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Simplified Printing with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

New print class driver architecture and high availability options offers new opportunities
By Keith Mayer
Article Rating:
August 23, 2012 04:00 AM EDT
Reads:
 5,842

Over the past few days, I've spoken to a number of IT Pros that were interested in how printing is improved or different in Windows 8.  Even in today's age of online information and social media, I know that IT Pros spend a great deal of time managing shared printing and print drivers to make it all work as seamlessly as possible for end users.

In Windows 8, the product team has taken an opportunity to design a new print class driver architecture (version 4) while still maintaining backward compatibility with older version 3 drivers that were designed for Windows 7 and prior.

Some of the key advantages that I absolutely love about this new driver architecture are:

  • Simplified print driver model - gets us several steps closer to a "driverless" design where printing "just works" without the need to install large complex print drivers
  • Native support for XPS printer output rendering - nowadays many printers natively support XPS (XML Paper Specification) as a page description language, allowing the ability to print to these devices without additional drivers
  • Built-in support for several common page description languages - such as PostScript, PCL, etc - to make basic print output capabilities easy for users without installing a custom driver.  You can still install a custom driver for complex print devices with lots of output options.
  • Separation of Print Rendering and Print Configuration - If you're like me, you've seen a tremendous growth in the size of custom print drivers over the years because manufacturers have tried to incorporate every possible feature into their own drivers.  Windows 8 now includes an architecture to provide a model for printer manufacturers to efficiently develop their own rendering filters, when needed, separate from their own UI configuration tools.  This allows printer manufacturers more flexibility in building rich configuration tools, while minimizing the disk and memory footprint of their drivers.  Case in point - Windows 8 supports more printer devices than ever, but the on-disk footprint of all the included drivers has been reduced from ~768MB  in Windows Vista to ~184MB in Windows 8!
  • Support for easy printing from Windows 8 style apps - without dropping into the traditional Desktop UI
  • Integration with the new High Availability Print Services - available in Windows Server 2012 by leveraging integration with Hyper-V clustering and Live Migration

You can read the full details about this new print class driver architecture on the Windows team blog - there's a great post over there by the Print team that explains the architecture in detail.

Ready to try out Simplified Printing for yourself? Here's some great resources to test it in your own Lab!

I'm excited that these changes will reduce the amount of time IT Pros spend managing day-to-day printer tasks and print drivers.  What do you think?

Keith

Build Your Lab! Build Your Lab! Download Windows Server 2012
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Published August 23, 2012 – Reads 5,842
Copyright © 2012 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Keith Mayer

Keith Mayer is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft focused on Windows Infrastructure, Data Center Virtualization, Systems Management and Private Cloud. Keith has over 17 years of experience as a technical leader of complex IT projects, in diverse roles, such as Network Engineer, IT Manager, Technical Instructor and Consultant. He has consulted and trained thousands of IT professionals worldwide on the design and implementation of enterprise technology solutions.

Keith is currently certified on several Microsoft technologies, including System Center, Hyper-V, Windows, Windows Server, SharePoint and Exchange. He also holds other industry certifications from IBM, Cisco, Citrix, HP, CheckPoint, CompTIA and Interwoven.

Keith is the author of the IT Pros ROCK! Blog on Microsoft TechNet, voted as one of the Top 50 "Must Read" IT Blogs.

Keith also manages the Windows Server 2012 "Early Experts" Challenge - a FREE online study group for IT Pros interested in studying and preparing for certification on Windows Server 2012. Join us and become the next "Early Expert"!

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