received by the MFP 3 is converted into a printing pulse by the recording unit 19 and printed on the recording paper.

  The reading unit 20 includes a reading unit including a CCD, a reading light source, and the like, and an electric circuit including an ASIC that processes image data read by the CCD.

  The image data controlled by the control command from the PC 1 and read by the reading unit 20 is sent to the PC 1 via the USB interface 9.

  As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, it is a necessary condition that the first printer driver is plug and play installed. Then, the ports to be associated with the second printer driver are limited to the printable ports associated with the first printer driver by plug and play installation.

  With the above configuration, the first printer driver can be easily installed while maintaining the order that the first printer driver is main and the second printer driver is sub, while associating different types of printer drivers with the same print port.

The flowchart of the driver installation processing of the embodiment of the present invention The flowchart explaining the detail of the process of step S13 of FIG. Example of print port selection screen displayed in step S16 of FIG. Example of message dialog informing that the first driver displayed in step S1A of FIG. 1 is not correctly installed The block diagram showing the component of the system in one Embodiment of the peripheral device control system which consists of the information processing apparatus and peripheral device which concern on this invention Block diagram showing an example of hardware configuration of PC Block diagram showing hardware configuration of MFP

Explanation of symbols

1 Computer 2 Operating System (OS)
3 MFP
9 USB interface 30 Application (driver installer)
50 Printer driver 70 Driver information file F30 Print port selection screen F40 Message dialog telling you that the first driver is not installed correctly

Claims (9)

An installation method for installing a plurality of types of printer drivers for a printer on a computer,
After installing the first printer driver by plug and play, it has an installation process for installing the second printer driver,
The installation process for installing the second printer driver is as follows.
A detection step of detecting a printable port associated with the first printer driver in plug and play;
And an associating step of associating the second printer driver with a printable port associated with the first printer driver.   2. The installation method according to claim 1, wherein the installation step includes a stop step of stopping installation of the second printer driver when none of the printable ports is detected.   The installation method according to claim 1, further comprising a canceling step of canceling the installation of the second printer driver if the first printer driver is not installed.   If a plurality of printable ports are detected in the detection step, the name of the first printer driver icon and the print port are displayed in a list, and which print port the second printer driver is associated with The installation method according to claim 1, further comprising: a selection step that allows a user to select a password.   The program which makes a computer perform the installation method in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4. A computer in which multiple types of printer drivers are installed for a printer,
After installing the first printer driver by plug and play, it has an installation means for installing the second printer driver,
The installation means for installing the second printer driver is:
Detecting means for detecting a printable port associated with the first printer driver by plug and play;
An association means for associating a printable port associated with the first printer driver with the second printer driver.   The computer according to claim 6, wherein the installation unit includes a cancellation unit that stops installation of the second printer driver when none of the printable ports is detected.   7. The computer according to claim 6, further comprising a canceling unit for canceling the installation of the second printer driver if the first printer driver is not installed.   When the detection means detects a plurality of printable ports, the name of the first printer driver and the print port are displayed in a list, and which print port the second printer driver is associated with The computer according to claim 6, further comprising selection means for causing a user to select a password.

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